VT SEVA Maryland Youth Leaders Successfully Conclude Summer Camp 2024! The VT SEVA Maryland youth leadership team is thrilled to announce the successful completion of their 3-week summer camp, which took place from June 10 to June 29. The comprehensive program encompassed a range of activities, including Yoga, Math, English, Science, Social Studies, Chess, and Arts. The summer camp culminated in an annual celebration on June 28, marking a memorable conclusion to the event. We are delighted to share a detailed report from Mridula Vasudevan, the VT Seva Maryland Youth President and summer camp Lead, which highlights the key moments and achievements from the program. ‐--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings from Mridula Vasudevan, Youth President of VT SEVA MARYLAND Branch As a Youth leader in the VT SEVA Maryland Branch, I have had the privilege of developing a more optimistic and proactive outlook through my involvement in volunteer initiatives. I firmly believe that maintaining a positive attitude, recognizing the good in others, and serving as a beacon of hope can transform an individual's life. Moreover, it fosters effective leadership. One event that significantly tested my abilities and helped me grow as a leader was the VT SEVA Maryland 2nd Annual June Summer Camp. During this camp, our students received instruction on topics relevant to their upcoming academic year, as well as engaging activities such as chess, yoga, and arts and crafts to stimulate their minds and bodies. The camp culminated in an Annual Day celebration on June 27th, featuring performances, games, and certificate distribution. This milestone event not only showcased our community's growth but also provided valuable leadership lessons for our volunteers. Through this experience, I had the opportunity to refine my communication and organizational skills. As a leader, I was responsible for coordinating with volunteers, managing the camp schedule, and communicating with parents and students. This taught me the importance of clear communication, adaptability, and effective problem-solving. I extend my gratitude to the parents, students, and volunteers who collaborated to make this project a success. Each individual played a vital role in making this experience memorable. *Special Acknowledgments I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to: Our students, whose enthusiasm and intelligence made this experience truly rewarding Parents and family members, whose support was invaluable _Sandhya Ji, for her generous contributions to the Annual Day setup_ The VT SEVA Maryland youth leads, whose dedication and teamwork were instrumental in achieving our goals: - Rashmika Sai Patel - Mahesh Chandra Gandam - Sana Shenoy - Divya Puthana - Geethika Pamani - Kaviya Karthickkumar - Akul Pallerla - Rohan Putthana - Dheesidan Karthickkumar - Taara Vasudevan - Samanvi Tammana - Anwesha Parida - Sasha Gandraju - Sreshta Sree Veldanda - Anvitha Nakka - Janelle Davies I am proud of our accomplishments and grateful for the support and cooperation that made this event a resounding success.

This event was for Middle and High School students to encourage them to speak with confidence.

VT Seva Maryland team conducted our 1st Math competition on 04/28/2024 as part of our STEAM activities which turned out to be a super successful event. All Elementary School Math lovers participated in this event and showcased their talents! A small write up from the youth leader Sana Shenoy who conducted this event with her team's help. ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- I'm Sana Shenoy, currently an 8th grader at WKMS & the Event Coordinating Lead of the VT Seva Maryland Education Pillar. On 04/28/2024, I conducted a math competition for kids in grades 1 - 5, at Urbana Regional Library, in which 35 mathletes registered! It turned out great! Thank you to everyone that participated in the event. Everyone that showed up did amazing! I'm very proud of how successful this event turned out to be. Thank you to all the volunteers that helped me out, I couldn't have done it without you guys! For this math competition, we created a google form so that the parents could register their kids for the event. At the event, we made three brackets to organize who will be playing against each other. Two mathletes of the same bracket went against each other at the same time, while a challenging question was being displayed on the screen with a one minute timer. When they got an answer, they simply hit the buzzer and gave the answer. Whoever got the most out of 3 questions right would progress to the next round. This kept continuing until we found the winners and runners-up in each bracket. I want to take a quick moment to thank once again my parents all the youth leads for helping me conduct this event! Mridula Akanksha Divya Bhavya Niveditha Vivek I had a great time conducting this event, and it was amazing to see the number of people that showed up and participated, displaying their skills! Thanks everyone! Sana Shenoy ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐----- ‐-----

VT Seva Maryland Youth leads conducted their First Chess competition for kids in the Urbana Regional Library on March 16th, 2024. Vivek Koduri, Youth leader of the VT Seva Maryland conducted this event.

This is an event created by Maryland youth committee team which gave an opportunity for elementary kids to showcase their interests in science and exhibits the experiment they have performed and earn exciting prizes!

VT Seva Maryland Youth leads conducted our first recycling workshop for kids in the Urbana Regional Library on February 25th, 2024.

