SUBHA Dress Rehearsal on October 5, 2024 - We did full dress rehearsal on Oct 5th consisting of the National Anthems, VT Seva highlights, Bollywood and classical dances, Instrumental etc. Our Subha team also discussed in detail about the decoration & fundraising by the Atlanta youth. We also discussed about the food and registration logistics of the Subha event. Overall, it’s a great teamwork of dedicated VT Seva Atlanta volunteers to celebrate the spirit of service and empower 250 Nethra students of Bharath!

Atlanta youths are spearheading SUBHA 2024 by participating in large numbers in the cultural program, fundraising, decoration, food packing etc. We finalized the program and assigned roles and responsibilities to the youth and adult leads. We practiced our cultural program items and brainstormed decoration of the hall during SUBHA event.

We gathered in the library and start creating groups for the cultural items - national anthem, Dance, Singing, Emcee etc. We also discuss the process of participation, dress code, and outside participation from music and dance schools of Atlanta!

SUBHA 2024 Kickoff Meeting at on Sep 1st, 2024 - In this meeting, we discussed - 1.⁠ ⁠Youth participation in SUBHA Cultural 2.⁠ ⁠⁠Youth participation in Fundraising for a Cause 3.⁠ ⁠⁠Youth participation in volunteering activities - decoration, stage help, tech support etc Our SUBHA 2024 goal is to empower 250 Nethra students, of Bharath and celebrate the spirit of volunteerism ✌️✌️✌️

In Celebration of India's 78th Independence Day in August 2024, Atlanta VT Seva initiated a project to highlight the achievements of 53 Bharat Ratna awardees from 1954 to the present. Throughout the month, 53 dedicated youth from VT Seva Atlanta participated by creating and sharing daily  infographics that detailed the contributions of these distinguished individuals. Due to the high level of enthusiasm and participation , we completed the presentation  of all 53 Bharat Ratna awardees and we ran out of Bharat Ratna awardees due to over response from our enthusiastic youth.We are greatly proud of their exemplary dedication and enthusiasm and look forward to their ongoing contributions to our future initiatives.

SUBHA kickoff is a start of preparing for Atlanta’s annual event. Our goal this year is to empower 250 Nethra students. Our youths and adults are super excited and we created various teams in our SUBHA Kickoff such as cultural team, decoration team, food team, fundraising team, tech support team, and communication team to work together and accomplish our goal. The theme this year is animal welfare - ‘Be the Voice of the Voiceless’!

After working together to make pins to sell at the independence day event, members of VT Seva Atlanta gathered at Gas South Arena and put out a word for both VT Seva and for raising funds for disabled education in India. Before setting up the booth, members participated in the flag march. Members held up the flag to show their pride in India and its independence. After the flag march, members set up the booth and offered face painting, the flag badges, and tulsi plants. This also advertised for our Subha event coming up in October.

VT Seva held a Graduation Ceremony on 8/11/2024 🎉🥳🎊🥳 We are very proud of everyone that helped make the 2024 Summer Camp a success. 84 Students graduated and 56 Youth Tutors were recognized for their dedication in teaching the students. The parents were in support of the students and tutors! 👏👏👏 Laurel Heights Tutors were also recognized at this event! The VT Seva team along with the Laurel Heights Hospital CEO and Director of Education truly appreciate their commitment, dedication and service mindset. VTS Summer Camp was a great memorable event. We look forward to meet you all again in summer 2025!

ATL Zero Waste Paper Drive was a big success! It was our eco-friendly project in which Atlanta youths collected more than 250 used notebooks for recycling. They took out unused papers from the used notebooks through seam rippers, sort & stack papers, and later bind papers & build new Notebooks of 80 pages each. We created 6 new notebooks yesterday and 50 new notebooks are work-progress ✌️✌️ It’s a great hands-on inspirational project for our youths to implement reuse / recycle technique and transform used notebooks to new the new Notebooks 📘📕📗 Each ton of recycle paper saves 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 7000 gallons of water, 4000 KW of energy, and 3 cubic yards of landfill space. Together 🤝🤝 we can make a difference and conserve our natural resources!

VT Seva Atlanta team organized 1st youth-led Walkathon - ‘Be Yourself’ on August 24, 2024 for the blind / visually impaired community of Atlanta. VT Seva stands for ‘Volunteering Together For Service’. We are a non-profit org with branches in more than 25 plus cities all across US. All our service activities are focused towards 4 domains - Education, Environment, Disaster Relief, and Healthcare. In Atlanta, we have 14 youth clubs in High schools and Middle schools which actively participate in the year-round community services in Atlanta. Our youths organized ‘Be Yourself’ Walkathon which started on Aug 1st, 2024 in virtual mode and successfully completed on Aug 24th with in-person grand finale. We had 10 plus youth teams who registered for this event and who walked every day and logged their miles virtually on our portal. We invited Ms. Lisa Kennedy, CEO & President of the Atlanta ‘Center For Visually Impaired’ as our Chief guest for this special walkathon to empower the vision loss community of Atlanta. Among the other guests, we had Senator Carter, GAPI President, Dr. Lalitha, Abigali Parkes, and Bharat from Assureguru for this Walkathon. More than 200 people registered and participated in this Walkathon to stay healthy and support the visually impaired of Atlanta in 'Be Yourself' initiative. Innovation academy youth team was in the 1st place with the highest miles walked followed by the Lambert Highschool team. On August 24th, VT Seva volunteers dressed-in VT spirits & blue color shirts and walked 3 miles distance. We raised $1000 for the Center For the Visually Impaired. We arranged healthy snacks for all participants and gave special award to Ms. Lisa Kennedy, Senator Carter, Gapi President, and business event sponsor AssureGuru. According to Pantanjali, "The longest journey begins with a single step", and VT Seva has taken a single step on August 24, 2024 to empower and support wholeheartedly the vision loss community of Atlanta. We’ll take many more steps together in future to empower them with hope, light, and success. Our Chief Guest, Ms. Lisa Kennedy other distinguished guests were highly impressed to see the dedication, commitment, and service mindset of the VT Seva Atlanta team. We are very thankful and grateful for this wonderful opportunity to empower the vision loss community of Atlanta!

