VT Seva Dallas is hosting its 13th Annual Tarangini on March 20th at 5 PM CST. This event is virtual so you can join from anywhere. Many young volunteers have worked hard to put this together. The program will be emceed by youth. There will be entertainment with skits, dancing, and singing. We look forward to meeting you all there. The link to the event is https://tinyurl.com/mwwk5acv . If you're looking to see what you can expect on the day of the event, here's a video created by Youth Board Volunteers explaining what it will look like: VT Seva Dallas 13th Annual Tarangini Trailer - YouTube.

VT Seva Cary recently celebrated their first annual Sadaya event. Sadaya, meaning kindness in Sanskrit, was dedicated to Netra Vidyalaya Schools and responsible for uplifting and supporting the education of visually-challenged students. Through splendorous performances and stories, the event was highly successful and inspiring. Through videos that highlighted the struggles, journeys, and achievements of Nethra Vidyalaya students, we witnessed remarkable passion and determination. They provided details regarding their daily life and imparted insight on various other topics. Their most recent and most significant achievement occurred when they received the opportunity to march in the Republic Day Parade. Participating in this prestigious opportunity opened up new doors of opportunity and inspiration among the students and community. Additionally, during our Sadaya event, we discovered the awe-inspiring journey of two alumni students from the Nethra schools. They divulged their educational days and the current career paths they are pursuing. Throughout the event, the audience heard encouraging words about volunteering and the impact of service from the president and vice-president of VT Seva's National Board, Mr. Kiran Vangala, and Ms. Madhavi Donepudi, respectively. In addition to those top-notch speeches, the audience became well acquainted with world-renowned scientist John Cohn. He actively engaged the audience with his breakthrough career and motivated us with words about reaching your dreams and doing what you love. To convey his importance of enjoying one's life, he quoted from one of his favorite Irish play writers, George Bernard Shaw, "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." Moreover, VT Seva Cary's Sadaya incorporated entertainment that included a plethora of performances ranging from classical melodies songs to upbeat modern dance performances. Apart from these dances, musical medleys, drumline performances from a local high school, and a Karra Samu performance completed the event. Without a doubt, this incredible event with the meaning of kindness in the atmosphere sparked a movement of understanding and happiness among the audience. VT Seva Cary successfully reached their goal of supporting 80 Nethra Vidyalaya students. The impact from dozens of wonderful families is not lost. To see the audience determined to help and support our Nethra Vidyalaya kids is stupendous and extraordinary. The Sadaya event and the ever-circling meaning of kindness were not just bound to the walls of Zoom but rather augmented outward and beyond. Sadaya was truly an inspiring act of kindness. Thank you to all the donors and volunteers for their support to make this even successful.

VT Seva is organizing its very first Table Tennis and Badminton Tournaments this year, on April 30th, 2022 8:00 AM EST at Sparc Arena Sports & Recreation, in Novi, Michigan. All proceeds from these tournaments will go towards the schools in India for the visually challenged children at Nethra Vidhyalaya and the Tribal School children. VT Seva supports Nethra Vidyalaya schools for the Blind in India in order to provide higher education to visually challenged students and enable them to be independent and compete with other students. It also supports the remotely located Tribal Schools in impoverished communities and provides access and opportunities to quality education, healthcare and enables them to live with dignity & pride. Date: April 30th, 2022 at 8:00 AM EST Venue: Sparc Arena Sports & Recreation, 42775 W 9 Mile Rd, Novi, MI 48375 Please go through the guidelines and rules before your register: Guidelines and Rules for TT & Badminton Come join us and play for cause. More details please contact: Suresh: 734-612-4961 Nandini: 248-982-9307 Harshini: 248-895-2301 Vishwas: 248-986-5320 Venkat: 313-587-8011 Srivardhan: 503-807-2555 Sirisha: 313-910-0317 SrinathBabu: 949-232-9477 Sudheer: 213-399-2315 Email: detroit.director@vtsworld.org For volunteering opportunities, please contact: Vanitha @ 248-227-3094 If you would like to sponsor for the event or company sponsorship or to place your business logo, banner or any other type of promotion, please contact detroit.director@vtsworld.org / Srinath@ 949-232-9477 or Sudheer @213-399-2315 VTSEVA TABLE TENNIS (AND/OR) BADMINTON TOURNAMENTS LIABILITY WAIVER FORM Participant Waiver & Liability Agreement I understand that there are risks associated with playing all sports and field-related activities. In consideration for the privilege to use the Sparc Arena facility and/or attend the VT Seva Detroit Table Tennis (and/or) Badminton tournament(s), my participation indicates that I assume the risk of any injuries that myself or my children/wards may sustain while participating in any VT Seva sponsored sports activity and for any injuries which myself or my children/wards may sustain while on the premises of Sparc Arena, Novi, Michigan. I assure that I am, or my child is physically and mentally able to participate in the physical activities and has been examined by a licensed medical physician within one (1) year prior to attending this clinic/camp. By registering for the tournament, I am signing this Waiver and Liability Agreement. I acknowledge that I HAVE READ AND FULLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE TO ALL OF ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS INCLUDING PERMISION TO TREAT AGREEMENT. I further state that I have executed this waiver and liability voluntarily and with full knowledge of its significance to be binding on my, my heirs, executors, administrators and assigns. ___Signature assumed automatically if you register_______ Participant’s Signature (Parent/Guardian if under 18)

On behalf of VTSEVA Austin, we take great pleasure to express our gratitude to Austin Tamil Sangam for recognizing VTSEVA with the community service endowment award and donation for one of our pillars (Education to Visually challenged). We are inspired and boosted by this recognition. A community is only as strong as its people. We recognize the importance of partnership with esteemed organizations like Austin Tamil Sangam to bring the community together and create awareness about causes that serve the communities in need. VT Seva organization and the thousands of volunteers aim to help rebuild and restructure the underprivileged and underserved communities. Along with tireless community service in each location, our focus lies in providing free quality education, food for underprivileged tribal students and visually challenged, conducting free cancer screening, medical camps, and providing relief efforts when natural disaster strikes. ATS support for Netra Vidyalaya will go a long way in providing encouragement to the day-day operations. Netra Vidyalaya focuses on providing VALUE BASED quality education, technology assisted learning, self-reliant lifestyle to those leaders of tomorrow. “Their eyes cannot see, but they have a great vision” - VT Seva founder We are excited about this partnership and invite you to participate in all VTSEVA Austin’s service causes and events. Likewise, we would like to be a part of all Austin Tamil Sangam celebrations and community events. VTSEVA Austin provides volunteer opportunities for school aged kids and their families. Together, we can instill a service spirit in young minds and to live a life of purpose from a very young age.

VT Seva Detroit successfully celebrated the 6th Annual Cultural Event RAAS-2021 on October 30th, 2021. RAAS is our Annual Celebration event, culminating a great year of various fundraising activities and volunteering service to the community. Some of the key highlights of the event: Raised funds for 253 Blind and Tribal students’ education 300+ people attended Sumptuous Dinner with Mesmerizing Entertainment Special Thanks to Hon. Senator Jim Runestad for reading out the historic resolution of Deewali festival recognition in the state of Michigan from the stage of VT Seva Detroit RAAS on an auspicious Thirunakshatram day of H.H. Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swami ji. H.H. Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swami ji Artwork by VT Seva Detroit member Shreya Srivatsan. Shreya's artwork was auctioned to benefit Tribal Student's education A memorable evening with marvelous Entertainment & Sumptuous Dinner VT Seva Detroit board acknowledged the year-long hard work of our dedicated volunteers and kind donors with an evening of music, dance, skits, food, fun, and celebration. Dhol Tasha & Team welcomed all the guests with their spectacular and roaring drumbeats. With her melodious voice, Ananya started the evening with the American & Indian National Anthem, followed by Prayer by Prajna kids. Motivational & Inspirational Speeches from Hon. Jim Runestad (State Senate of the 15th district), Hon. Padma Kuppa (Member of the Michigan House of Representatives) & Mr. Cory Joyrich (Director of Major Gifts and Corporate Partnerships) Eight Detroit Youth Board (YB) members did an excellent job as Emcees and started the evening with an upbeat Bollywood dance. Then, they entertained the crowd with a surprise mob dance. This group brought a positive and energetic vibe on the stage and kept the crowd engaged throughout the evening. Harish & Sanjana quoted testimonials from Nethra Vidyalaya and the tribal schools. Oviya, Hiba, Kaavya & Saisha scripted and played a script about pillars of VTSeva (Education for Visually Challenged, Education for Tribal Students, Cancer Screening Camps, Disaster Recovery, Youth Empowerment). VT Seva Detroit Youthboard Activities Priya Jaisankar (VTSeva Detroit YB Director) delivered a speech about the progress of the VT Seva Detroit Youth Board. They had a fantastic year in 2021. Some of their key accomplishments: 18 events 3 Fundraising events The first-ever Chess camp (conducted by YB member Tarun). The first-ever Walkathon (proceeds were given to Angel of Hope, MI, and Covid relief activities in India) 28 YB members raised money for 28 Nethra Vidyalaya students through Student - 4 - Student Outreach Project. 8 YB members received PVSA awards Gold: Harish, Oviya, Risha, and Saisha, Silver: Shreya Bronze: Abhinav S, Hrudya, and Aishani. YB members had a terrific opportunity to lead and participate in the community services and enhance their writing skills by writing blogs and showing their creativity in their videos about the events. VT Seva Detroit Volunteering Activities Vanitha Gopalan (National YB Director and Detroit volunteering coordinator) and three YB team members Sai Sahasra, Rohan Patil, Sidharth presented statistics on VT Seva Detroit volunteering and fundraising activities on the RAAS stage. For more information, please review the below PDF presentation. Registration Desk The registration team did an excellent job welcoming the guests. Bighearted local restaurants sponsored delicious food. The Volunteers packed and served the food. Rocking Dance performances: We had a gala of professional teams and local talent that rocked the stage from classical to Bollywood. Nrithyala School of Dance Team Emcee Dance Team Smrithi Dance Team Mathangi Dance Team Usha Dance Team Melodious Singing Performances: Both professional and our local talent mesmerized the audience. Kalyani Ji Team (Swaralapana Team - Medley) Suresh Ji, Aravind Ji and Ratna Giri Ji Sandeep Ji Pleasant Flute Performance by Kids VTSeva Detroit Thanks to all the Sponsors and Volunteers for their services. Roaring Dhol Tasha & Team: Pranav Ji, Sathish Ji & Team Singing Performances: Swaralapana (Kalyani Ji Team) - Medley Dance performances: Nrithyala School of Dance, Smrithi Dance, Mathangi Dance, Usha Dance Impressive Stage and Lobby Decoration: RAAS Clicks, Subha Ji & Ram Ji Excellent Cinematic Videography & Facebook Live: Vathsal Ji & Team Beautiful Pics: Anoop Ji Rocking D.J. Services: Srinivasa Raju Ji & his son Teja (Lucky) Media Sponsor - MI India Delicious Food by local Restaurants. Our Dedicated Volunteers Special Thanks to our Detroit Director Srinath Karnati ji for his dedication and leadership throughout the year. Special Thanks to Sudhakar ji, Sudheerji, Srinath ji, Narsaraj ji, Zahara ji, Swapna ji, Lathaji, Anand ji, Priya ji, Jaisankar ji, Vanitha Ji, Suresh ji, Nandini ji, Sreenivas ji, Jyothi ji, Asha ji, Srivardhan ji, Keerthi ji, Raghunathan ji, Akshay ji, Srikanth ji, Vamshi ji, Ramya ji, Nivedhita ji, Pavan ji and many more Volunteers. Our Dedicated Youth Volunteers Aditya, Pranav, Jishnu, Nikhil, Surya, Yug, Abhinav, Harish, Oviya, Hiba, Kavya, Sai, Saisha, Sai Sahasra, Sidharth, Anirudh, Veeksha, Vasudeva, Abhisrishti, Hrudya, Teja, Arya, Varnik, Shivani, Aditi This was one of the best events we ever had. Thanks to all Event Sponsors, Donors, Supporters, and Volunteers who helped this event make it a big success. Thanks to all the unsung supporters for this great cause. It would not have been possible to pull off such a HUGE event without your constant support and help. For more pictures, please check out this link https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VAJaJA0JjGyuyE97VMY0Pb5JMund1Uvn Please go to Facebook Page to 'Like' and 'Comment' https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/5609493229077660 Watch complete RAAS event RAAS 2021 FLYER For other events and activities from Detroit, please visit http://vtsworld.org/detroit Blog created and published by Nandini Cheemalamarri (Detroit Communications) THANK YOU SO MUCH ALL! YOUR SUPPORT IS OUR STRENGTH TO SERVE

