VT Seva Dallas Gifts of Gratitude

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.