March 2021 Newsletter

“Spring will come and so will happiness. Hold on. Life will get warmer” – Anita Krizzan

We hope all of you are enjoying warm days and the beautiful spring season.

We are proud to see our young volunteers graduating from middle schools and high schools. Congratulations and best wishes to our 2021 graduates!  Time to celebrate with your families and friends. Keep on growing. Keep adding to the goodness and beauty in the world. Congratulations again to each of you and may you all succeed in the years ahead.

Our actions saves lives: Please continue to wear a mask, maintain distance and get vaccinated.
COVID19 Vaccinations opening for all Californians aged 50 and up April 1st, and 16 and up April 15th.  If you’re eligible, you can schedule an appointment, or register to be notified when one is available.

 

 

Important Monthly Reminders:

 

Instructions on How to Check your Event Sign-up on DonorView: 

1. Log on to E&E volunteer DonorView
2. Click on the “Events” button
3. Click on the “print ticket” button

Please Remember the following

• Please sign in to your DonorView account before you sign up for an event. (The advantage of signing in to your account first is that the attendant fields will be auto-filled for you, making your signup process a lot more efficient. Also, it will avoid the creation of multiple accounts.)
• Make sure to check your email for sign-up confirmation and event ticket.
• In the event that an update is required we will post it on the group chat and send Donorview update email.
• The event sign-up page also has the latest info. Please check there first if you have any questions.
• Please Note: Deleting a sign-up requires admin intervention so please only sign up when you are certain of your availability.
• We announce new events  on the WhatsApp group first as events become available. If you have recently joined E&E, it’s best to sign into your Donorview account to see ongoing events. Click on the “event” icon. In the upper- right hand corner you will see a pull-down menu for ongoing events. Here is a short info document on Donorview:
  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XnpAMjnXXaVjcqG27_WW2tnnFMX8dJoSvXK139z0j_0/edit

***  Please Enter Your Volunteer Hours: 
Hope all of our volunteers entered their hours in the system in order to see who qualifies for awards. It is the volunteer’s responsibility to log their service hours on regular basis. We can only get awards (if they qualify) for the volunteers who are logged their hours by March 31st.  Starting April 1st new year for hours begins.

Presidential Volunteer Service Award (PVSA):

• To learn more about hours required to earn PVSA awards in each age group, go to:  https://www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/eligibility

Donating Stocks/Security to EnE:
We are happy to announce that E&E is now accepting stocks/security donations. To help clarify a few questions, donating stocks is another option to donating money.

• Account Name: Empower And Excel
• Brokerage Firm: eTrade.com
• DTC Number: 0385
• Account Number: 4775-8789
• Tax ID Number: 47-3656395
• When you sell appreciated stock, up to 37.1% is taxes. When you donate appreciated stock to E&E, E&E keeps 100% and you receive the full market value dedication. If you want to donate stocks, please provide your securities broker with the following information regarding E&E:

Shopping on Amazon:

• 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.

Stay tuned to EnE: 

• Website: https://empowerexcel.org/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Empowerandexcel/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/empower-and-excel/  

 

Volunteer of the Month:  Niyatee Jain 

Niyatee has been leading full-day meals for Santa Cruz’s unhoused population monthly once. She has been gathering homemade meals from fellow volunteers and driving down to Santa Cruz to distribute. We are able to continue this activity only because of Niyatee. Niyatee also has been conducting online cooking sessions for special needs and she really enjoys sharing this basic life skills knowledge with others.

Now for a Quick Recap of Our February 2021 Activities 

Serving the Homeless and Those in Need

• EnE volunteers collected and distributed essential items such as clothes, shoes, socks, beanies, blankets, comforters, ponchos, gloves, masks, tarps, hygiene products, and women’s underwear to the homeless people to help them tide over harsh times. 
• Our volunteers made food with a lot of love for unhoused in San Jose, Sunnyvale, Fremont, and Santa Cruz.
• In March month, we delivered 660 meals to the needy.

Doll-Up Project

With so many people’s and many hours of hard work, happy that we kicked off our new project “Doll-up!” No matter how much effort & stress it is to look good with a fancy hairdo, high heels, and the perfect dress, for girls and women dressing up is always fun for events. Unfortunately, not everyone can effort to buy those. Our Doll-Up project goal is to serve those individuals who are with difficulty affording a dress.

Thanks to Santa Clara county’s NSU team for picking us to partner to execute this project and helping with all the logistics. Thanks a ton to Santa Clara County’s real estate team for allocating the facility to store our inventory. Thank you Azazie for donating 2000 gorgeous dresses. As you can see in pics, many women and teens were happy to receive these dresses ready to wear them to look ultimate their best.

Our little Bakers Spread Love with their Awesome Baking Skills

• EnE Volunteers baked mouthwatering cookies, brownies, and muffins for senior retirement centers and shelter homes. It’s impressive to see them baking with great fervor and enthusiasm week after week.
• Our volunteers across South and East bake these goodies on a rotational basis. This ensures that there is a steady supply of a variety of goodies each weekend.  

 

Proud to inaugurate hydrotherapy place with our generous donor’s contribution at AshaJyothi Handicapped shelter in India. Thanks to the Kohli family for sponsoring this project. Our Board of Director Hema inaugurated this unit. This project helps kids to heal through hydrotherapy.