“The worst speech you’ll ever give will be far better than the one you never give.” – Fred Miler We can do this well or we can do this badly, and the outcome strongly affects the way that people think about our ideas. This is why public speaking causes so much anxiety and concern. The good news is that, with thorough preparation and practice, you can overcome your nervousness and perform exceptionally well. VT Seva Detroit presents a great opportunity to learn the skills of being a good speaker from a Distinguished Toastmaster - the highest educational award in the Toastmasters program. VT Seva Detroit is conducting an online workshop on March 12 & 19. On the 12th, you will get to learn the tips and tricks of a good speech. With the learned tips and tricks, you get to prepare a speech and present it to the experts on 19th for their valuable feedback. On March 12th, you will learn about 1. Importantance of public speaking skills 2. How to plan and prepare an effective speech 3. How to deliver a speech based on a variety of verbal and non-verbal criteria. 4. Tips and techniques in eliminating verbal fillers 5. How to use visual aids to enhance the speech 6. Tips and techniques to engage the audience. Online Public Speaking Workshop will be conducted by esteemed and experienced Distinguished Toast Master Mr. Raju Brahmandhabheri Mr. Raju Brahmandhabheri is passionate about public speaking and communication skills and has been a Toastmaster (a platform to improve public speaking and leadership skills) for the last 8 years and achieved the DTM (Distinguished Toastmasters) - the highest educational award in the Toastmasters program. By profession, he is an electrical engineer and has been working in the utility industry from the past 18 years. He is currently working as an Engineering Manager at ITC Holdings Corp., Novi, Michigan. He has a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Mississippi State University. He teaches Electrical Engineering at Lawrence Tech University on a part-time basis as he passionate about teaching. He is a mentor for the high school students to coach/advice/prepare them for the annual Leadership Speech Contest hosted by the National Management Association (NMA). in April this year, he led the efforts to create a new corporate Toastmasters club at his workplace, ITC and continues to mentor the new club. He is one of the founders, past president, and current board member of the Detroit Telangana Community (DTC). Alison Jolliff is originally from England and has been in the US for 10 years. She became a Toastmaster two years ago and is now President of the Novi Toastmasters club. Prior to joining Toastmasters Inter-national, Alison studied to achieve a Master's degree in training and organizational development, and she currently works as a tutor. In this workshop, you will learn public speaking skills on March 12th from Mr. Raju Brahmandhabheri and present your speeches on March 19th to get feedback from both Toastmasters Mr. Raju Brahmandhabheri and Mrs. Alison Jolliff. Please prepare your speech to fit between 120 - 150 seconds in one of the below topics: Equality Are video games good or bad? Or somewhere in between? Does peer pressure helps students grow as individual? All the proceeds from this event goes to support Visually Challenged & Tribal Students education in India. What a great way to support others while become competent in the essential life skill Public Speaking! Don't miss the opportunity to learn from the best!!!! For more details on VTSEVA Please visit

Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others. - Booker T. Washington

Required for Basic Class & links Baked cake (Can use box cake mix) American Butter Cream (Follow instructions). https://tinyurl.com/2p9d8t2v Chocolate Melts (Any Color). https://www.michaels.com/sweet-tooth-fairy-meltables/10632879.html Cake Pop sticks: https://tinyurl.com/499jmxvk Vegetable Shortening: https://tinyurl.com/mvyxp264 Optional: Any kind of sprinkles Chocolate Melting Pot: https://tinyurl.com/mskbmvw8 Required for Advanced class (Rose Cake Pops) Cake Pops RedFondant: https://tinyurl.com/2p8r9uey Rose Cutter: https://tinyurl.com/3mmnpeaf Wilton Tool: https://tinyurl.com/2s4efyvp Wilton Rolling Pin: https://tinyurl.com/2p9y984b Starch Powder Silicone Mat to roll: https://tinyurl.com/4cj9ut5y Small brush: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089NND4VJ/ref=emc_b_5_i

While giving is undoubtedly one of the purest feelings for a human being, gratitude is unparalleled in its necessity for human beings. To function properly in society today, every human being must be content, and there is no way of being content without being thankful for what you have. The holidays were off to a great start for us youth VT Seva volunteers being blessed enough to help out the underprivileged community in Frisco. But we were just getting started. What good is it to feel thankful and grateful for what we have without actually thanking those who deserve it? On December 23, we conducted a special event for essential workers in our community to thank them for their service. The essential workers have a special place in all of our hearts and thoughts, and we thank them for making our lives much much easier than they would be without them. With this event, we hoped that they would understand that we do appreciate them and what they do for us. In Dallas, there is a program called Prepare to Prosper, where special needs students make quality handmade products like soaps with the help of their teachers. All of the money they make from selling these products in boxes goes to their education and empowerment programs. We decided to buy many of these boxes so that we could give them to the essential workers as part of an initiative called “Gifts of Gratitude”, as well as make a positive impact on the lives of the special needs children. With this event, we wanted to spread the theme of empathy: the essential workers should feel motivated to continue what they do every day because we empathize with them and show it in our actions. On the day of the event, we were met by many trucks with essential workers and gave them food, t-shirts, and boxes from the special needs children. We were all smiling from ear to ear during the event: they were happy they had someone to appreciate what they did and we were happy that we were able to show them our appreciation for what they do every day. It is important to remember the significance of these essential workers, which many of us may not understand. No matter how stressful our jobs are, in the end, we are only working to support ourselves, or maybe our family. But for these essential workers, their work results in a better society too. During the event, we were all amazed to learn that one of the trash trucks that came was the only all-electric truck of its kind in the entire United States. We were glad that besides being able to show our gratitude and feeling something special, we were able to see something special as well. We hope to inspire all our volunteers to be grateful and to give back to society what we are getting from it. And most importantly, we hope to spread and embody positive qualities that result in a happy family, community, and society.

VT Seva Virginia chapter was able to raise funds to support 70 students at the blind and tribal schools. The event was held on December 19th at 3PM. Our director and a few youth were able to host the event. We had performances from local music and dance schools, Notes & Beats and Srimanthi Saikantha Raparla’s students. Prajna students opened the event, along with diva lighting at Srimanthi Reena Garu’s home and then we had testimonials from Netra Vidyalaya students. JET team invited everyone to join us for the Sarasrabdi event and we also spoke about VT Seva Virginia goals for 2022. We finished with a beautiful melodious performance from Akhila Mamandur, ETV Padutha Teenage winner. Senator Jennifer Boysko joined us for a few encouraging words to end the event. Thank you to all of our attendees and supporters for helping us fulfil our goal of supporting 70 students

VT Seva Detroit 2021 year-end volunteering with · The PinkList Org on November 18th,2021 · The Salvation Army on December 4th,2021. VT Seva Detroit volunteers packed Pink Kits on November 18th, 2021 for ThePinkList org at Oasis Skin Studio towards Karmanos Cancer Institute, Michigan. The Pink List is a nonprofit organization that provides resources to families affected by breast cancer, while further raising awareness around breast cancer. The PINK List is committed to sending chemotherapy care packages (Pink Kits) to Karmanos Cancer Institute for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, including 50 patients at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. Each Pink Kit includes Pink fuzzy socks; Unscented moisturizer; Lip balm; Pink journal and pen; Herbal tea bags and a letter of hope. Oasis Skin Studio hosted The Pink List Packing event in their studio. VT Seva Detroit got an opportunity to help them pack these kits and sort out their kits as per their instructions & we were able to pack 46 kits overall in an hour. Lending support is great, but cancer patients can also benefit from positive messages. Our youth volunteers also wrote kind letters of encouragement, inspirational things for these cancer patients. We hope their words of hope motivate them to get through another day of their hospital treatments and bring some smiles to their faces. There were 8 volunteers who spent their time and helped them. These are our wonderful volunteers who participated. Youth Volunteers: Sidharth, Satvik, Shruthi, Rishi Adult Volunteers: Priya, Asha, Durga and Vanitha We are also looking forward to providing our support in 2022 as well. Please do find our Facebook post for pictures and other details: https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/5248705181823135 ThePinkList Appreciation Letter is below: VTS Detroit Volunteers packed Toys on DEC 4th 2021 for Salvation Army Angel Tree Program at Farmington Hills Salvation Army provides new clothes and new toys to more than 1 million children in need through their Angel Tree Program. Walmart and The Salvation Army are joining to help millions of children. Once the gifts are received, The Salvation Army will distribute them to families in need for Christmas morning. To make that happen, they were in need of lots of volunteers to help them accomplish their huge tasks. We took that Wishlist that was being sent by many children who are in need of gifts for this Christmas, each of those was categorized into a different age, gender. We sorted & organized those gifts into respective age categories and then finally packed them into those big red bags from the Salvation army. More than 150 families are registered with Salvation Army Farmington Hills who are under the poverty line and in need of big support. There were 10 volunteers who spent their time and helped them. These are our wonderful volunteers who participated. Youth volunteers: Advaith S; Abhinav S; Adithya S; Nitya S; Ananya S; Kushal; Srivatsa T; Akshay K Adult volunteers: Rajesh; Vanitha Please find below the photo compilation video: Please find below appreciation video message from Mrs. Karen Kumar https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/videos/1244798769263348/ Please find below the Facebook post link: https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/5316233428403643 VT Seva Detroit sincerely thank each one of our volunteer’s valuable time and special appreciation to Salvation Army Coordinator Mrs. Karen Kumar & Lieutenant Mr. Anil Kumar Corps officer at Salvation Army Farmington Hills for giving us this wonderful opportunity to serve them. We are looking forward to many more opportunities in 2022 as well. Blog written by Vanitha Gopalan Blog Published by Nandini Cheemalamarri

The joy of giving is amongst the purest of feelings - one that cannot be portrayed in words but felt deeply by those who empathize. It is that joyful feeling of giving, that warmth that engulfs our hearts when we brighten someone’s life, or even just a day for someone, that is what truly motivates us VTSeva volunteers to give. It is that feeling of empathy and the drive to make a difference that binds us together. It was the season of giving. And we were looking for ways where we could bring a smile to people’s faces and found a way to do so through Frisco Family Services, an organization that aims to help the underprivileged Frisco community. They were very excited that we were helping them out, and we were very excited that we had found an opportunity to do what we loved to do most: give. We knew that this holiday season was going to be a special one for both us, and the community that we were going to be helping out. Our project involved getting a list of gifts and essentials from that community and each volunteer playing our role in buying a part of the list. I was looking forward to this project and was glad that this time, my family could do their holiday shopping for those who needed it most, for that one boy my age whose situation, unfortunately, puts him in circumstances less privileged than my own. This project reminded me of what I had, and what I needed to be thankful for, and prompted me to realize that we are all living life taking different things for granted. But once in a while, if we stopped and looked around, we would realize that our situation is far better than that of a lot of people. If we all did this, the world would be a far better place. With this project, we hoped to inspire this thought in the community. We put all the items we had bought in a shop-like space so that all the members of the underprivileged community would have the enjoyable experience of Holiday shopping. This project also served to remind the underprivileged community that no matter how hard times are, there are always good people willing to make things better for you. And no matter how hard times get, or what obstacles you face in life, we at VT Seva will always be there to help you out and to do what we love to do most: give

Fleece & Thank You, a Michigan-based non-profit organization, is dedicated to providing connection, comfort, and hope through its programs, services, and materials to children facing illness and their families supporting them. They host over 400 blanket-making events every year to help achieve their goal of making 30,000 fleece blankets one blanket for every child in MI that goes into the hospital for inpatient treatments. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗹, 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿. Their warehouse is where all of their behind-the-scenes work happens. VT Seva Detroit Volunteers got their first opportunity on August 16th, 2021, got this opportunity to help them from 3 pm-5 pm at their warehouse. Around 8 volunteers did these tasks. 1. Prepping their blanket kits 2. Quality check on those blankets 3. Folding the blankets after a final check 4. Wrapped them up with a plastic wrap 5. Packed them in kits for final delivery to hospitals. 6. Coloring the thank you cards that they were doing for Hug buddy postcards for mental health people that is for View spire organization. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗘𝗲𝘀𝗵𝗮,𝗩𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗮 , 𝗡𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗲𝗻,𝗞𝗮𝘂𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗯𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶 𝗔𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗗𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗮 ,𝗩𝗮𝗻𝗶, 𝗩𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗮 Facebook link for August 16th, 2021 VT Seva Detroit Volunteers got their second opportunity on November 20th, 2021 to help them 9 am -12 pm at their warehouse. Around 12 volunteers did these tasks. This is our second visit there and we really loved helping them and being part of their kind wonderful cause. Our volunteers did various tasks such as 1. Cutting the strip cloth 2. Hot pressing labels on each blanket 3. Bundling all the blankets neatly and stack in covers & boxes 4. Folding blankets 5. Organizing warehouse blankets storage boxes finally cleaned their work area. On a whole we all worked on 1000 blankets which are ready for a child to use in a hospital Video Compilation of photos link: Facebook link for Nov 20th, 2021 VT Seva Detroit thank Fleece &Thankyou coordinators for giving us these opportunities and We are looking forward to provide our services to Fleece&Thankyou in 2022 as well whenever an opportunity arrives. Blog created by Vanitha Gopalan Blog published by Nandini Cheemalamari

