The room had an enthusiastic and peppy air about it. There was laughter and giggling and the tables were strewn with colorful paper, marker pens, crayons and color pencils. Colorful cards were being made and everyone had donned their creative hats. No, I am not describing a kindergarten art classroom filled with super active 5 year olds, but Vibha Boston’s first major volunteer activity (not so different!)
A group of enthusiastic volunteers from Vibha’s Boston (VB) action center wanted to get together and do something for children and ‘Cradles to Crayons’ provided them with just the perfect opportunity. C2C (Cradles to crayons) is an organization that was set up in 2002 in order to provide children with some of the basic needs of life including clothing, school supplies, toys and much more. The organization was making 17000 well-wisher cards for kids going back to school this summer and our Boston action center’s volunteers stepped in to help make 200 such cards. It is said that ‘small drops make a big ocean’ and it was our honor to be a small part of the bigger picture.
20 Vibha Boston volunteers got to work and made beautiful and cheery cards that contained positive quotes and happy welcome messages. Some cards were cut out like trains and some others had stickers of flowers and cute little animals that would instantly bring a smile on the children’s faces when they would see them in their backpacks.
Another important aspect of this event was for an initiative called Charity Dress , a non profit venture to help collect clothes for underprivileged and homeless kids in underdeveloped countries. We placed a basket and collected clothes which were then passed on to the initiative. Deepti Nirdesh, a Vibha volunteer who is an artist displayed a vast array of her Madhubani (an Indian folk art) creations and volunteered to contribute a % of the sales to Vibha.
Overall the volunteers spent productive time helping two different causes and had fun going back to their childhood and becoming kids again.
Vibha Boston’s Action Center coordinator Shyamala Aysola shares her thoughts about the event. “The day spent in giving back to various causes left the volunteers with great satisfaction. The fact that C2C and Charity Dress have missions aligned with Vibha made the contributions more special. All the organizations help Educate, Empower and Enable Children, which is what we do at Vibha. The enthusiasm of the volunteers in coming up with fun, colorful and creative well-wisher cards was admirable. Some of our volunteers were coloring cards for the first time after their First grade. Like all Vibha events, the day was a lot of fun and helped bring in new volunteers who are excited about being a part of this wonderful cause.
If you want to be a part of such fun activities and events or want to volunteer in Vibha’s Boston Action Center, then please get in touch with our volunteer coordinators at :
Sowmya Kaukuntla : sowmya.kaukuntla@vibha.org
Sumana Hatwar: sumana.hatwar@vibha.org
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