VT Seva Atlanta youths no walked over 3 miles removing litter from each side of Brannon road on July 21th. More than 20 youths participated in the Rd clean up. It is through regular clean-up activities, we can reduce the amount of litter on our roads and protect our environment from further damage. It is our utmost duty to keep our cities & environment clean!

Atlanta VT Seva youths participated in the Meals By Grace event today in which they sorted, packed, loaded food items for the needy families of North Georgia. When schools are closed (June and July months)these families are in desperate need of food items to take care of their children. We are very happy to help the needy families Georgia so children can go to bed Happy not Hungry. It’s a great gratifying experience for us

Atlanta VT Seva youths participated in the Meals By Grace event on July 7, 2024 in which they sorted, packed, loaded food items for the needy families of North Georgia. When schools are closed (June and July months) these families are in desperate need of food items to take care of their children. We are very happy to help the needy families Georgia so children can go to bed Happy not Hungry. It’s a great gratifying experience for us!

VT Seva youths walked over 3 miles removing litter from each side of Brannon road on July 7th, 2024. More than 20 youths participated in the Rd clean up. It is through regular clean-up activities, we can reduce the amount of litter on our roads and protect our environment from further damage. It is our utmost duty to keep our cities & environment clean!

About 20 Atlanta VT Seva youth came together to honor & respect our disabled American veterans by making close to 5,000 forget-me-not flowers on 6/9/2024. These small gestures carry immense gratitude for their sacrifices. We expressed our gratitude for the Veterans and remembered their sacrifices for the nation. Our 1st DAV activity in Atlanta was a very fun and collaborative activity as the youth learned more about each other while making these flowers.

VT Seva Atlanta facilitated its 1st Blood Drive in collaboration with LifeSouth on June 2, 2024. We have more than 60 donors. Blood cannot be manufactured, it can only be donated by the people who want to make a difference in the lives of others. We are very fortunate that we have such people around us. LifeSouth Director was very impressed with the level of service VT Seva volunteers have exhibited today. From 11 am to 7 pm all LifeSouth employees were super busy drawing blood and our VT Seva volunteers are busy in greeting all Donors, giving them juice, healthy snacks, VT Seva pens etc. It’s a great Attitude of Gratitude ✌✌✌

Why Books For Africa? We believe that education is the great equalizer in the world, and books are at the foundation of a strong educational system. For many children in Africa, the gift of books truly is a gift of Hope 📚📖📙📘📔📕 Access to an education is one of the only opportunities young people have to end the cycle of poverty and attain a better quality of life than previous generations. Books For Africa works to help children who otherwise would not attend school by supplying educational materials to reduce or eliminate education costs. Most African children who attend school have never owned a book of their own. In many classrooms, 10-20 students share one textbook. Many people in the United States take these educational necessities for granted, but children in Africa cherish books. VT Seva Atlanta team strives to create a culture of literacy and provide the tools of empowerment to African children. On June 16, 2024, we collected 1,500 Books and 500 Notebooks. This is the highest amount of books we have ever collected so far in a single book drive. Our youths are super happy to empower their African friends through Books of Africa project!

As the temperatures rise, so does the excitement for the VT Seva Summer Camp. VT Seva Summer Camp Orientation was successfully organized on June 1, 2024. The Summer Camp will commence from June 1st and will end on July 31st. Some Highlights: 1. Total 85 students were registered in the Elementary and Advanced classes. 2. ⁠More than 50 Highschool youths are wearing Tutor hats and delivering all elementary and advanced classes. 3. ⁠The elementary students are getting one on one turtoring for Math and ELA classes twice a week. There are group classes once a week for the Chess, Dance, Robotics, Art, and Taekwando every week. 4. ⁠For the advanced students there are all group classes once a week - Advanced Robotics, App building, Web design, Python, Dance, Advanced Art, and Business Entrepreneurship. 5. ⁠We raised more than 20k for the Nethra students. At VTS Summer Camp, we believe in the power of experiential learning, and our carefully crafted programs are designed to inspire curiosity, build resilience, and create lasting memories.

VT Seva Atlanta 1st Alumni Meet is organized on May 19, 2024 by youth leaders to bridge the gaps between Middle School, High School, and College students and build meaningful relationships. All 11 VT Seva youth club members presented their inspirational stories, activities, challenges, and how they overcome their challenges, and converted threats to opportunities. College students shared their college selection process, experiences and how they balance studies, co-curricular activities and pursue their dreams. VT Seva Atlanta 1st Alumni Meet was a big success in terms of breaking barriers between Middle, Highschool, and College students. It’s a very inspiring event and many youth came forward to start a youth club in their schools and bring a positive impact on the community!

VT Seva Atlanta 1st Alumni Meet is organized today by youth leaders to bridge the gaps between Middle School, High School, and College students and build meaningful relationships. All 11 VT Seva youth club members presented their inspirational stories, activities, challenges, and how they overcome their challenges, and converted threats to opportunities. College students shared their college experiences and how they balance studies, exercise, and co-curricular activities.