VT Seva Detroit Youth Board successfully wrapped up 2021 by completing their goal of implementing at least one project each month which is initated by youth. In 4th quarter they completed 6 projects o Student – 4 – Student Outreach Project o Candy Drive o Eyeglass Drive o Book Drive o Salvation Army Bell Ringing o Rise to Equality Poster Video created by youth volunteer Harish. Student – 4 – Student OutreachProject: VT Seva Detroit Youth Board raised money by creating awareness of VT Seva who are not aware of VT Seva and its causes. This year 28 students participated and raised money for 28 students in Nethra Vidyalaya Schools. 170 donors donated $10,450. Please visit the blog for more details and video. Project idea was proposed by youth volunteer Harish. https://www.vtsworld.org/post/vt-seva-detroit-youth-board-2nd-outreach-2021 Candy Drive: 𝑯𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 is the fun time for the children to go out for Trick-or-Treat in their costumes with friends and count the candies they collected and securing their favorite ones. Our Youth Board members went for Trick-or-Treat rather saving the collected candies for themselves, they donated it to the deployed troops through "𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲" a non-profit organization that sends care packages filled with snacks, entertainment, hygiene and handmade items to 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘀, 𝗩𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀, 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗪𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝘀, 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗨.𝗦. 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀. Local Dentistry in Livonia collects the candy and send it to Operation Gratitude. 11 Youth Board members from different cities collected and donated 42 pounds of candies to the deployed troops. Youth Board Members donated: Hiba, Rashmitha, Siddharth, Sathvik, Veeksha, Abhinav S, Anuraag, Srihari A, Nikhil S, Harish & Oviya Adult volunteers: Lavanya, Vanitha, Zahara and Priya https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/5194988527194801 Eyeglass Drive: Youth Board Member 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶 Proposed the idea Eye Glass Drive as part of their November month Project 22 youth board members collected 72 prescription eye glasses Rishi & Shruthi collected 24 eye glasses by canvassing in their neighborhood. Eye glassess were donated at Eyeglass World. Lions club partner with Eyeglass world in collecting them. Used eyeglasses that are collected by Lions and other volunteers are recycled at one of ten Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centers throughout the world. The used eyeglasses are cleaned, repaired and classified by prescription. The eyeglasses are then distributed to those in need by Lion volunteers and other organizations hosting optical missions in developing countries Thanks to Rishi for proposing this idea and all the youth board members who participated in this project. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝘆𝗲 𝗴𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲: Rishi, Shruthi, Srihari A, Anuraag, Anvika, Sreenika, Saisha , Shreya, Abhinav S, Abisrishti, Hiba, Rohan, Rashmitha, Nikhil A, Teja, Arya, Sidharth, Sathvik, Sai Sriram, Kaavya, Oviya & Harish 𝗔𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀: Sripriya, Srinath, Vanitha, Nalini & Priya https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/5292530994107220 Book Drive: We've collected 450+ books. This is the first time that Goodwill Store get a collection of books from a group of youths and getting books in high volume. These books will definitely help the children in need. Thanks to Amogh for bringing in this project and working with Goodwill. Thanks to Amogh, Kaavya and Harish to visit Goodwill and helping with book drop off. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞: Abhinav S, Abishristi, Adi, Akshay, Ananya Sankar, Amogh, Anuraag, Anvika, Chakrika, Harish, Hiba, Hrudya, Ish, Kaavya, Kalki, Kushal, Nikhil A, Nitya Sankar, Oviya, Pranav M, Rashmitha, Rishi, Sai Sriram, Saisha, Sanjana, Sanjith, Sathvik, Shruthi, Siddharth, Sreenika, Srihari A, Srihari H, Supraja, Sveya, Udhayaa, Veena, Yug 𝐀𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬: Sripriya, Architha, Giri, Srinath & Priya https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/5412863228740662 Salvation Army Bell Ringing VT Seva Detroit Youth Board Members making the change happen by ringing the bell for Salvation Army. 3 days (12/20, 12/21& 12/23), 8 youth volunteers rang the bell and impacted the the lives of neighbors by helping them in their time of need. They not only rang the bell, they sang songs and played christmas music in their instruments. This project was proposed and led by the youth volunteer Harish. 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒉 - 𝑭𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝑺𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉 - 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒚𝒂 - 𝑪𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐 𝑯𝒊𝒃𝒂 - 𝑽𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒏 & 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝑨𝒌𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒚 - 𝑽𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒏 𝑶𝒗𝒊𝒚𝒂 - 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈 Each year, The Salvation Army will serve more than 25 million people across America – including many here in your community. That means 55+ million meals for the hungry, 10+ million nights of shelter for the homeless, and countless Christmas gifts for children who may otherwise go without. So truly, you can make a difference with every ring. The funds you raise as a Salvation Army bell ringer will make a year-round impact in your community through social services assistance, homeless shelters, disaster relief, children’s programs, rehabilitation services, anti-human trafficking, and more. Youth Volunteers: Harish, Siddharth, Kaavya, Sravya, Pranav T, Hiba, Akshay & Oviya. Adult Volunteer: Priya https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/5387426054617713 Rise to Equality Poster: VT Seva Detroit Youth Board collaborated with JET MI in creating the posters about the leaders who stood up for equality to honor the commomeration of Statue of Equality. These flyers will be posted in social media. Youths who participated in poster creation: Oviya, Jethri, Pavan, Abisrishti, Kaustubh, Advaith, Harish, Hiba, Siddharth, Rashmitha, Akshay, Udhayaa & Nikhil Adult Volunteer: Priya Thanks to all the wonderful volunteers & donors who made this year 2021 successful. Watch this video to recap the memories from all the projects in 2021. Video created by Priya. Blog Consolidated By: Youth Board Member Oviya Blog Published By: VTSeva Detroit Comm volunteer Nandini

With willpower, we can build an inclusive society, where visually challenged or other underprivileged people, would not be treated as a hindrance to progress but measured as a strength in building an all-inclusive society says Lalitha Killaka, who won silver and bronze medals in 100meters and 400m running competitions at 3rd Indian National Para Olympics. Lalitha has had vision and hearing impairment since birth, her parents are laborers for who simple expectations like eating meals every day is a dream, they live in a very remote tribal area that is not accessible. Lalitha is a true inspiration, she never let her challenges become obstacles in life, she has shown dedication towards her game practice and studies successfully. She says, “I am an asset at any place I go, I always seek new opportunities and through my hard work, want to break the belief that visually challenged people are a liability. I dream of being self-sustained and build a house for my parents. This dream would not have been envisioned without Netra Vidyalaya.” She believes Netra Vidyalaya is a pillar of strength that lifts underprivileged visually challenged students and gives them a safe space, where even their state of mind is understood and guided in the right direction. Dear friend, Thanks to you All the 1300+ underprivileged and visually challenged children’s education and complete care is taken care of for the year. Put in a total of 35,000+ volunteer hours to conduct a total of 250+ events in USA to serve many community projects like Homeless shelters. Walkathon’s for causes like ending hunger, cancer awareness..etc. Summer Camps/Workshops. Environmental awareness events. Professional Seminars/Health camps. Built 75 toilets in remote villages in Southern India. Partnering with like-minded organizations to create a digital library for all the visually challenged across India. Sponsor T20 cricket championship team for visually challenged. Inspire 1000’s of youth across USA through service leadership programs. On behalf of all of them, THANK YOU for your generosity, support, and kindness. At VT Seva, we believe that everyone has a gift. We call this light because a gift is something you give away, but the light is something you share. Like a lighted candle that ignites another candle and transforms all who are present, both the giver and receiver’s light get brighter. All of us have needs and all of us have gifts. At VT Seva, we believe that the purpose of life is to discover those gifts and share them with others in the name of service, empathy, and love. If you haven’t had a chance to empower a child this year or would like to empower one more child or for any specific cause, we urge you to donate now to take advantage of the 2021 tax-deductible donations. Because of YOU, we have the ability to touch people's lives in a way that they probably never thought possible at the moment that they need us the most. Because of You, We Serve. Because of You, We Empower. Because of You, We Save Lives. Because of You, We Don't Give Up! Your Support is Our Strength THANK YOU. REAL IMPACT, BECAUSE OF YOU Click here to Join our mailing list to stay on top of volunteering opportunities.

VT Seva supported Nethra Vidyalaya student Ms. Lalitha Killaka secured a Silver Medal for 100 meters and Bronze Medal for 400 meters in 3rd Indian Open National Para Athletics Championship 2021 at Bengaluru. The competitions were held on 19th and 20th December at Sports Authority of India Athletic grounds. See how VT Seva is helping the students of Nethra Vidyalaya excel in academics, sports and fine arts. Be part of their journey, support them.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. - Hellen Keller VT Seva Cary has the pleasure of inviting to you Sadaya our Annual Fundraising event. With your support, we would like to provide free education/boarding to visually challenged and underserved students through Nethra Vidyalaya and Jeeyar Gurukulam schools in India. Learn more about Nethra Vidyalaya Schools here Learn more about Schools for Tribal students here VT Seva appreciates our volunteers and donors – because of your support, enthusiasm, and collaborative efforts, great work is possible!

"Blindness is an unfortunate handicap but true vision does not require the eyes.” - Helen Keller. Either be academics or sports or arts, our Nethravidyalaya students always proved these words of Helen Keller true by their achievements that vision does not require eyes. “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision." Helen Keller. Every VTSeva volunteer has the vision to support educations of visually challenged, tribal, women health, and environment protection. VTSeva Austin team 2021 last quarter took the opportunity to be part of the lives of Visually challenged by conducting the Vasudha annual event to celebrate the 2021 volunteer services in Austin and to support 75 visually challenged students Nethra Vidyalaya of India. On December 5th, we celebrated the annual, VT Seva community mela (fair) event. This was a free event, and people of all ages showed up to enjoy this time. Out in the stunning garden, there were various activities, such as games, arts and crafts, henna design, and even jewelry/decoration was being sold at the stalls. The aromas of the food being served at food stalls by our VT Seva youth volunteers were wafting through the air, and the laughter of kids was coming from every direction. Many people got wonderful henna designs from the henna booth as well. It was incredibly tranquil, and the clear, sunny weather added to the meditative environment. Within the building, our Youth leaders presented the Vision and mission of VTSeva and then started the live music event. Many of the VT Seva volunteers got to show their musical talents and it was, in the opinion of all the volunteers, one of the best things at the event. A multitude of instruments was being played and the music was simply amazing. This entire event was a break from the stresses of everyday life. Youth volunteers were determined to explain to all the visitors about the VT Seva mission and Nethra Vidyalaya encouraging donations. In the midst of this event were the highlights of our elementary volunteers who were enthusiastic in selling their handmade jewelry and donating the proceeds to Nethra Vidyalaya. Volunteering spirit was filled in the air and every child and youth were totally motivated with the giving spirit. All youth were engaged in cash counters, requesting donations, engaging kids with games and workshops, serving food, selling at stalls, anchoring, participating in the musical event. The Paper quilling art workshop has attracted the crowd rounding the table. The bean bag throwing game had made many kids engaged well and ignited the sports spirit. To top all the fun, and happiness, all the money donated from this mela had been sent straight to schools for the blind, such as Netra Vidyalaya, and to tribal schools. The money is going to be used to provide daily meals, educational tools, technology, lab facilities, libraries, and give these kids access to many of the amenities in school we take for granted in our life. We thank all our sponsors whose support is our strength. Special Thanks to Sri Jagannath Vedula for guiding us with the event and Sri Hemanth Bhagawatula and Sri Srinivas Kumar Savitala for making the event more enjoyable with the sound system they have provided.

