December 2022 Newsletter

EnE December 2022 Newsletter

“December: A month of lights, snow, coziness, and feasts; time to make amends and tie up loose ends; finish what you started and make your wishes come true.”
— unknown 

We at EnE wish you all a very Happy New Year!

December – EnE volunteers working on providing fun activities, warm food & warm clothing for the unhoused population in the upcoming chilly winter times.

Important Reminders:

Now for a Quick Recap of Our December 2022 Activities

Volunteer of the Month: Trisha Garud
Trisha has been volunteering with Empower an Excel for more than four years. We applaud her dedication and commitment to serving the community. She does not mind to commutes 50 miles (one-way drive) to serve the needy. Trisha does not restrict herself to one kind of activity. She actively involves herself in a wide variety of community service opportunities. We are proud to have her as part of E&E. 

EnE volunteers put together 100 Christmas meal kits at AV FISH.

Christmas Toy Distribution: It was wonderful to have our college-going volunteers join today’s toy distribution event. Thanks to our dedicated parent volunteers for helping with toy collection drop-off and arranging them. Very proud of our youth volunteer’s efforts to bring Christmas joy to little kids. Thanks to the volunteers who collected toys and sponsors Sierra Circuit.

Crafty bakers of EnE baked hundreds of homely decadent muffins, cookies, and brownies for East bay unhoused and Family Supportive Housing.

Young tutors had fun teaching their little tutees different subjects, chess, and art. Our volunteers ensure that tutoring programs are culturally responsive and tailored to meet the unique needs of student populations.

EnE volunteers prepare the first meal of the day, a balanced hot breakfast for Eastbay unhoused.

EnE volunteers making hearty delicious lunches and dinners (that include, pasta, veg/non-veg/pb&j sandwiches, fruit, snack bars, juice/water) for the needy in our local community.

Volunteers prepared baked goods and meals and dropped off at Fremont, Family Supportive Housing and JW house.

Addressing hunger is a moral imperative! EnE volunteers hand out fresh handmade lunch packs and much needed double no sew fleece blankets to the homeless and destitute, in San Jose, Sunnyvale, Santa Cruz.

True methods of introducing the gardening concept to children.  EnE Volunteers at the Gardening event.

EnE volunteers worked hard to acquire hundreds of yards of fleece, cut, sew, and loop the edges to provide warmth and comfort for the needy without shelters in the long and cold nights of winter. People on the receiving end felt very grateful for the timely aid.

We are happy to bring back STEAM sessions to the Gilroy community. STEAM for kids develops creators, thinkers, problem solvers, doers, innovators, and inventors. Exposing kids to simple STEM activities at an early age today sets a foundation for higher learning tomorrow. Our EnE volunteers conducted STEAM activities for children from low-income communities in San Jose and Gilroy. It’s great to see kids having fun. We had raffles and fun incentives.

Knitting caps for cancer patients continues by our young volunteers.

EnE volunteers made greeting cards for children at the hospitals featuring friendly birthday wishes and new year wish cards for underprivileged children.

Supporting ASHA JYOTHI Handicapped Welfare

EnE’s Global Volunteer Initiatives:
Supporting ASHA JYOTHI Handicapped Welfare

  • EnE volunteers and their families have been wholeheartedly supporting AshaJyothi, a shelter for abandoned special needs kids in India, through their generous donations and meal sponsorships.
  • A BIG Thanks to Grover Family, Yanamandra family, Masson family, Kolluru family, Fotedar family, Aneeja Abbas family, Madavan Family, Kolluru Family, Duvvuru Family, and an anonymous donor for food sponsorships to disabled orphaned children. 
    • Please sign-up here if you are interested in sponsoring meals for ~70 special needs kids and their staff of 15 people. We are very happy to share that our anonymous donor is matching two meals for every meal sponsored in the year 2022. Cost: $200 for full-day meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), $80 for just Lunch or Dinner, $40 for breakfast: 
    • https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090948AFAE2AAAF49-2022
    • Payment Info: Use one of the methods below to make a payment (Please note that online transaction fees are charged to E&E, so please include those fees as well.). Please do company matching wherever possible. (Tax-id: 47-3656395)

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 as soon as you are done with your activity

Presidential Volunteer Service Award (PVSA):

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