VTSeva Maryland Team supported American Red Cross conducting blood drive on Feb 3. 38 Good hearts signed up for the blood donation drive. 27 donors were able to successfully donate their blood (per American Red Cross) it could save more than 70 lives. HatsOff to All our Donors who came forward to make a change in the community!! Proud of all VTSeva Maryland Youthleads and parents of youth leads who supported for this cause. Kudos to the entire team! Blood donation drive Event Lead Yashmita Dillibabu and Event Co-Lead Mridula Vasudevan worked closely with the entire VTSeva Maryland youth leads to make this event a real success. Kudos to the entire team!! Appreciating all the youth leads and our Adult team who came forward rolling their sleeves to help for this event. Yashmita Dillibabu Mridula Vasudevan Mahati Konduri Anvitha Nakka Rashmika Patel Mahesh Gandham Vivek Konduri Inika Keranahalli Kaya Wright Taara Vasudevan Niveditha Murugesan Abhiram Tammanna Stella Yoon Sreshta Sree Veldanda Geethika Pamani Rahul Yarlagadda (Bhavya's Brother) Dillibabu (Yashmita's Dad) Shweta (Inika's Mom) Raju (Inika's Dad) Vasudevan Akkoor (Mridula/Taara's Dad)

VTSeva Maryland youth leaders participated and showed their support in giving back to the community by participating in the community clean up activity conducted by City of Frederick on 11/16. Inika Keranahall lead the event and our other youth leaders Akul, Arjun, Dhanvi, Mahesh, Mridula and Taara helped showing their support for this event. Thank you City of Frederick Parks and Rec for this wonderful opportunity and looking forward to support our City parks! Thank you Shweta, Sirisha and Prashamsa for volunteering and helping guide the kids.

VT Seva Maryland Team recently got an opportunity to showcase effectiveness of Volunteer Services at a Diwali function conducted by CB Events. CB Events supported us by providing us with a booth station and all our volunteers used the opportunity to demonstrate the great Services done by VT Seva. In the function, CB Events gave a shout out for VT Seva volunteers and helped us in educating the huge crowd about different pillars of VT Seva and how VT Seva creates an impact to the community. Our Youth leaders presented different events and activities that we had completed through VT Seva. So many impressed audiences and good hearts from CB Events signed up for VT Seva Volunteering services. Following Youth leads participated in the event! Vivek Konduri - Event Lead. Mahati, Yashmita, Rashmika, Bhavya, Mahesh, Taara Vasudevan, Dilli Babu, Vasudevan Akkoor, Sobana Vasudevan - Participated in the event and helped with Volunteering/Campaigning. Sana Shenoy - Helped with creating a re-usable donation Box. We would like to thank CB Events for providing us this opportunity.

VT Seva Maryland Youth leaders conducted a 5K Walkathon on 10/22/2023 from 8 AM - 10 AM to bring Breast Cancer Awareness around Frederick County. Breast cancer awareness aims to educate people about breast cancer risk factors, tests, and ways to get involved with advocacy. Information empowers people and gives them the tools and knowledge they need to get regular mammograms and screenings for breast cancer, which helps make early detection possible. Close to 20 MD VT Seva youth leaders participated in this event supporting the cause. We met a few Breast Cancer Survivors during our walk, and they showed their support, felt grateful for sharing the knowledge, and created awareness through youth! Our youth leads baked some Pink cookies supporting the cause and made Pink ribbons to showcase the Breast cancer awareness support! Thank you everyone for the support. Following Youth leads participated in the event! Rashmika - Event Lead for the Walkathon Mahati, Bhavya - Helped with Baking cookies to show support and creating posters! Kaviya - Made Breast cancer ribbons for all the youth leads and shared the ribbons with the supporters. Mridula, Taara, Lakshitha, Samanvi, Yashmita, Cindy, Inika, Mahesh, Vivek, Deechu, Abhiram, and Kayden - Helped with campaigning by holding Breast Cancer awareness posters, VT Seva Banners, Campaigning about Breast Cancer awareness, and carrying the donation boxes to support people who are impacted with Breast Cancer.

VTSeva Maryland conducted and interactive session for making clay Ganesha idols for the occassion of Ganesha Chathurthi. Its really a great opportunity to all the youth to learn how to make idols out of clay and also learnt why we celebrate the festival and the story behind it! Great job Mahesh Chandra Gandham for leading this event. Huge shout out to all the VT Seva Maryland Youthleaders who supported this event. Bhavya Yarlagadda Dheechu Karthick Inika Keranahalli Kaviya Karthick Lakshita Patel Mahati Konduri Mridula Vasudevan Rashmika Patel Sana Shenoy Taara Vasudevan Vivek Konduri Yashmita Dillibabu Sahasra K

VT Seva Maryland Youthleaders performed community clean up activity at Landsdale community on August 26, 2023. Landsdale community is Located in southern Frederick County and there are 1000+ families live in this community. Our 27 youth leaders went across Landsdale community and cleaned different places like Streets, Play parks, Volley ball court, Tennis court, Zip line park, Gazebo, Club house, etc., We collected all the plastics on the roads and dumped into recycle bins. We also educated kids/adults about the environmental awareness and requested few neighbors to join us for the clean up activity.It's a pride moment to wear VT Seva T shirts and doing the work of giving back to the community!

VT Seva Maryland Celebrates 77th India Independence Day!