In the words of Hellen Keller, “There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark.” The Atlanta VT Seva team aspired to emulate these immortal words of Hellen Keller through our Subha annual event. The word 'Subha' represents the first ray of light in the horizon, the light that slowly transforms even the darkest of nights into a bright, beautiful sunrise. It symbolizes hope, light, and happiness even in the most obscure and difficult times. The Atlanta team aimed to spread this light into the lives of the special-needs children of Laurel Heights Hospital in Atlanta and the visually challenged children of Nethra Vidyalaya in India, with our Subha program. The Annual event was organized on Dec 4th, 2021 in which Atlanta youth presented a cultural program comprising of a Subha skit, instrumental compositions, Indian classical songs, and a variety of Indian classical dances, such as Kuchipudi, Bhangara, and Bollywood. The program commenced with the Chief Guest, Corey Jackson from Laurel Heights hospital, lighting an auspicious lamp and Naimisha Kodali, the emcee, reciting a prayer. This was followed by the American and Indian National Anthems sung by VT Seva youth and a welcome speech from Naimisha. After this, the Atlanta VT Seva Director, Dr. Madhu Nemani thanked Swami ji for the Subha blessings and welcomed the chief guest, Jet & Prajna coordinators, other esteemed members (Dr. Smitha Batulla and Sonia Rice from Laurel Heights, Nazeera Da, and City Council member Dilip Tunki), and all the kindhearted volunteers. She addressed the significance of Subha and how it will impact the lives of the Blind/Visually Challenged kids of Nethra Vidyalaya. Subsequently, VT Seva Mission and Vision was presented, which was followed by a classical song and 3 instrumental songs performed by the VT Seva youth. Next, the Atlanta Branch VT Seva 2021 initiatives were presented by Hithesh Gazzala (Communication Lead) and Anuradha Gazzala (VT Seva Treasurer). Their presentation highlighted the April Cool environmental project, the mask making project for Laurel Heights Hospital in which over 10,000 masks were made, a summer camp in which VT youth were the tutors and raised money for the covid relief fund, healthcare webinars, participation in the American Heart Walk, Halloween candy drive for US troops, the creation of VT Seva Lambert school club, and many more projects/activities. This was followed by a Subha skit presented by the Lambert VT Seva youth. In this skit, they demonstrated how their mask-making project has impacted the lives of special-needs kids at the Atlanta Laurel Heights Hospital and how their efforts helped in raising $2000 to support the education of the visually challenged kids in India. Afterwards, there was a thrilling Bhangra dance performance by Kishan’s Bhangra group, followed by a Bollywood dance on “Taare Zameen Par '' by Shiv’s Dance Institute. Next, Revathi Dance School fused both Indian and Spanish styles and performed kuchipudi on the famous hit, “Despacito.” This was followed by a solo bharatanatyam dance by a VT youth. Next, the VT Seva Director recognized all the contributions from the supporters and sponsors. She appreciated the Gold sponsorship by the Laurel Heights and presented a memento to the Chief guest, Corey Jackson, Dr. Smitha Batulla, and Sonia Rice. She also recognized the Silver sponsors: Somireddy Law Group, SLR Mortgage, AHP Real Estate Ventures, and Prism IT, with mementos for their generous support. Mr. Corey recognized all the children who have stitched the masks for the Special Needs Kids of Laurel Heights by providing them a certificate. Later, all cultural participants were also acknowledged by Dr. Madhu for their excellent cultural performance and outstanding contribution. Afterwards, 3 amazing classical Indian dance performances were presented by Atlanta youth. Last but not the least, Dr. Madhu appreciated the hard work of all the Atlanta team members consisting of decoration team, tech support, food team, backstage, registration, cleanup, cultural, and all the selfless Seva volunteers. Overall, this function was quite literally an illuminating experience! The delightful dances, the meaningful messages, and the soulful songs together created an unforgettable afternoon. It was so heartwarming to see all the support, not only from the performers, but from the entire community! The Atlanta VT Seva team thanks everyone who supported their cause from the bottom of their heart. In the words of Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus: “Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.” The empathetic and sincere efforts of the Atlanta VT Seva team has illuminated the lives of 100 plus special-needs/visually challenged kids by donating 10,000 masks to the special-needs and raising funds for the education of 100 visually challenged. We will continue to do our part right with Swami Ji’s Blessings and spread the joy & happiness of Subha in years to come. ---- Atlanta VT Seva Team Click here to donate Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. – Helen Keller We believe in positivism and humanism in the midst of the pandemic landscape. The path we have taken to accomplish this goal is to engage Atlanta youth and adults productively in preparations and presentation of our Annual event - ‘SUBHA’. In this event, Atlanta youth will present a cultural program and exhibit their contribution towards impacting the lives of Special Needs Kids (Visually Challenged) and support environmental sustainability. Because of these encouraging gestures by Atlanta youth for years, many kind hearts & philanthropists have responded positively by donating their money, time, and efforts to support the cause wholeheartedly. You can also be part of this Giving gesture. Your act of giving will illuminate the lives of visually challenged - bringing ‘SUBHA’ (Light, Hope & Happiness) in their lives. We can all be SUBHA for someone else today! VT Seva Atlanta's goal for this year is to support the education of 100 Visually Challenged students. Our goal for this year is to support the education of 100 Visually Challenged students. Optionally you can also donate through Zelle. Please login into your bank portal, then choose Zelle payments and send your chosen donation to treasurer@vtsworld.org. Please add a note stating the cause, "VT Seva Atlanta Subha 2021". Thanks! Click here to donate We welcome you to be part of our vibrant team to join our ongoing fun volunteering activities and to make our First Annual Event - Subha a grand success. For anymore questions, please reach out to @atlanta.director@vtsworld.org or 404-819-8623. PROGRAM SCHEDULE FOR SUBHA

Please join us for our VT Seva Virginia Annual Event Subhada on Dec 19th. An afternoon of celebration and fun Every sunrise is an invitation for us to arise and brighten someone's day.” – Richelle E.

This the season of giving. And what better way to serve our community than to give smiles. And what better time than the holiday season for us to come together and help our community in need. We have a list/wish list of things put together based on our conversation with the community services. So this week and next while you’re shopping for your families, think also about GIVING to the families truly in need. Youth members, please take a picture of yourself and what you shopped so that we can add all this to the Dallas webpage. Looking forward to all your participation. Please pass this on to your family, friends and community.

The Cricket Team from Andhra Pradesh won the national championship for Cricket Tournament for the blind for the 3rd consequetive year. Students/Alumni from Nethra Vidyalaya supported by VT Seva are part of this winning Team. In 2021, due to the Covid pandemic, there was no organization in Andhra Pradesh that would come forward to conduct selection trials for forming the Andhra Pradesh team that would later represent the state at the National T20 Cricket tournament. Our Nethra Vidyalaya took responsibility and successfully conducted the trials. Three players from Nethra Vidyalaya - Mr. Punya Srinath (10th class student) and Mr. Gopal & Mr. Ravindra (Alumni) got selected for the state team. Not only did our institution support the 3 students with expenses for travel and training, but also enabled other visually challenged enthusiasts to form a team for the state. VT Seva has contributed $12,000 (8 lakh Indian rupees) appreciation prize money to the Andhra Pradesh Cricket team through our CEO Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji. Rs 50,000 was given to each of the 16 players to aid them in better training and performance, winning laurels for the nation. In 2019 and 2020, VT Seva supported Nethra Vidyalaya students & alumni represented the Andhra Pradesh state cricket team in the National T20 championship, and emerged as champions competing against 23 states in India. Being champions back-to-back years is a huge accomplishment and now they won the championship again for the third time. We congratulate the team and are happy for the opportunity to support them. We thank all the supporters who are enabling the all-round success of the visually challenged students through Nethra Vidyalaya institutions. Learn how you can help us support more students chase their dreams be self-reliant. VT Seva's impact in empowering visually challenged.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead A group of 28 youth volunteers had one collective message to help the students of Nethra Vidyalaya. The VT Seva Detroit Youth Board members continued their tradition of creating awareness about VT Seva and its causes for the 2nd year in a row. Student-4-Student is an outreach project thought of by Harish, a youth board member, last year where our Youth Board members reached out to their friends, families, teachers, coaches, dance schools, and many more people who weren’t aware of VT Seva to explain one of VT Seva’s amazing causes: supporting Nethra Vidyalaya students and raising money through a GoFundMe campaign. 28 youths, 56 days, 168 new donors raised $10,050 which supports 27+ students. Every member who committed to this project made sure they reached their personal goal. However, they didn’t just stop there; they went above and beyond to help the Nethra Vidyalaya students and raised over $10,050, which supports the education of over 27 students for one year. They reached out to donors through social media, phone calls, door-to-door campaigning, and much more. The teachers of NethraVidyalaya and Jeeyar Gurukulam were the inspiration for our Outreach campaigners. Our volunteers were amazed by the love, dedication, and commitment that these teachers had for their students. Seeing those teachers going to their students’ homes and taking classes under trees and in sheds during the COVID-19 period to make sure these students are learning continuously without any hurdles showed their love for their students. The youths were committed to helping the teachers and the students in any way possible. Each day the statistics were sent out to all the participants with motivational quotes. The parents encouraged and motivated their children to reach out to people as much as they can. Kudos to all the parents who were helping their children be a voice for underprivileged students. This awareness project didn’t only help Nethra Vidyalaya students; it helped all these 28 youths with their communication skills. We had lots of new members who joined this project this year. Initially, they were shy about talking to people. However, after a couple of times, they were able to explain the cause to friends and relatives without diffidence. By participating in this project, all these 28 youths were training one of the basic qualities of a leader: “Speak up for others” Without any doubt, our future is in good hands with all these compassionate youths who have a desire to serve a purpose greater than themselves. There is a proverb in Tamil, ‘Oor koodi ther izhu’, that implies the strength of community (outreach team) participation in matters of societal importance (Nethravidyalaya students). This is what happened in our team. We had youth volunteers who are as young as 9 year old Adhip and Vihaan to high school seniors. Thank you so much to every one of the youth board members who participated and supported Nethra Vidyalaya students Hiba, Oviya, Saisha, Siddharth, Rishi, Shruthi, Sai Sri Ram, Amogh, Harish, Kaavya, Akshay, Niharka, Advaith, Vihaan, Adhip, SaiSahasra, Ananya B, Shrikha, Sathvik, Sanjana, Udhayaa, Ananya R, Rashmitha, Rohan P, Varshini, Nitya S, Pranav S and Abisrishti Please watch this video to learn about our campaigners' experience, feeling, and their gratitude towards the NethraVidyala students, parents, and donors. Blog Written By: Priya Jaisankar Blog Published By: Nandini Cheemalamarri

We are happy to share the news that our VT Seva volunteer, Sriteja Kataru, aged 14, has been appointed to the Student Advisory Board for the congresswoman, Rep. Anna Eshoo, of the 18th congressional district. Under this role, Sriteja will be responsible for making policy proposals addressing the issues affecting kids and teenagers. Sriteja remarked, “I sincerely thank Rep. Anna Eshoo for this opportunity. I excitedly look forward to working with her. My VTSeva volunteering activities first exposed me to the issues faced by the local community. They allowed me to participate in activities that are not only fun and fulfilling but also enhanced my appreciation for the community service by showing the level of impact these service activities can have on the bay area community.” “Sriteja has been a long-time VT Seva volunteer, and, currently he is acting as our health services manager too. We are happy to note that he has been selected for this leadership position. Having personally known him for a long time, I am confident that he will do his best to serve the kids of this congressional district”, said Archana Bellary, Director of VT Seva Bay Area Branch. “We wish Sriteja all the best in his new leadership role.” If you are cognizant of any issues related to kids’ health and mental wellness at your school or community, please feel free to reach out to Sriteja Kataru so that he can incorporate them into his future policy proposals to address them appropriately.

