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VT Seva Volunteers make a difference on Earth Day with "Adopt a Street" program. Every day is Earth Day!
Walking the trails of first president of US, George Washington
April 21st 2012, Washington DC
The VT Seva Washington DC chapter celebrated the Earth Day 2012 at Claude Moore Park, Sterling VA.
The VT Seva volunteering program on Earth day comprised of a wonderful educational tour of the
park followed by cleanup activities and kite flying. The children and parents were given a tour of the
Nature Museum at the park. The park volunteers personally showed and explained about the animals
normally found in the park trails. They educated VT Seva volunteers on how we can preserve & protect
the greenery, how we can take care of our surroundings and how we can stay alert with the animals we
encounter in day to day life such as Snakes, Turtles, Beavers, and Deer etc around the trails. They also
shared knowledge with our youngsters on how to identify Poison Ivy and how to stay away from it.
After the education tour, all the VT Seva volunteers took part in the in the park cleanup. They had a
great time walking through trails while cleaning up the trash. Kids were thrilled to learn that they were
walking on the same trail once used by the most famous person of the United States, none other than
the first President George Washington. George Washington used the road frequently in his travels
between Mount Vernon and the western frontier.
All the young volunteers, especially the kids were creative in drawing and coloring the Earth Day
pictures. They also prepared poster boards with great enthusiasm using the
“R3 Theme - Reduce,
Reuse, Recycle.” It was a great learning experience for them and a memory to cherish for their parents.
Thanks to Mr.Srinivas for teaching the children on how to prepare kites and fly them. It was lots of fun
and brought back childhood memories to all the parents. Kids were very excited to prepare the kites
from scratch and fly them.
At the end of the day, kids went home with clay pots with soil and spring bulbs seeds, Reusable bags,
Certificates and Kites.
VT Seva, Washington DC thanks all the parents, volunteers and members for having their children
participate in this event, despite a busy weekend with many other planned activities.
We sincerely thank our Individual Sponsors and Business Sponsors for joining hands with VT Seva.
With their support, VT Seva Washington DC was successful in promoting environmental protection by
engaging and empowering young volunteers.
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Academy 4 Enrichment
provided Pizza. |
|
Home Depot provided Clay Pots. |
|
Lowes Departmental Store provided Soil
and Spring Bulb Seeds. |
 |
Harris Teeter provided Re-Usable Bags. |
Click here for pictures of the event.
Providing more support to National Children Center
April 22nd 2012, Washington DC
VT Seva Washington DC partnered with National Children Center Washington DC for the past 3 years
during Thanksgiving. VT Seva Washington DC encouraged the community to donate gently used clothes,
books, toys and shoes to support the local community in DC area. To learn how your donations are used,
please
click here.
From this Earth Day onwards, VT Seva Washington DC team took a decision to support our neighboring
community in DC twice a year through the generous donations made by our Chess Club, Yoga Class
and Basic Handwriting Class students. Such donations collected will support mentally challenged and
underprivileged families. Every year from now on, we are happy to announce that the donations will be
raised for both EARTH DAY and THANKSGIVING.
Thanks to all the supporters who brought in the donations!
We found GOLD
April 21st 2012, Dallas
The VT Seva Dallas chapter teamed up with the City of Frisco to do a city wide clean up. Our team of
around 60 volunteers enthusiastically cleaned the First street from Main St. to N. County Rd in Frisco..
Vishruth, an active young volunteer coordinated the complete event.
The event began with words of gratitude to mother Earth by all the attendees. VT Seva volunteer Phani
explained the greatness of Earth on how it nurtures all the beings based on the source from Indian
traditional wisdom. The global initiative call given by VT Seva founder Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji was
shared with all the participants regarding ‘Adopt a Street’/’Clean a Lane’ program.
We formed multiple teams and began the cleanup activity picking different areas of the street. As
the street was near Frisco Wholesale lumber and a railway track, there was quite a bit of trash to be
cleaned. Volunteers enthusiastically picked up lots of Styrofoam, cans, plastic bags & bottles to make
the street as clean as possible. Even litter on the street such as dry grass and mud was cleaned up
patiently.
While cleaning the street, adult volunteers shared interesting and funny experiences from their
childhood in India with the youngsters. Sateesh and Venkat recollected from his childhood about how
the people in the villages used to gather near the house of a goldsmith, hoping to find Gold in the water
stream drained from the facility that was used to make Gold ornaments. Whether the villagers ever
found Gold or not is a different story. But for sure, VT Seva Dallas team of volunteers found Gold as part
of this street clean up. The Gold is none other than the trash they collected Listen to the words of
Sateesh in detail about why it is called as Gold by viewing the Earth day videos to be updated very soon.
