Volunteer Spotlight – Maggie & Vaibhav
In this article, we feature an interview with a mom-son team of volunteers and what drives them to be a part of Community Seva Inc.
How did you hear about Community Seva?
>> Maggie : Nathan, the founder of Community Seva is a good friend and we share common interests to help the community and serve the needy. When Community Seva was formed, Nathan asked me to join as an advisory member. I was honored and humbled at this opportunity to help serve the needy in our community and have been a volunteer with Community Seva ever since
>> Vaibhav : When I was 6, I saw my mom volunteer every weekend in the homeless shelter helping cook meals for the needy. She then told me about Community Seva and its purpose of serving meals at the homeless shelters in this area
What intrigued you about the organization and made you join?
>>Maggie :
>>Vaibhav :When I saw my volunteer with CS, I was curious to know more because I didn’t realize that food insecurity existed in the Bay Area. I asked my mom if I could help. Nathan uncle & my mom gave me the opportunity to be part of a brown bag seva. Since then I have been volunteering with Community Seva
How long have you been a part of the organization? What have you done with them so far?
>> Maggie & Vaibhav : Since day 1 J
As a youth volunteer, how do you think you’ve made an impact, working with Community Seva?
>>Vaibhav: Every time I am part of a Seva (like brown bag seva ,pizza in the park, helping cook in the shelters ) I feel like I have brought happiness to some needy people and have made their day. A lot of times we hear adults saying that kids can’t really make a difference. What’s your take on that and has working with Community Seva changed your perspective?
>> Maggie: I am of the opinion that kids can definitely make a difference in the community Any good deed , big or small, makes a difference. A good example is Community Seva’s Brown bag activity. This is an activity for kids where we help pack nonperishable & healthy food in brown bags to be distributed among the needy. Before I volunteered with Community Seva, I thought that helping people get over food insecurity or poverty was an “adult” or government responsibility. Making these brown bags & volunteering in the shelters help me realize that I , as a youth volunteer, can make a difference in the community too!
Any words of advice to the youth of the Bay Area who are looking to help make a difference?
I do not have specific advice, but just wanted to share my experience that any help in any way shape or form is appreciated. I really loved seeing the gratified faces of the people we served.
Has being a parent impacted your views on helping those less fortunate?
>> Maggie: Absolutely. Making sure our kids developed empathy was very important to me as a parent. Serving the less fortunate helped us cultivate that empathy as a family. Living in the Bay Area, our kids are all quite entitled and volunteering with Community Seva helped me as a mother provide the avenues for my kids to see the real world and understand the different perspectives of life.
Where do you see Community Seva going in the future?
>> We are fortunate to have a highly dedicated core team of volunteers who help serve the needy week after week. With that support, Community Seva is bound to grow and spread its service to other shelters in the area , other sevas and involve more and more people in this hands on volunteering effort
What was the most gratifying experience you’ve had with Community Seva thus far?
>>Community Seva has really helped me open my heart and serve without judgement and I am every grateful for that. One cold winter night, I was out with my family to eat dinner at a downtown San Jose restaurant. The previous night we had served dinner at a local homeless shelter. While walking from our parked car towards the restaurant we had to walk through a dark alley where we saw a homeless person with a cart full of his stuff standing on the side walk. My immediate instinct was to pull my kids & purse close to myself. We suddenly heard “Thank you mam”. Shocked, I turned back and looked. This man recognized me from the previous night and said that he was at the shelter the previous night and thanked me for tasty dinner the previous night.
At that moment, I had mixed feelings of how wrong I was in judging this person and also how a small act of kindness can make an impact. That has been a valuable lesson since and every time we serve, its important to reiterate to ourselves and other volunteers that these are real people we serve and its important to make an impact on them by showing kindness & respect!