Martin Luther King Jr said that “Life’s most persistent question is ‘what are you doing for others?’”. VT Seva Dallas’s Halloween Initiative aimed to spread compassion and kindness in the community by helping provide for those in need. The Halloween Initiative was a youth driven event and served as a candy drive, where volunteers cumulatively collected as much candy as possible to later give to army troops, as well as help raise money for visually challenged children. This year was the first time VT Seva’s Dallas branch held an event like this, but were able to raise over 600$ for the visually challenged children, and over a 1000lbs of candy to US army troops with the help of “Soldier’s Angels”. Not only did this benefit them, but it also benefited children whose families participated in the event. Children love candy, and by donating what you love most, you learn both kindness and compassion. The event inspired many community members outside VT Seva to do something for the community, and play their small role in making the world a better place A big thank you to Lucky Teeth, Viva dental, and Kraus Orthodontics who participated in the candy buy back program this year. A few pictures from our Halloween Candy Donation Project Here's the video from Viva Dental appreciating VT Seva for their huge candy donation. In words of youth volunteers who participated in the Halloween Candy Donation - "As I put the candy in a basket to give to the kids, I was glad that I was doing it for a great cause. I felt good as I dropped each piece of candy one by one, knowing that I was helping kids not as lucky as me. Thank you VT Seva for this wonderful experience and opportunity!" - Rishika Cheela "When I donated this candy to help the underprivileged, I felt better than in the past when I just kept it all for myself. It was proof that helping others can be more satisfying than doing things for yourself. Thank you VTSeva for this opportunity to support education for the underprivileged." - Karthikeya Vattem "While collecting candy, it made me happy to know that we would be helping underprivileged kids. I'm very happy to know that the donation event was a success. Thank you VTSeva for this experience, and I can't wait for the next events!" - Adithi Vattem “I felt really good about the Halloween initiative as it was nice to know that my trick or treating had a bigger purpose behind it. I’m happy that I was able to help kids and have fun at the same time.” - Purushottam Koduri "As I dropped off the candy at the site I felt really good as I knew I was helping the lives of kids that had no way to go out and get it themselves. Whenever I donate food it is for a great cause and I would really like to thank VTSeva for this opportunity!" - Gopal Koduri "Knowing that these donations will be used to impact the lives of so many children was what inspired me to participate in this noble cause. I feel proud that I was able to make a difference in those childrens’ lives and make them feel more included in our community" - Shreyas Viswanathan "I felt happy that so many people donated candy from Halloween to our cause to buy equipment for the visually challenged kids. I also felt happy because I was making a healthier choice by getting rid of all the candy I don’t want or need." - Veeksha Chigurupati "I am so grateful and thankful that there is an organization like VTSEVA to provide me with this amazing opportunity to help those in need. I started by spreading the word about VTSEVA’s Halloween donation to my friends. They were so kind as to participate in the donation and donated most of their candy that they collected to our donation box. I went trick or treating with my friends and my mom and I collected as much candy as I could so I could donate it to VTSEVA. I ended up pouring my whole bag of candy in our donation box and I actually felt so happy doing it because I knew all my candy was going to a good cause. All in all, the Halloween initiative was a great initiative to start and hopefully we have more like this throughout the year. Thank you for providing me with this opportunity, I am so thankful for VTSEVA!" - Shriya Aviur "I felt amazed on how much candy we collected and surprised to know how much candy goes to waste every year. I am glad we made good use of it to help the underprivileged kids. Thank you VTSeva for this opportunity to help the society." - Sahasra Produtor "When I donated the candy, I was happy to know that the candy I got would make multiple underprivileged kids happier. Thank you VT Seva for the opportunity to help the underprivileged kids." - Suhavi Tiruveedhula

Hello dear friends, my name is Akshaya. and an 8th grader. Some of my hobbies are gardening, reading and drawing. From a young age I was also eager to help others. But I did not know how to do this in a way that would have a greater impact on people, till I joined VT Seva to help less privileged kids. As many of you know, VT Seva is an organization that raises funds and donates to Netra Vidyalaya School for the blind, the homeless, and the less fortunate kids. Many people want to help with this mission but don’t know how to and/or do not have the time to volunteer. I joined VT Seva to see if I could change that in me. Because I liked helping others, I enjoyed this opportunity to change someone’s life for the better. I chose to sponsor a child's education because it would give them a possibility to create a new path in their life. In the spring, our VT Seva group decided to grow vegetable plants and sell them to get donations from people. I really enjoyed doing that project because of my love for nature, and being surrounded by plants and animals. This inspired me to grow Tulasi plants and give them to donors who were willing to contribute to this cause. Since Tulasi Matha is a form of Lakshmi Devi, I wanted to bring prosperity into a child's life and to all who supported my goal to help educate a child. I want to continue volunteering with VT Seva because it is an organization that works for a meaningful cause. The experiences I have gained through this project taught me a handful of unique skills, such as making fliers, communicating with people, and tracking donation information. I would like to thank Swamiji, my parents, the aunties and uncles who donated, and the VT Seva board for helping me in this journey. I was also able to execute this project with the blessings of God. This opportunity means a lot to me, and I hope that I will get to do more work like this.

Hello! My name is Oviya, and I am a proud volunteer of the Seattle VT Seva team. I want to share something that I did recently that started as a small idea, but turned out to be a project that I’m very glad I took on. I learn an Indian art form called Madhubani, which originates from Mithila, India. One day, my art teacher shared info about a business fair, where kids could be entrepreneurs for a day, and sell their own products. Me, and another girl from my art school ended up being the only ones who wanted to participate, and decided on creating Madhubani styled bookmarks and earrings. Eventually, when we had all the other details planned out, the topic of what to do with the money we earned came up. That’s when VT Seva popped into my head. I told my partner about the organization, and my vision to donate the money to VT Seva, towards empowering an underprivileged kids education. Knowing that we would be donating the money to someone in need, pushed me to work hard on our products throughout the summer. By myself, I managed to get 17 bookmarks and 7 pairs of earrings done. Since each of our products were original art (each one was made by hand), it could take a few hours just to finish two or three bookmarks or pairs of earrings. But with the help of my partner for the fair, we had a total of 23 bookmarks and 23 pairs of earrings. The day of the fair came and went quicker than it seemed at the time, and after weeks of preparation, we did very well. We were told we were one of the most successful stalls at the Children’s Business Fair. I am very happy to say that I raised $440 for VT Seva. I realize now that I was able to raise enough money to sponsor a child in India, and it brings me a lot of satisfaction to know that I helped someone who was in need. VT Seva taught me so many of the skills, like how to talk to people about the product, or building self-confidence and most importantly how to give back to community. I hope to inspire people who think they don’t know what they’re doing, to realize that it only takes a tiny idea and small steps to reach a big goal.

After a very busy school year, summer break is time to relax. VT Seva Detroit Youth Board used their summer vacation not only for relaxing but helping others in te community and learnt about their history. The team implemented 5 projects this summer 1. Brilliant Detroit Reading Program 2. Manoogian Manor Senior Center Visits 3. Walkathon 4. Tribute to Bharath 5. Essential Workers Appreciation Project 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗶𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿am Brilliant Detroit is dedicated to building kid success families and neighborhoods where families with children 0-8 have what they need to be school ready, healthy and stable. During the COVID-19 pandemic BD created a program called "𝗩𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿" where the volunteers will record the story book and send the videos to BD and these videos will go on a playlist that can only be exclusively accessed by families who live and participate in the Brilliant Detroit kid success neighborhoods. There are 11 Brilliant Detroit community centers located throughout neighborhoods in Detroit full of families who benefit from programming aimed to increase the literacy rate of these children. This helps the children who are learning from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. VT Seva Detroit Youth Board partnered with Brilliant Detroit and created 87 videos. Youth Board Member Abhinav S coordinated with Brilliant Detroit to make it happen. This was a great summer project for all of the youths who participated to give back to community by supporting the kids education. 27 Youth Board members created 87 videos. YB Members Participated in this project are: 𝗔𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗮, 𝗔𝗯𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘃, 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗷𝗮𝗻𝗮, 𝗔𝗺𝗼𝗴𝗵, 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗻, 𝗘𝗲𝘀𝗵𝗮, 𝗡𝗶𝗸𝗵𝗶𝗹, 𝗡𝗶𝗿𝘃𝗮𝗻, 𝗥𝗼𝗵𝗮𝗻, 𝗦𝗿𝗮𝘃𝘆𝗮, 𝗧𝗮𝗿𝘂𝗻, 𝗨𝗱𝗵𝗮𝘆𝗮𝗮, 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗱, 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗵𝗮, 𝗡𝗲𝗵𝗮, 𝗦𝗿𝗶𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶 𝗛, 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶, 𝗦𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗧, 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵, 𝗛𝗶𝗯𝗮, 𝗞𝗮𝗮𝘃𝘆𝗮, 𝗢𝘃𝗶𝘆𝗮, 𝗥𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗮, 𝗦𝗮𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗿𝗮, 𝗦𝗮𝗶 𝗦𝗿𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗺, 𝗦𝗵𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗶 Please visit tinyurl.com/brilliantstorytime to see the published videos. Awesome job all the youth board members who participated in this project Brilliant Detroit video project created by: Abhinav S Please watch the video about this project Manoogian Manor Senior Center Visit In May, VTS Detroit YB members wrote Mother's Day and Father's Day cards for three different senior centers, including Manoogian Manor. Manoogian Manor Senior Center was impressed with the cards and reached out to Harish who initiated the Greeting Card projects and invited the Youth Board members to attend the bonfires with seniors on the summer. Volunteers spent their time there setting up seats on the patio, handing out pop and popsicles to the residents, socializing with the residents, pushing the wheelchairs, and cleaning up the area. The seniors in Manoogian Manor thanked the Youth Board members for their time and asked for them to come back in the future. They enjoyed talking with both the youth and adult volunteers, many of them shared their life stories and their experiences at the Manoogian Manor. The volunteers all said they had a good time and it was fun to do something they've never done before. What makes people feel happy and content is different for each person and often changes over time. But, our Manoogian Manor residents is always thrilled to see us back at their premises. YB members visited them 3 times during summer, each time both the seniors and the youth board members enjoyed their conversations. Youth volunteers who visited the seniors are : Aditi(3), Advaith(1), Eesha(3), Harish(1), Kaavya(1), Niharika (1), Nikita (1), Oviya (3), Tarun (1) and Veeksha(3) Adult volunteers who visited the seniors are: Vani (3), Srinath (1), Priya(3), Vanitha (1) Manoogian Manor Senior Center Visits video created by: Veeksha Please watch the video about their senior center visits. Walkathon The VT Seva Detroit Youth Board initiated their first-ever charity walkathon in 2021. Not only was it a first for our group, but it was also a hybrid walkathon, taking place both virtually and in person. 29 team members 162 participants, 43 days walked more than 20 Million steps (1000+ miles) All the proceeds from this event were donated to Angels of Hope and VT Seva Bharath. It was a very successful Walkathon, raised $3214 and splitted equally with both organizations. For more details and pictures please visit https://www.vtsworld.org/post/vt-seva-detroit-youth-board-initiated-first-walkathon Tribute to Bharath On August 15, 2021, India celebrated its 75th Independence Day. British traders had established outposts in the Indian subcontinent by the 17th century. Through overwhelming military strength, the East India Company fought and annexed local kingdoms and established themselves as the dominant force in India by the 18th century. Oviya, a member of the Detroit youth board, proposed this project as a way to pay homage to those responsible for India’s independence. This was liked by many branches and became a national project. Atlanta, Austin, the Bay Area, and Cary youth team joined the Detroit team in appreciating these freedom fighters on the anniversary of India’s independence. 31 Youth Board members learned about 31 leaders and created 31 informational poster and posted it for whole month of August Youth Board members who participated in this project are: Oviya Jaisankar, Harish Jaisankar, Rashmita Raghunathan, Rachana Raghunathan, Anand Brijesh, Sravya Saranu, Hiba Zyna, Sai Sri Ram Karnati, Veeksha Somula, Abhinav Suresh, Eesha Chigullapally, Kaustubh Dingari, Udhayaa Arul, Ishani Shetty, Pavan Nagaraj, Srihari Hebbar, Rohan Patil, Amogh Pisipati, Aditi Jethri Kompally, Hrudya Kishore, Nikita Talwar, Sanjay Sundarapandiyan, Nirvan Daram, Kalki Renga Anand, Adhvaith Suresh, Eashan Daram, Pranav Maringanti, Adhip Pisipati, Shruthi Adduri, Siddharth Tirumala Kanduri and Niharika prabhu Tribute to Bharath project video created by: Oviya Please watch the video about Tribute to Bharath project at For more details about this project please visithttps://www.vtsworld.org/post/tribute-to-bharath Essential Workers Appreciation Project: VT Seva Detroit Youth Board members celebrated this labor day by expressing their appreciation to the essential workers who makes our life goes smoothly every day even during the pandemic. Either rain or shine, pandemic or non pandemic, we all got our mails, we all got our trash picked up, we all got our groceries, all of our kids went to school by bus. Can't even imaginge not having any of those services accessible to us. They came to our door steps to provide services to us. Our YB members gave thank you notes to 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸𝘂𝗽𝗖𝗿𝗲𝘄, 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗸𝘀, 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀, 𝗣𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀, 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀, 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘄 and many more 𝟯𝟰 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 surprised the essential workers by giving thank you notes, choclates, gifts and gift cards to all the essential workers. They did made a change in their life, workers were so grateful to be appreciated. Some workers even had a tears of joy. This project taught our YB members the value of Gratitude and how much it impacts the giver and receiver positively. All the members who participated in this project was really happy for the opportunity and start noticing whats around them Youth Volunteers: Oviya, Harish, Sravya, Eesha, Rachana, Kaavya, Sai, Hiba, Rashmitha, Advaith, Chakrika, Abhinav, Saisha, Udhayaa, Srihari A, Anurag, Sai Sahasra, Shruthi, Rishi, Nitya, Aditya, Ananya, Kausthubh Amogh, Pranav M, Dhruthi, Teja, Arya, Siddharth, Ishani, Akshay, Varshini, Aneeshwa, and Vibha Essential Workers Appreciation Project video created by: Siddharth Please watch the video about this project Newsletter Consolidated by: Harish Jaisankar Published by : Nandini Cheemalamarri (Detroit Communications)

On the occasion of Children’s Day November 14th in India , LV Prasad Eye Hospital conducted a Braille reading and Braille Writing Competition for Visually Challenged students. VT Seva Supported Nethravidyalaya (School for Visually Challenged) children bagged the following prizes: Winners : Braille Writing – 1. Bangari Naidu -10th Grade 2. Kamala -9th Grade 3. Anil – 9th Grade Braille Reading – 1. Eswara Rao – 10th Grade 2. Bangari Naidu – 10th Grade 3. Kamala – 9th Grade Congratulations to all these students and Thanks VT Seva Volunteers and Donors for continuous support for enabling us such accomplishments. Learn more - https://www.vtsworld.org/school-for-blind Want to join in supporting the Schools for Visually Challenged?

