Volunteer Spotlight – June 2017
This month, Community Seva has chosen two essential volunteers for the Volunteer Spotlight section. Rashmi Ramachandra and Ranjani Kumar have showed exemplary attitude towards service and have supported us through their positions at the Silicon Valley Bank. We are pleased to have such dedicated volunteers, and we thank them for their service! Both volunteers answered questions about their involvement in Community Seva and their answers are below.
Rashmi Ramachandra
Rashmi Ramachandra has been working with Community Seva since 2014. She spoke to us about how businesses could really help non-profit organizations in the following quote.
“Each organization should have an obligation to give back to the community. Many corporations have programs that give back to community. I’m very fortunate to be working at Silicon Valley Bank that encourages us to volunteer at non-profit organizations. Our volunteer hours are logged and our non-profit organization becomes eligible for SVB grants.”
She has worked with SVB packing basic hygiene kits for the homeless, and has taken part in grant opportunities for Community Seva. Rashmi has been, quote, “always been interested in volunteering and when Geetha Kuppasamy a close friend of my mine told me about Community Seva and serving in the homeless shelter I was happy to get the opportunity. It was a humbling experience to volunteer in my local community and see the smile on faces of the homeless people after the service.”
She freely gives support to Community Seva by asking her friends and fellow community members to join Community Seva. Her experiences cooking for homeless women at our breakfast sevas were “eye opening to see that doing little volunteering could have big impact on others.”
Thank you for your service!!
Ranjani Kumar
Ranjani Kumar has also contributed greatly to the community and Community Seva in particular. She recently started volunteering with Community Seva a few months ago, but has done other types of volunteering throughout her life, which is highly commendable. Her cousin, Devi Sreepada, “spoke about all the amazing work that Community Seva is doing to improve the lives of the homeless in our local communities”, which encouraged her to join the group.
Working with SVB along with Community Seva has shown her how the corporate branch can help the community, “by giving their time and not just funds to support a cause and by choosing to partner with local ‘not for profits’ to organize team building events and activities.”
Ranjani has also taken part in the assembly of hygiene care bags for the homeless, auctioned photographs to raise funds for Community Seva, and hopes to join many more sevas in the future.
Her advice to those that are looking for a volunteer service is, “there are so many avenues to choose from. Look for a cause that interests/inspires you and go do your bit!” It is inspiring, and definitely helpful advice. She also spoke about her interactions with the other members of Community Seva in the following sentences. Ranjani “got to meet some very inspiring and dedicated individuals at the sevas that I participated in. I interacted with some of the core Community Seva members and am blown away by how committed everyone is to this cause.”
