December 2019 – Newsletter
WISH YOU ALL A WONDERFUL 2020 FILLED WITH
LOVE, GOOD HEALTH AND HAPPINESS!
EnE ended the year on a WONDERFUL note with EnE’s New Year’s Eve Fundraiser Bash for STEAM projects for bay area low income communities being a super duper hit! We were the first ones to be completely sold out in the Bay area with over 100 people on the wait list! It was executed beautifully thanks to the efforts of all our volunteers. Let’s give a BIG hand of applause to them!!!
Other special mentions for the holiday month include:
Volunteer of the Month: Congratulations to Mrudula Chodavarapu for becoming volunteer of the month. Mrudula initiated Knitbuds project and 100 handmade caps to Valley Medical for cancer patients coping with hair loss and acknowledged as. Kudos to her efforts of involving seniors, volunteers and other parents in this endeavor. Keep up the good work, Mrudula and other volunteers who participated wholeheartedly!
Stanford Toy Drive: Our volunteers collected toys worth $5,400 for Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. What an amazing accomplishment for this holiday season! We are very thankful to all those who donated the toys and organized toy drives!
Music for Seniors Holiday Recital: Our volunteers led by Tanisha Tol gave an amazing holiday performance by playing various festive melodies such as Holly Jolly Christmas, Let it Snow, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Deck the Halls to name a few. Our volunteers even baked cookies for the seniors! Thank you, Santosh for this wonderful suggestion. It made the seniors feel very special!
Our volunteers at EnE, together logged in 660 hours of volunteering this month!
Before we take a peek into our December activities, a few important announcements and reminders:
- We are excited to announce EnE’s new website. Please check it out at: https://empowerexcel.org/ . We are also working on creating your account logins. We will notify you as soon as they are ready.
- Approval of Volunteer Hours for Seniors: In addition to Ayesha, the following can approve your volunteer hours for submission to schools and clubs: Cecilia (San Jose, close to EVHS), Kavitha (San Jose, close to EV Square), Pallabi (San Jose, Country Club), Namrita Grover (Cupertino), and Geeta Hiremath (Fremont)
- Amazon Shopping: Please use the following link to shop on Amazon.com: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/47-3656395. When you shop using this link, Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to EnE. There is NO COST AT YOUR END. Just shop!
- Continue to enter your volunteering hours in the following google form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/14aCCBe74pU2ZQP2gdxXMGD3m0-8tKklzazClDQaB2rA/edit
- To learn more about hours required to earn PVSA awards in each age group, go to:https://www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/eligibility
- Finally, if you sign up, show up for your volunteering commitment. When you don’t, EnE looks bad. Surely you don’t want this to happen!
Now for a Sneak Peek into Our December 2019 Activities:
by: Tanisha Tol
Now for a sneak peek into our December 2019 activities :
Holiday Special Activities
- Welcome 2020, NY Eve Party: EnE hosted a very successful completely sold out New Year’s Eve Fundraiser Bash for STEAM projects for bay area low income communities.
- Standord Toy Drive: Collected toys worth $5,400 for Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.
- Christmas Decorations at Alum Rock Library: Helped create a festive environment by putting up the Christmas tree and other decorations at the library.
- Violablythe Christmas Party Help: Helped sort and organize food supplies and wrapped gifts for the Newark holiday giveaways.
- 2019 Santa Visits at Alum Rock Library: Helped at a local library event where they set up and organize crafts, and managed the book giveaways.
Our Dallas chapter volunteering at Christian pantry and making food packages for needy to pickup.
E&E moving forward to support Bhutanese (refugees) resettled in Dallas by the International Rescue Committee. Chapter director’s interview with their community head while handing out our donations.
We Love Helping Our Beloved Seniors
- Music for Seniors: Our youth volunteers led by Tanisha Tol put up an amazing holiday recital to the delight of our seniors at Westmont Community Center. They even baked cookies for the seniors.
- Project Knitbuds:Our volunteer Mrudula Chodavarapu gave a sense of purpose to the seniors by involving them in her initiative of knitting 100 caps for Valley Medical’s cancer patients coping with hair loss.
- Laundry Helpers: Our volunteers did an amazing job at Priya Living Retirement Community by helping seniors with their laundry chores every weekend.
- Tech Sessions:Our volunteers helped seniors with their technology issues around use of smart phones, laptops etc.
Quality Time with Our Special Friends
- Jeena Academics Program: Our volunteers are making a huge positive influence in the lives of their special needs friends by spending quality time with them. They helped them with their homework and special skill activities! Keep up the hard work, volunteers. For more information on Jeena, go to: https://www.jeena.org/events/2019/jun/03/read-write-math-all-while-having-fun/
- Friends Together-Surya and Friends Together-Infuse: Our volunteers spread the joy of love by playing with their special needs friends, and engaging with them in various games and arts and crafts activities. It’s very endearing to see the kids happy faces when they are with their buddies.
- Robotics Program: During the month of November and December, our youth volunteers Pranav & Pavithra led the LEGO robotics lego WeDo 2.0 program for special needs kids.
Serving Our Community
- Cook and serve at JW House: Our volunteers cooked another successful dinner for families facing medical crises.
- Bollywood Dance Fitness Classes: Anika Aggarwal conducted three classes at the Evergreen Village Square Library.
- Santa Visits at Alum Rock Library: Our volunteers helped at a local library event where they set up and organized crafts, and managed the book giveaways.
- TCV Food Bank + Thrift Store-Holiday Toy Party: At Tri City Valley (TCV) winter wonderland toy party, our volunteers helped with check-in, managing prize winning area, handing out toys and hot chocolate etc.
- Community Services at City Team, San Jose: CityTeam San Jose Community Services helps meet the critical needs of low-income families. Volunteers assisted by receiving donations, sorting, organizing clothing gallery, pantry, packing of goods and organizing warehouse. Families assisted with packing hygiene kits, food boxes or sorting of donations.
Serving at Shelters
- Meal Sponsorships to AshaJyothi, Shelter for Special Needs Kids:A BIG thank you to Padma Mullapudi, Praveen Grove, Vasu Madhav, Shivi Fotedar, Satya Anumolu, Meha Selva, and Geeta Hiremath for sponsoring meals during December.
- If you are interested in sponsoring a meal at AshaJyothi to feed ~70 abandoned special needs kids with autism, cerebral palsy, speech and hearing impairment, polio, down syndrome, please email us info@empowerexcel.org. Available sponsorship options range from $200 for full day meals, $80 for lunch or dinner to $45 for just breakfast. Donate at https://empowerexcel.org/donate/ or mail the check or pay by cash.
- Volunteer with Sunday Friends: Our volunteers helped with cooking and worked with younger children from low income families and helped them with arts and crafts. Our volunteers also conducted hands-on science experiment for these children! It was a great success. Keep up the amazing work!
- Cook and serve at Family Shelter in San Jose: Our volunteers cooked and served a delicious meal at the shelter.
- CityTeam-Shelter-KITCHEN: Our volunteers helped cook dinner at a homeless shelter. It’s great to see their dedication to help others. Keep up the amazing work!