In this first of its kind event, friends and supporters of VT Seva organized a Food Stall at Liberty Park Subdivision on September 11th 2021 from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM in order to raise money for the visually challenged and tribal area school children. There was overwhelming support from enthusiastic volunteers who came forward to support in the areas of Planning, Set-up of Stalls, Cooking Equipment, Cooking, Serving & Distribution, Cash Register, Crowd Management, Safety & Security, Photography, Parking, Wrap up and cleanup. This event was very well received by the Liberty Park community and everyone pitched in with their contributions either through volunteering or through their contributions to buy food from the stalls. The response to the event really surprised everyone since it was a festive atmosphere throughout the subdivision. An estimated 300 people attended the outdoor event. This was a great opportunity to come outdoors, have a safe & delicious food made on the spot and contribute towards a great cause. We were able to raise enough money to support 10 children in total to benefit Nethra Vidhyalaya & Tribal School children with the support of great friends, family & LP community. Krishna ji, HOA lead and our hosts - Divya ji & Venkat ji, Liberty Park Residents, were extremely gracious to provide their Driveway to set up the Donation Stations, Tents and Food Stations. Their neighbors were also so kind to lend their driveways as well for any spillover stations, storage, etc. The entire Liberty Park community extended their helping hand so amazingly and embraced the event to make it their own. In the run-up to the event, Liberty Park Subdivision HOA and VT Seva Team met several times to discuss the logistics, supplies, location, volunteers, Safety precautions and menu items for the Food Stall. These pre-planning meetings were very important to ensure all the above aspects and much more are taken care within the community and the event location. There was a variety of food options – Plain Dosa, Podi Dosa, Onion Dosa, Pesaratu & Upma Dosa, Ghee Dosa, Cheese Dosa, Pongal, Kesari, Coffee, Masala Chai & Samosa. The Dosas were served with hot Sambar and Chutney as well. All the food items were sold out by 4:30 PM. At the conclusion of the event, every individual specially encouraged us to have this kind of an event every year and that they were eagerly waiting for the next one to happen soon! VT SEVA DETROIT IMMENSELY THANKS EACH & EVERY INDIVIDUAL WHO MADE THIS EVENT A GRAND SUCCESS & CONTRIBUTED TOWARDS THE CAUSE! Photos from the event: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1AxcPgx6xCY9aT4S9 𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐬𝐧𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭

Do you know that by sharing the candies, you can support the education of an underprivileged child? Whatever the extra candies that you have, you can donate them in the drop off locations mentioned in the flyer. We have generous supporters who will take those candies and give monetary contributions to our volunteers. Your donated candies will transform into money to provide education for the underprivileged. Drop off locations: 1. 1535 Hennessey Dr. Allen, TX 75013 2. 13566 Day Star Way, Frisco, TX 75035 3. 13389 Marmolada Drive. Frisco TX 75035 4. 14761 Harmony Lane, Frisco, TX 75035 If you have any questions, please contact any of the following people: 1. Uttam Indukuri - 469-601-4888 2. Meghan Aduri - 469-465-5425 3. Amita Aviur - 636-399-8806

This Thanksgiving, let's take the opportunity to thank the essential workers by gifting them gifts made by special needs children. Special needs kids with the help of their teachers make these fine, handmade products (soaps, scrubs, room sprays, hand sprays, soy candles, luxury bath tea) with the highest quality ingredients.

“The Youths of Today are the leaders of tomorrow” - Nelson Mandela Good Communication is one of the core leadership skills. One should be able to express their ideas and be able to speak up for others to be a leader. In this modern world, people want everything fast. In a short period of time we should be able to explain and convince our ideas to the world. This competition is designed for that, youths prepare a speech for 2 minutes on one of the topics listed below and present it to get feedback from experienced people such as teachers, Toastmasters, and senior management personnel. By participating in this competition these youths supported VT Seva’s mission and vision. Youth empowerment, this competition gave them an opportunity to express their views on the topics and by participating in it all the contributions went towards the Nethra Vidyalaya student’s education. On a fine Sunday afternoon Oct 3rd, 2021, 31 youths attended the public speaking competition and made it a successful first competition in Troy. There were 3 groups of students who participated in the competition: Group 1 : Grade 3-5 Group 2 : Grade 6-8 Group 3: Grade 9-12 They get to pick from any one of the following 3 topics: Education is the best weapon against overcoming disability Impacts of remote learning Social effects of cyberbullying and how it can be curbed We had 4 wonderful judges who analyzed the speeches given by these youths and gave their feedback. Without them it's not possible to have a competition. Our judges were, Raju Brahmandhabheri: He is passionate about public speaking and communication skills and has been a part of Toastmaster International (the platform to improve Public speaking and leadership skills) for the last 8 years and achieved the DTM (Distinguished ToastMasters)- the highest educational award in the Toastmasters program. He is a mentor for the high school students to coach/advise/prepare them for the annual Leadership Speech Contest hosted by National Management Association(NMA). He has served as a judge on various speech contests at Toastmasters and community organization’s educational competitions( public speaking, spelling bee etc) He is currently teaching public speaking skills for the kids at Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple, Livonia. By profession, he is an Electrical Engineer currently working as an Regional Engineering Manager at ITC Holdings Corp., Novi, Michigan. He also teaches Electrical Engineering classes at Lawrence Tech University, Southfield on a part time basis as an Adjunct faculty. Sriranga Seetharmachar: He is currently working at Auto Club Group (known as AAA) as Director of Data Business Intelligence and enjoys mentoring histeam to be effective communicators most, as a part of his responsibilities. He is an industrial engineer by education, and has spent the last 30 years in consulting, process improvement and fact based management for corporations. He is passionate about persuasive, compelling presentations to corporate audiences to influence fact based decisions and actions for business improvement and effectiveness. Thomas Zwolinski: He has been a member of Toastmasters International for 6 years and is currently an Area Director for Eastern Macomb County spanning 5 clubs. Prior to his role as Area Director, he served as two-term President for my current club, Macomb Motivators, and previously served as President for a corporate club at Comerica Bank. He retired in 2018 after working for over 35 years in Information Technology. He held several positions in IT from Software Development to Data Architecture and Governance. He mentors both new and existing members of Toastmasters about speaking and leadership opportunities. He has judged Toastmasters International Speech competitions in the past Joseph Verhelle: Graduated from Oakland University with a major in English w/ Secondary Education and a minor in History. He is currently working as a teacher at Troy High School. He teaches 9th and 10th grade English, along with Creative Writing. Public speaking and communication skills are key components of our state-wide curriculum and he enjoys establishing those very important skills in our youth. Architha & Priya welcomed the judges and went over the rules of the competition. VTSeva Detroit Director Srinath & VTSeva National Secretary Sudheer explained about VT Seva, Nethra Vidyalaya Schools & Tribal Schools. Greg, Chandrasekhar and Sudheer gave trophies to the winners. Thanks to Chandrasekar and Greg for sponsoring the competition and giving a hall. Thanks to Nandini (Detroit Communications) for her continuous support in publishing content provided by event leads in all our Social media channels from the start to the completion of the event. Wonderful volunteers who helped from start to end were Setup (Youth): Anvika, Sneha, Sreenika, Setup (Adult): Chandru, Jyothi, Vanitha, and Vijay Emcee: Harish Time Keepers: Venkat, Jaisankar, Sreenika Photography: Keerthi Public Speaking Committee: Priya , Archita, Chandrasekhar & Vijay Blog written by: Priya Jaisankar Blog posted by: Nandini Cheemalamarri

Throughout the past few years, VT Seva has been gaining more traction both on the impact it creates nationwide and regarding the number of volunteers that are involved in this organization. Especially during the pandemic, as meetings were held online, it was more accessible for teenagers and adults to take part in. With schools back to in-person-learning this year, youth VT Seva volunteers have developed a new goal in mind: to not only increase nationwide membership, but to foster diversity within the organization. Fostering diversity is important because when there are volunteers from different backgrounds and experiences, they can contribute their unique ideas towards making VT Seva even more successful in the incredible impact it makes. In order to achieve this goal, VT Seva youth have started/founded “VT Seva Clubs” at their respective high schools and have motivated their classmates to contribute towards VT Seva’s cause through their school branch. So far there have been 4 high school VT Seva clubs around the nation: VT Seva Club at Alpharetta High School in Atlanta, Georgia - founded in March 2017 Srikar, a high school sophomore, started a VTS club called “VTS Coding Coach” at Alpharetta High School through the VT Seva Atlanta State branch. His club aims to empower youth to be able to adapt to changing technology, Srikar along with this team (Dhereraj Eidnani, Manoj Niverthi, Anand Krishnan, and David Zhang) teach Java programming to students at their school for 45 minutes once a week at their high school campus and host library sessions every other week. Srikar and his team continue to inspire their fellow classmates and community to serve through the art of teaching. (Pictures published at the courtesy of Ocee Library from North Fulton County) VT Seva Club at Liberty Highschool in Renton, Washington - founded in October 2018 Chinmay Koimuttum and Aakarsh Dhilip founded a VTS branch at their highschool in order to increase volunteer engagement in their community. They informed members about service events the VTS Seattle branch was taking part in and motivated their peers to serve for the benefit of their community. VT Seva Club at Skyline High School in Sammamish, Washington - founded in September 2021 Srihari Krishnaswamy and I (Aditi Srinivasan) from the VT Seva Seattle branch co-founded a VTS club at our high school with the goal fostering more cultural diversity within the organization. We meet every other Wednesday after school for one hour and put together lesson plans to teach members from all ethnicities and backgrounds to identify their passion, brainstorm a non-profit initiative, scale it up through effective marketing, and donate proceeds collected from those projects to VT Seva Seattle’s cause of helping educate underprivileged children. Srihari and I lead meeting plans while our friends Neha Aithiraju, Rishi Sharma, and Pavan Kotti help make the club more visible to the school community through marketing and outreach. We hope to spread a message to our classmates that service should be something that one does willingly, focusing on the impact created rather than the reward. VT Seva Club at Lambert High School in Atlanta, GA - August 2021 VT Seva Youth Volunteers founded a chapter at Lambert High this fall and have helped increase VTS engagement through their school community. We hope to see many more high school VTS clubs like these in the years to come. Speaking from personal experience, it has been amazing to have the guidance of such caring adults here at Seattle VT Seva, and I wouldn’t have been able to become the leader I am today and make the impact I have been able to make without their tips and advice. I feel a duty to help empower more teenagers' from various ethnic backgrounds at my high school and pass on the knowledge I obtained from the VTS adult volunteers to new rising youth volunteers. I hope to see VT Seva's footprint expand even further and become more culturally diverse during the process. Let’s magnify our impact with one more club at a time! - Aditi Srinivasan VTSeva Seattle Youth Board

Hurricane Ida was a deadly and destructive Category 4 Atlantic hurricane that became the second-most damaging and intense hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana on record, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005. VT SEVA Houston conducted a donation drive in the local community and donated all the collections to BOYS SCOUT Hurricane Relief Program on SEP 6th 2021. Dropping the Donation at the Boys scout center, Houston, TX. Donation Drive at the local community - door to door collection sorting Organizing the collection from the donation drive The list of the items collected Tarps (any size) Bottled Water Batteries (all types) Flashlights Garbage Bags Cleaning Supplies Gloves & Face Masks Toiletries Diapers & Baby Wipes Baby Formula Canned Food Pet Food Mandy Megat, from Boys scout thanked VT SEVA for all the Donations towards Hurricane Ida Relief Efforts. she also acknowledge the hard work of VT SEVA volunteers for coming forward for community service and appreciated VT SEVA for providing such a global platform.