The energetic volunteers did their bit on keeping the Earth clean.
They took a collective pledge to adopt
at least 2 streets in their local city.
Click here for pictures from the event.
For videos, please
click here
Earth Day, Every day in Ever Green State
April 21st 2012, Seattle
The VT Seva Seattle group of volunteers joined together to clean up a neighborhood park in City of
Sammamish. We teamed up with Sammamish City personnel from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM for this Earth
Day park cleanup activity. Adult volunteers helped to clean up the trash bins, picnic tables, barbecue
stations and walls of a shaded area. The youngsters and children picked up the broken branches and
cleared the walkways. Some adults also removed the weeds in the garden and helped with other garden
activities. It was a wonderful experience to all those who participated, and city personnel appreciated
them all. We combined this event with picnic, and children enjoyed playing games after traditional
Indian style luncheon (Pulihora, Daddojanam, Fruit Salad, etc).
We signed up to help with the clean up
throughout the year and are looking forward to be instrumental in protecting our environment in our
neighborhood. Children were also educated about how much dependent we are on environment and
how we can work together to keep it clean and safe.
Here is the
link to all earth day pictures
Cold Weather did not deter our park cleanup activity
April 27th 2012, Boston
The VT Seva Boston team of volunteers gathered at Ashland's Stone Park area bright and early by 9AM.
We quickly registered VT Seva, signed the waiver form for children, collected the T-Shirts given out by
Town of Ashland, grabbed some gloves and few big trash bags. We also mentioned the streets that'll
we'll be collecting litter from and headed out to the assigned street. The weather was a little cold in
the morning. Some kids wore layers or doubled their gloves, but that did not interrupt what they were
here to accomplish that fine day. Youth aging from 3yrs to 16yrs joined this effort of making our Earth
a beautiful and safer place to live in for all beings by removing the litter.
Youth volunteers were very
enthusiastic in picking up the litter and showed a great concern. No Poison Ivy or the thorny bushes
stopped them from picking up the trash.
We would like to call out each individual youth volunteers and thank them for all their effort. They are
our future and we are very proud of them - Vikram, Dakshin, Abhijith, Arjun, Akshitha, Sravya, Laura,
Sara, Siddhu, Manoj, Haasini, Laasya, Sindhu, Swati, Anika.
We would like to appreciate Sravya Chary for motivating her friends from school to join this effort and
being a role model for all the younger VT Seva volunteers. Your efforts to spread the awareness about
VT Seva at your school and neighborhood are commendable.
We would like to personally thank all the adults, Mr. Simhalu, Mr. Murali Maqtedar family, Mr.
Raghuram Samudrala family, Mr.Suresh Donepudi family, Mr. Chandra Reddivari family, Ms. Elasri
Ganni, Ms. Aruna Bayya, Ms.Harisha, Ms.Madhu Chary for making this happen.
Panera bread generously donated some baked goods for this event. Special Thanks goes to Murali
Maqtedar for coordinating this effort.
Murali is taking a lead by signing up VT Seva team for Project Bread - Walk for Hunger on May 6th 2012.
This is a 20 mile walk and many volunteers have signed up for this walk as well. This is his 2nd year in
taking this initiative. All the funds generated would help feed the hungry in the Massachusetts area.
Murali was our official photographer for this earth day event.
Thank you one and all for your continued support.
For pictures from the event, please
click here.
Educational booth to promote environmental friendly living – Realize and Respond
April 21st 2012 – Bay Area
The VT Seva Bay Area chapter participated in the City of Cupertino's 4th Annual Earth Day Festival on
Saturday, April 21st 2012. The event details were as below:
Where: 10300 Torre Ave, Cupertino, CA 95014
When: Apr 21, 2012, 08:00 AM - 04:00 PM
VT Seva volunteer team of teenagers held an educational booth at this event to inform and educate the
visitors about Earth friendly activities that can save the environment on a daily basis.
Amidst 20-30 other booths, VT Seva volunteers gave out quiz questions in order to educate the visitors.
Sample questions were:
Taking a shower uses less water than taking a bath YES/ NO
Which home activity uses the most water?
a] Dishwashing?
b] Washing Machine?
c] Landscaping?
Several young and old participants alike were delighted at something knew that day at the VT Seva
booth. Volunteers gave away VT Seva 2012 calendars to all participants for making the effort learn
about our environment and for making an effort to be earth-aware and earth-friendly.
