This October, as a part of Microsoft's Give Campaign, VTSEVA Seattle conducted corporate volunteering activities to spread awareness and raise funds. Microsoft employees spent a couple of hours out of their busy workdays to come craft cards and learn about VTSEVA's mission and impact. Employees created motivational and heart-warming cards for the underprivileged and visually challenged students in the Netra Vidyalaya and Jeeyar Gurukulam schools. About 70 members joined, contributing 100+ hours.

On September 25 and 26, members of the Seattle VT Seva team helped clean up the local Veda Temple's garden as part of the Adopt a Temple Garden project. As part of this program, our team is going to clean all the shrubs and weeds from the temple's beautiful garden, and maintain it throughout all seasons in the future. Here is a comment we received from temple management: “Kiran Ji - on behalf of VEDA I would like to express our sincere thanks to all the energetic young volunteers and parents who came and did a excellent job of cleaning the garden area of the temple this weekend. Please convey our wishes and prayers for all their good health, happiness, and prosperity. Thanks to VT Seva and you for organizing this noble activity!" We are very excited to continue this project in the future, and thanks to everybody who participated in this weekend's event!

Appreciating the Selfless Workers To recognize some of the selfless heroes who have been working long days and nights to make life for everyone easier, are the amazing workers at United States Postal Service and the Waste Management of Seattle. In order to honor and appreciate all that they have been doing before and during the pandemic, VT Seva Seattle volunteers created handmade cards and gave gifts to the USPS and WM workers in their neighborhoods. The smiles on each person who received the personal gifts were heartwarming and full of happiness! Some of our volunteers learned more about the workers and their personal lives while some, like Pranav, learned how difficult and stressful their job has been during the pandemic. Some workers also shared how many of them have had to work overtime during the pandemic due to extra covid precautions. We are so thankful to all the workers at USPS and Seattle WM and are so glad that we got the opportunity to appreciate and recognize some of the hardworking people!

VT Seva Seattle hosted 5th Annual walkathon on Aug 14th, 2021 at Ron Regis park, Renton. This year team has adopted the cause of homelessness and started their walkathon a month before virtually and completed with in-person finale . The goal is to walk to end homelessness and raise funds to support needs of homeless people. We have partnered with DESC to support this goal. DESC works to end the homelessness of vulnerable people, particularly those living with serious mental illnesses, substance use disorders, and/or chronic health conditions. We choose to work with the most marginalized and most vulnerable people first, not the most cooperative. We have successfully raised a total of 5K and donated the sum to DESC.

Wendell Berry, a novelist, says “the earth is what we all have in common” and to celebrate this beautiful earth we all share, VTSeva Seattle volunteers volunteered at Beaver Lake Park this Saturday for Earth Day! Together we braved the pouring rain and planted MORE than 80 plants! We together have made a small impact towards the rising problem of climate change. VTSeva’s environmental awareness pillar serves to help educate others on how to preserve this beautiful planet of ours and help find opportunities for others to help heal our planet.

VT Seva Seattle youth club team decided to celebrate their valentine week by sharing their love and gratitude to frontline workers. They have made beautiful poster filled with personalized messages and served delicious meals to Swedish Issaquah ER team and Northwest Ambulance Emergency Technicians. Swedish Hospital Issaquah Campus Northwest Ambulance Critical Care Transport EMT - Emergency Medical Technicians. When a patient in critical condition needs to be transferred from one facility to another, that patient needs a higher level of transport service. This service is known as a Critical Care Transport or CCT level of service. Our Youth worked on this project since a month and written personalized messages to make a big poster and delivered it to Heroes.

VT Seva - Seattle chapter Corona Relief Aid programs 1) 5K Donation towards DESC 2) Grocery donation program - where we go door to door to pick up non perishable items and donate them to NW Harvest food bank to serve the needy 3) Provided 350+ lunch boxes to frontline healthcare workers at Swedish hospitals 4) VT seva Online classes - During this pandemic, the Seattle VTSEVA chapter is launched a program where teenagers volunteer to read books, teach cooking, teach dance to young kids during quarantine. We hope to aid families whose kids need to keep entertained and happy during these stressful times. To promote safe isolation we plan to host virtual sessions on WEBEX weekly

Volunteer event by Seattle team at NW Harvest today. “Fight against Hunger” - Together we packed 431 breakfast meals and 1500 pounds of Pinto beans.

VT Seva team Volunteered at The Greenway Native Plant Nursery, which is home to nearly 30,000 native trees and shrubs. At the nursery, our volunteers pot these trees and shrubs, and after they have grown in our nursery for about two years, volunteers will plant these plants again, this time in their final homes in urban forests, parks, and open spaces throughout the Greenway landscape.