3rd Annual Earth Day Science Fair 2021 VT SEVA successfully conducted the 3rd annual Earth Day Science Fair virtually! Wow! What was an unforgettable day was May 22nd, 2021, we got to witness the new talent and new ideas from the youth, on various topics like, Natural resources, Solar energy, BioPlastics, Wind Energy, and more to save our only planet, mother earth. Over 60 youngsters participated in various talent exhibitions comprising poster, costume, trifold, PowerPoint, and impromptu speaking contests. We had excellent support from our judges who put in their time and effort for scoring the contestants at a short notice. Here is a snippet of our participants during the online showcase. Participants from various grades and schools joined the event. SAVE WATER Mira Miryala 5th Grader Save Energy Kishan Gottamukala 4th Grader Gardening Kovida Kotha 3rd Grader OUR JUDGES Dr. Milind Kulkarni is an engineer at the Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation and has more than 30 years of experience in the field. Mrs. Shilpa Byrichetty currently works for Nasa and is working on a future spacesuit support system project. Mrs. Radha Chilkur is currently a part-time teacher in Katy Independent School District and has MS in computer science. Mr. Vijay Nitturi was the salutatorian of his high school graduating class and will be attending Baylor College of Medicine next year. · Mr. Pranav Konduri. He is a rising sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in political science and economics. The winners of each grade level were announced at the conclusion of the event and we had 22 winners for the science fair with an additional 4 winners in the impromptu speaking contest. Scholarship awards were also announced at the end of the event. We had a total of 6 scholarship winners with 5 of them for the science fair and one award in the impromptu speaking contest. Gyan Das won the scholarship award for the PreK- 2nd-grade Category. Siddarth Vikram won the scholarship award for the PreK-2nd grade Category. Srinath Madasu won the scholarship award for the 3rd – 5th-grade Category Srilata Madasu won the scholarship award for the 6th – 8th-grade Category. Mehaa Raja won the scholarship award for the high schoolers. Veeraj Sirivolu won the scholarship award for the impromptu Speech Contest GUEST SPEAKER Our volunteer team did an excellent job planning and making the event as fun as possible during this difficult pandemic. We take this opportunity to thank members of our team are: Shreyas Bharath, Abhiram Kandala, Aditya Manthena, Akshaya Manthena Shwetha Sirivolu, Aparna Tamarisa, Manjula Chokkarapu RECAP Awards distribution was done on Aug 21st 2021, please find some pictures below we are excited to come back next year - stay tunned for Earth day science fair 2022 - Shreyas Bharath

1 a day ($365/year per student) paves the way for a bright future! This year we have a goal of supporting 305 students for the next year! With your generous contributions, we are making our way towards our goal. Thank you for your support! Netra Vidyalaya schools and colleges for the Visually Challenged focus on providing value-based quality education, technology-assisted learning, and a self-reliant lifestyle to those leaders of tomorrow. VT Seva-supported tribal schools’ mission is to see all children of impoverished communities have access and opportunities to quality education and healthcare and enable them to live with dignity and pride. Updates in 2021 Netra Vidyala schools are in session – click here to see our Netra Vidyalaya school in action! Tribal schools are in session – Read more here about the effort of Tribal School administrators to keep class in session during trying pandemic times! https://www.vtsworld.org/post/transforming-communities-with-passion-and-commitment Netra Vidyalaya celebrated World Braille Day, celebrated annually in appreciation of the role Braille has had in transforming the lives of the visually challenged. Sport accolades o Two Netra Vidyalaya alumni (one pursuing an MBA and the other a computer professional) and a 10th class Netra Vidyalaya student were selected to the Andhra Pradesh Cricket team in the National T20 Cricket Tournament for the Blind. Nethra Vidyalaya led the way to the formation of the Andhra Pradesh T-20 Team. Ultimately, the Andhra Pradesh team became the 2021 National Champions! Read more o Twenty-eight Nethra Vidyalaya students competed in the Andhra Pradesh State Level Para Athletics and Powerlifting competition. They went on to secure 25 Gold, 13 Silver, and 10 Bronze medals in the Para Athletics and Para Powerlifting categories and the Overall State Championship. We are looking forward to them repeating history as national and international champions in para-sports, having won in 2019 at the Asian Para Games conducted in Colombo, Srilanka. Read more Nethra Vidyalaya students won 15 Gold Medals, 6 Silver Medals, and 1 Bronze medal in the Telangana Paralympics. Read more District Collector, MLA, and other Public Officials Visited the School for Tribal Children in Allampally: They were highly impressed by the accomplishments of our Schools with 11 graduating batches and 12,000 families benefitted. A majority of alumni have been placed with prestigious organizations for employment.

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“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” – Pele Congratulations to the Nethra Vidyalaya students who competed in the National Level Para Champaionship-2021. Every day our students work extremely hard to continuously break the boundaries that were placed on them at birth. We are very proud of their dedication and hard work and will continue to support them in their efforts to achieve their dreams. Nethra Vidyalaya will continue to empower students across all disciplines. Athletics is not only an investment physically, but it also builds a strong mind and heart. WINNERS Thanks to all the teachers and volunteers who support our athletes. Your support gives our kids the tools, confidence, and resources to succeed. How you can help: To produce the next generation of inspiring athletes, we need your help. Our athletes need funding for equipment, coaches, and athletic facilities. Your support will go a long way in making their dreams come true.

For many of us, toilets are ordinary, everyday items that we take for granted. Can you imagine yourself without a restroom? No, right? Wanted to share this inspiring project VT Seva has taken up to solve sanitation problem for an entire village, Yes, we built a total of 52 toilets. How is poverty fought? Well, there are many different approaches that are currently being tried and some may seem more self-explanatory than others. For example, there are micro-lending, education aid, anti-corruption efforts, and attempts to create jobs and industry. But what about sanitation? Specifically, what about the toilets? Toilets, and the access to toilets and established sanitation standards, are actually a very, very important issue in much of the developing world. Toilet use is essential to the survival and development of all children in India and around the world, as exposure to human waste causes diseases such as diarrhea. More than reducing levels of infection and disease, however, the sanitary importance of toilets offers an increased sense of dignity. The availability of toilets is even shown to increase the school attendance of teenage girls, who may not go to school during their menstrual cycle. Although VT Seva has previously taken many projects in the areas of education, health, environmental sustainability, disaster recovery.etc, but when this opportunity showed up, it was a no brainer to take it up. Kulathupudur (Pollachi Taluk) is a small village near Coimbatore where the downtrodden have absolutely no toilets, they would have to use open fields to relieve themselves and for that they would have to either get up early in the morning or late in the nights for this purpose. This created another issue of dealing with snakes and insects in the fields during those odd times in dark and not to mention about all the infections and diseases that spread due to this. Hearing about this opportunity, we had do a lot of background work to evaluate what it takes to plan and execute this project. VT Seva Coimbatore branch lead Ms.Shyamala evaluated the conditions on ground, consulted with the authorities and also corresponding engineer to come up with plans and estimates for solving this sanitation issue. This project was then proposed to VT Seva donors and as always they stepped up to support this initiative. VT Seva's generous donors and specially Mr.Sreenivasan Kanagasubramaniam from Seattle have stepped up to fund this project of building of 52 toilets with complete water facility. The village is now fully endowed with toilets and the villagers expressed their gratitude to everyone who supported this project. What next? Having seen the success of what we can do to solve basic humanitarian issues like sanitation and water, few more projects are being considered in the similar lines. We urge you to stay connected and continue being part of these initiatives that addresses basic needs and increases human dignity.

𝗘𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 "𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆. – 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗖𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝘀" VT Seva Detroit Youth Board members celebrated this labor day by expressing their appreciation to the essential workers who makes our life goes smoothly every day even during the pandemic. Either rain or shine, pandemic or non pandemic, we all got our mails, we all got our trash picked up, we all got our groceries, all of our kids went to school by bus. Can't even imaginge not having any of those services accessible to us. They came to our door steps to provide services to us. Our YB members gave thank you notes to 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸𝘂𝗽𝗖𝗿𝗲𝘄, 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗸𝘀, 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀, 𝗣𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀, 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀, 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘄 and many more 𝟯𝟰 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 surprised the essential workers by giving thank you notes, choclates, gifts and gift cards to all the essential workers. They did made a change in their life, workers were so grateful to be appreciated. Some workers even had a tears of joy. This project taught our YB members the value of Gratitude and how much it impacts the giver and receiver positively. All the members who participated in this project was really happy for the opportunity and start noticing whats around them 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗩𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀: Oviya, Harish, Sravya, Eesha, Rachana, Kaavya, Sai, Hiba, Rashmitha, Advaith, Chakrika, Abhinav, Saisha, Udhayaa, Srihari A, Anurag, Sai Sahasra, Shruthi, Rishi, Nitya, Aditya, Ananya, Kausthubh Amogh, Pranav M, Dhruthi, Teja, Arya, Siddharth, Ishani, Akshay, Varshini, Aneeshwa, and Vibha Thank you so much for all the members who participated in this project!!!! Please visit our Facebook Page to like, Share to support VTSeva Detroit efforts. https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/5046002875426701 Blog Written by Priya Jaishankar Published by Nandini Cheemalamarri (Detroit Communications)

VT Seva Dallas conducts an annual walk to raise funds to run cancer awareness and early detection camps. We would like all of you to register and participate in this virtual walk this year to support the nobel cause.

VTS DETROIT 2021 FOOD DRIVE FOR GLEANERS FOOD BANK AND CAPUCHIN SOUP KITCHEN WITH THE HELP OF KROGER NOVI STORES SOLICITATION FINISHED OFF VERY SUCCESSFULLY VT Seva Detroit has always been proud to partner with Gleaners and Capuchin Soup Kitchen in any community service initiatives. Gleaner Food Bank is committed to end Hunger in Southeast Michigan along with their partner agencies as a part of Feeding America program. “Child” & “Hunger” are the two words that should never go together. To solve this complex problem Gleaners always collaborates with other agencies to find solutions for a hunger-free community. Capuchin Soup Kitchen’s mission is to tend to people's basic needs, especially the need for food and strives to stimulate minds and nourish spirits, and works to understand & address root causes of social injustice in our community. VT Seva Detroit has partnered with these two amazing organizations in many past Food Drives and Community Initiatives and have contributed immensely towards positively impacting the local community. As a part of this Food Drive, we collected 12 Boxes of Food donations and over $682.00 in CASH for the Food Banks from generous customers who shopped today (08/22/2021) at Kroger Novi store from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Amazing help from all our wonderful volunteers who were there on all shifts and tirelessly worked for this great success. Our youth volunteers and adult volunteers had all guns blazing throughout their shift slots reaching out to all the customers, distributing flyers, speaking about VT Seva Detroit and explaining the reason behind the food drive. They were spot on with their impeccable customer friendly skills and approach. We did see few people who were un-responsive towards their efforts but our Volunteers never gave up, continued to do their duties with the same energy and smile. We sincerely thank each one of these wonderful Youth and Adult volunteers who participated in the Food Drive. Youth volunteers: Sai Karnati, Sai Sahasra, Aditi, Hiba, Kaustubh, Pranav M, Dhruthi, Rashmitha ,Anand, Siddharth Adult volunteers: Srinath ji, Srivardhan ji, Nivedhita ji , Zahara ji, Vamshi ji, Raghunath ji, Suresh ji, Brijesh ji , Asha ji, Vanitha Amazing 👏👌 help by Brijesh ji, Suresh, Zahara ji, Raghunath ji , Asha ji in making boxes, sorting, packing, loading , unloading boxes Amazing help by Srinath ji , Srivardhan ji , Nivedhita ji, Vamshi ji in making boxes, sorting, packing during the morning hours till noon🙏 Special shout out to Asha ji for going home in-between of her volunteering shift at 4:00 pm to make some refreshing Masala Chai for Adult volunteers and treating our Youth volunteers with Lemonade, & Cup Cakes. After the collection, the Gleaners Food Bank associate drove all the way to our coordinator’s residence and picked up the food donation boxes & he was so appreciative and whole heartedly thanked for our efforts. We also delivered the remaining food donations boxes to Capuchin Kitchen Services, Detroit. Pastor Dijan was very kind to appreciate our efforts. We take this opportunity to also sincerely thank Kroger Corporate Executive, Stacy for approving VT Seva Detroit solicitation application and granting Novi Store to do food drive for Metro Detroit foodbanks to alleviate hunger in many families across Michigan. We plan on continuing to do the food drive every year with the help of Kroger. We received the below appreciation emails from Gleaners Food Bank! Thanks so much to you and all of VT Seva Detroit! You all make such a difference in our community. We very much appreciate the wonderful support we receive from VT Seva Detroit – you all have been such longtime and wonderful supporters! Thank you for organizing a food drive to benefit Gleaners Denise M. Leduc Director of Volunteer Services & Partner Support Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan Blog created by: Vanitha Gopalan Blog published by: Nandini Cheemalamarri (Detroit Communications) Thank you Detroit Communications for your support in Social Media updates. Thank you letter from Gleaners Food Bank. Please visit our Facebook Page for more info. https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/4960791387281184 Please Like, share to promote VTSeva Detroit efforts.