A few of the inspired visitors also showed interest in signing up for volunteering for the VT Seva as
volunteers. Simran, Sreeja, Devi, Nandan and Hira worked on putting this event together and were
available at the event booth along with the Bay Area coordinator Vasukiji to answer any questions
visitors to the booth may have about VT Seva as an organization and its contributions in service the
world.
Our volunteers took turns in visiting the other booths that were displayed at the event taking the
wonderful opportunity they had to educate themselves even more on what other profit/ non-profit
organizations are doing for protecting the environment. One of the booths was giving away free plants
for everyone to encourage them to be greener by planting saplings. Another organization gave visitors
a number of bio-degradable and non bio-degradable items and asked people to guess how long it
would take for each of these items to decompose if left unattended.
Our volunteers, though, very much
educated in this subject were astounded to know that Styrofoam lasts millions of years in this Earth's
environment without decomposing.
Overall, the event was very educational and inspiring for our volunteers as well as all the other visitors.
VT Seva continues to support and inspire all Earth - friendly activities.
Here is the
link to all earth day pictures
Tending to an organic farm of 4 acres
April 22nd 2012 - Tampa
VT Seva Tampa volunteers helped the community on Earth Day by tending to a community farm. We
partnered with the Sweetwater Organic farm, which is a non-profit community based farm. It operates
where volunteers grow vegetables on the plots of land owned by the community. Then these grown
vegetables are sold to people in the community for their welfare. It contributes to their welfare because
they get organic food that doesn't have the harmful effects of pesticides and other chemicals that
non-organic foods may contain. On Earth day, VT Seva Tampa volunteers from the ages of 5 to 63
came to help out the community. Everyone lent a hand in removing pesky weeds in the farm. This is
an important task because the vegetables can't grow if there are too many weeds. All together there
were over 30 dedicated volunteers who tended to the farm and had fun at the same time. The kids got
together and made a game out of weeding the farm. It was as such; who ever pulled out the weeds
the fastest in their row got a cupcake. This motivated all the kids to weed out the farm quickly and
efficiently.
All volunteers worked with a great enthusiasm and removed weeds from 4 acres of land. The
Sweetwater organization was spellbound with the great work done by the team in few hours. The
whole activity was a great experience especially to all kids who learned a lot about the importance of
the Mother Nature and more importantly why they need to protect it. Mr. Sridhar Gauravelli made the
day more educational and interesting by conducting an ad-hoc quiz on Earth Day for all the kids. Seeing
the enthusiasm of the Kids, the farm management took them on a tour of the entire farm that consisted
of various flowers, herbs, fruit trees, green houses and their well water system. Kids had loads of fun
petting the animals on the farm too.
Mr. Kamal Sakamuri, VT Seva active volunteer from Tampa coordinated the activity and played a key
role in organizing the event. Some of the pictures of the event are available at
Click here for picturesfrom the event.
Planting flower and vegetable plants
May 5th 2012 – New Jeresey
We celebrated Earth Day at 222 Dey Road, Cranbury, NJ 08512.
- Planting: Planted various flower & vegetable plants.
- Trimmed the plants.
- Cleaned up the premises.
Click here for pictures from the event.
Nurturing Plants, Earthday Quizzes & more
APRIL 22, 2012 Houston
On a warm, sunny day in Houston VT SEVA volunteers and Houston's Prajna children assembled for Earth Day Activities at the Sri Asthalakshmi Temple.
About 100 children and adult volunteers gathered together to participate in Earth Day activities.
The event began with an introduction to the Earth Day Program by VT SEVA Co-Branch Director Dr. Ranga Kandala.
This was followed by a presentation on VT SEVA by Co-Branch Director Dr. Sahitya Gadiraju.
VT SEVA active volunteer Dr. Aparna Tamirisa then spoke about the history and significance of Earth Day and conducted a series of Earth Day quizzes with prizes for the children.
The program concluded with a speech by VT SEVA Webmaster Vijay Jilledimudi where he introduced the next activity of the day,
the Nurture-a-Plant Program.
He also introduced all attendess to the VT SEVA Adopt-a-Street Program and invited everyone to join VT SEVA Houston's summer activities.
As part of the Nurture-a-Plant program kids brought pots to plant vegetable and flower seeds.
The soil and seeds were provided by VT SEVA. This program was very well received with great enthusiasm from the children and parents.
The idea of the Nurture-a Plant Program is for the children and their families to nurture their plant to maturity with the eventual goal of creating a VT SEVA greenhouse.
We also had an interactive presentation on the benefit and need to recycle in order to kickstart our recycling program at the Temple and we announced our affiliation with the City of Houston's Keep Houston Beautiful Adopt-A-Block program, an exciting opportunity to give back to the community that raised us.
Click here for pictures from the event.