VT Seva Detroit presents its 4th annual Public Speaking Contest. In this modern world, people want everything fast. In a short period of time we should be able to explain and convince our ideas to the world. This competition is designed for that, all you need to do is prepare a speech for 2 minutes on any one of the topics listed below and present it to get feedback from experienced people such as teachers, Toastmasters, and senior management personnel. This competition is not only going to help you realize your potential, all the proceeds raised from this competition will support the Nethravidyala students' education. Last date for Registration : October 1, 2021 Competition Date : October 3rd, 2021 Three Groups: Group 1 : Grade 3-5 (As they are small kids, they can read from their notes if they want to) Group 2 : Grade 6-8 Group 3: Grade 9-12 Choose any one topic during registration: Education is the best weapon against overcoming disability Impacts of remote learning Social effects of cyberbullying and how it can be curbed Please read the Rules and Register. Please read the Rules and Register.

𝐕𝐓 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐚 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐢𝐭 𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭s 𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩, 𝐌𝐈 June 19, July 28th 2021 About Crossroads Community Garden: Crossroads Community Garden is owned by the Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Walled Lake. Crossroads Community Garden provides all their organically grown vegetables for the Hospitality House Food bank and others in need. They have a huge community garden whereby they let anyone willing to grow their own garden in or more garden plots. They will provide the land and water. Also, there is another way that one can join the fun to work in the community sections of their garden. One can volunteer to plant a whole assortment of fruits and vegetables from cabbage to zucchini. They will lay out a to be done list for each day so we just go and help them out in their gardening efforts towards supporting the Hospitality House Food Bank and other food banks. VT Seva Detroit Volunteers collaborated with them and got this wonderful opportunity to help their community garden & help for their good cause for the Hospitality House Food Bank. VT Seva Detroit 1st Event at Crossroads Community Garden on 06/19/2021 from 10 am to 12 pm. We helped Bobby and her associate in planting Butternut Squash, Buttercup/Winter Squash, clear out weeds, and till the ground using Rototiller. It was perfect weather to work outdoors in the garden until it started drizzling by the time we finished off all the assigned tasks. It was quite an enriching experience for all the youth & adult volunteers to learn how to till, make mounds to sow seeds using all the different garden tools. All in all, we had a great time outdoors helping the community. The produce from the garden will go to Hospitality House Food Bank in Walled Lake, Michigan where they will be distributed to those in need while maintaining the utmost respect for the dignity of the individuals. These are our volunteers who came and helped today. Youth Eashan Daram Nirvan Daram Rohan Patil Rashmita Raghunathan Shrikha Atchutuni Yug Patel Adult Savita Patil Manisha Daram Suresh Rajan Vanitha Gopalan All in All it was a great day serving outdoors doing gardening for Crossroads Community Garden, Walled Lake, MI. VT Seva Detroit 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝟮𝟴𝘁𝗵, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭 What a great evening spent volunteering outdoors from 6pm to 8 pm sweating, toiling and getting hands dirty by 12 of our wonderful youth and adult VT Seva Detroit Volunteers at the Crossroads Community Garden, owned by the Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Walled Lake, MI. Our Group helped planting Bush Beans, Early Cabbage, Weeded out a lot of weeds, trimmed and pruned down all eggplants plants ; sprayed organic fertilizers to all plants; Rototilled the soil & mowed the lawn and finally helped them at the end in organizing their garden tools and cleanup activities. It was quite an enriching experience to all our youth & adult volunteers and everyone enjoyed working as a group outdoors. Bobbie and her associates were full of praise about our awesome YOUTH and amazing adult volunteers for their efforts. These are our wonderful volunteers who came and helped today. Youth volunteers Anand, Hrudya, Hiba, Srihari H, Rohan, Abhinav, Yug. Adult volunteers Savita ji, Asha ji, Bhanu ji, Kishore ji, Vanitha Zahara ji & Phani ji were gracious enough to stop by for few minutes and encourage all our youth volunteers during the event. These are some of the feedbacks which we got from Bobbie at Crossroads Community Garden. “Please tell your volunteers that the beans they planted have sprouted and still protected with the wire fence. The eggplants are doing well thanks to your volunteers. And the weeds are down - also thanks to your volunteers. The green peppers, basil, potatoes, onions, and eggplants are all safe from the deer (so far). We will harvest these during August. We brought green peppers and basil to the Hospitality House - totaling almost 20 pounds.” We really appreciate all our wonderful VT Seva Detroit Volunteers who all participated for their time and help at the community garden. The vegetables grown were all distributed to the Hospitality Habitat Foodbank at Walled lake. We are also looking forward for any Fall cleanup activities with them later this year and continue our services next year as well. Thank you very much Crossroads Community Garden for giving us this opportunity. Blog created by: Vanitha Gopalan Blog published by: Nandini Cheemalamarri (Detroit Communications) Thank you our Detroit Communication Team for your support in publishing our blogs in FB and Websites. Please visit VT Seva Detroit Facebook page for more events, like and share to promote VT Seva activities. https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/4766764396683885 https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/4897578726935784

History doesn’t change the past, but likely it changes the future - Anonymous On August 15, 2021, India celebrated its 75th Independence Day. British traders had established outposts in the Indian subcontinent by the 17th century. Through overwhelming military strength, the East India Company fought and annexed local kingdoms and established themselves as the dominant force in India by the 18th century. Fighting bravely against unjust taxation and oppression, many great Indian leaders served as martyrs for freedom. To honor their legacy, the members of the VT Seva Youth Board researched their stories to create detailed infographics. Oviya, a member of the Detroit youth board, proposed this project as a way to pay homage to those responsible for India’s independence. Atlanta, Austin, the Bay Area, and Cary youth team joined the Detroit team in appreciating these freedom fighters on the anniversary of India’s independence. A total of 86 youth board members studied 55 different leaders and created informational posters for each day of the month of August. These informational posters spread awareness about the multi-faceted approach to India’s freedom. Our history nurtures our personal identity in an intercultural world. As Marcus Garvey once said, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots”. This project allowed both our youth volunteers and all those who saw the informational posters to connect with their roots and learn more about India’s rich history. Together, we were able to spread awareness about the freedom fighters who sacrificed everything for their country. By learning about the price of freedom, a gift we so often take for granted, we learn to be grateful for what we have and are empowered to fight for further change. Enjoy the video collage of all the informational posters made by all the youths Youth Board Members who participated in this project are Detroit: Oviya Jaisankar, Harish Jaisankar, Rashmita Raghunathan, Rachana Raghunathan, Anand Brijesh, Sravya Saranu, Hiba Zyna, Sai Sri Ram Karnati, Veeksha Somula, Abhinav Suresh, Eesha Chigullapally, Kaustubh Dingari, Udhayaa Arul, Ishani Shetty, Pavan Nagaraj, Srihari Hebbar, Rohan Patil, Amogh Pisipati, Aditi Jethri Kompally, Hrudya Kishore, Nikita Talwar, Sanjay Sundarapandiyan, Nirvan Daram, Kalki Renga Anand, Adhvaith Suresh, Eashan Daram, Pranav Maringanti, Adhip Pisipati, Shruthi Adduri, Siddharth Tirumala Kanduri and Niharika prabhu Atlanta: Shreyas Medicherla, Samved Gazzala, Lohitaksh Peram, Dharanija Peram, Adithya Upadhyayula, Sri Ravali Sripathi, , Rikhil Sai Duvvuri, Satya Eesaana Charit Kasibhatta, Charishma Bijum, Pranav Arkatala, Siri Arkatala, Srimayi Kukkadapu, Krishna Sripathi, Nikhila Mannepalli Austin: Ritwik Dendukuri, Aarah Sardesai, Saanvi Rudraraju, Divya Jaganath and Disha Murali Bay Area: Hrishu Devulapalli, Nidhi Parthasarathy, Arjun Dhruv, Nick Kataria, Anushka Jain, Srujan Chaganti, Dhruv Sastry, Aarna Agrawal, Simran Pandey, Harmya Cary: Aneesh Yarlagadda, Sathvik, Parnika, Pavan, Esh, Shirom, Lasya, Srini, Anuj Pannala, Ishani, Jhansi, Lakshmi Krutica Annugu and Anish Thanks to all the Youth Board members who participated in this project and mentors who mentored them.

VTSeva presents TEENAGE NUTRITION WORKSHOP by Sriteja Kataru, with the help and Material from Lifestyle Physicians and Nutritionists and Stanford professors. DATES: This workshop will be held on every Sunday of October (3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th), from 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM. FEE: The fee will be 160 dollars for all four sessions. In these sessions, we will address many questions related to nutrition like the following. Session 1: FOOD / NUTRITION - 10/24/21 What is the secret 4th important food nutrient besides protein, carbs, and fat? How do foods you eat now affect your health twenty years from now? What is gut bacteria and why is it essential for good overall health? Session 2: SLEEP - 10/31/21 What exactly does your body do when you sleep? How does your body react when you pull all-nighters? What are the top sleep issues teenagers face and what to do about them? Session 3: STRESS - 11/7/21 What exactly are short-term stress and chronic stress? How stress affects your immunity and long-term health? How can you reduce your daily stress levels? Session 4: PHYSICAL ACTIVITY - 11/14/21 What is metabolism and what factors control it? What is muscle hypertrophy and why do you care about that? What foods prevent you from building muscle and how? If you have any questions, please contact the following: Email me - sritejaraju7@gmail.com Phone Number - 408-444-4567

VT Seva Bay Area is organizing its 4th annual speech contest, in a virtual format! The goal of this event is to raise money to feed underprivileged and visually challenged students in India. All students from elementary through high school are encouraged to participate, regardless of speech experience. The tournament will be run using zoom rooms and communication will be facilitated through Slack. Please scroll down below to view logistics of the contest. Cash Prizes and Certificates will be awarded to winners! For anyone new to public speaking: We will be holding a seminar to teach important skills and answer any questions! The time will depend on the number and availability of our registrants. Date: Nov 6, 2021 Time: 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM PST Fee: Competitors are required to pay a $25.00 entry fee. Topic: (Suggested - you can talk about anything!) What is something you are passionate about? Why? ANYONE IS WELCOME: We have categories for grade/ skill level Open: 7-10:30 min Novice MS and HS: 3-6 min Novice Elementary: 2-3 min For any information, please contact us at speakurvision@gmail.com Why we’re running this contest We are running this contest to raise funds to feed visually challenged and underprivileged students in India. All proceeds will be donated to provide the students with necessary nutrition. Each student requires only 33 cents a day, or 120 dollars a year for their needs to be fulfilled. Our goal for this event is to support 20 students for a year. For more information on our cause, visit: . Logistics of the competition: **Specific Times, and Zoom and Slack links will be updated as we get closer to the tournament.** Date and Time: Saturday, Nov 6, 2:00 - 5:30 P.M. Fee: $25 Cash Prizes: Cash Prizes will be given to the winners of each category, along with certificates! The amounts will depend on the number of entries and the level of donations received. Times: Open: 7-10:30 min Novice MS and HS: 3-6 min Novice Elementary: 2-3 min How We are Going to Run the Tournament: Communication will be facilitated through Slack. (It’s an app/ website where you can make workspaces, channels, and direct messages to communicate with large numbers of people.) After you register, and before the tournament we will be sending a link out to join the Slack. The tournament will be fully run through Zoom. While we would optimally be in person, this is the best we can work with now! We will have about 10 to 11 rooms, our breakout rooms running throughout the day for competition and Tab room.