The Birth Of Volunesia – Celebrating Love, Service And Creativity
This week we had our first ever Volunesia event. What does the term mean? Volunesia is that moment when you forget you’re volunteering to help change lives, because it is changing yours!
We, at KnowYourStar, are pretty familiar with Volunesia. As a part of our Mentor India programme (which is conducted with the help of volunteers), we give away little goodies to our students during our classes as tokens of love and appreciation. We are in the process of deepening our curriculum and we thought that we should create personalised gifts for the students to attach more value to them. While we were at it, we thought – why just the students – we should have some giveaways for our volunteer mentors as well, who donate their valuable time and efforts to help rural and underprivileged kids have a better chance at a good life.
Let’s Get Involved
While we were brainstorming about this, we realised that this is an excellent opportunity to involve the community we live in. Why not share this joy of creation with people (age no bar) and give them a chance to experience the immersive joy of volunteering.
That’s when Volunesia was born!
We wish to thank all the volunteers of our pilot event for co-creating such a positive space for experiencing Volunesia at Cubbon Park under that beautiful wise old tree. By the end of those fruitful three hours, we were all overflowing with love and service.
Your energy, enthusiasm and smiling faces attracted many people in the park to come inquire about what we were up to. They said that they loved what they were seeing, and would love to be a part of something so cheerful and happy. We couldn’t agree more!
We wouldn’t have been able to have such an impact without each and every one of you. You all are the first volunteers of Volunesia and will remain very dear to us.
We have connected, not over a monetary deal or a business agreement, but over our willingness to be of service to the society we live in, and to bring joy and happiness to the lives of those who are less privileged than all of us by contributing our time and efforts.
We are sure your energy will be carried forward to our upcoming Volunesia circles. Thank you again for all the love!
A big shout out to Goonj for helping us with the raw materials. Look what your raw materials have transformed into in the picture above! We are so grateful to you for supporting us.
Our co-founder, Pranita, was so moved, she wanted to write down some personalized ‘Thank You’ messages for each volunteer:
Swathi, the words on your Mentor card still resonates within my heart.
Anuja, like I have already expressed so many times, I’m in love with your art and your creative spirit. We are sorry we did not make the cake eggless.
Raghu, you were a silent, but a breath of fresh air, creating beautiful artwork!
Shreya, you made it to the event in spite of your very busy weekends! We look forward to seeing your nieces and nephews next time and learn from them.
Sneha, next time we will have something for you that will not spoil your T-shirt fabric. Haha. Thank you for being such a sport!
Ram, we were so inspired by your willingness to learn from your son and encourage him to be the star of the day
Karthikeya, You did not speak to us, but silently mentored so many grownups with your beautiful crafts. You are divine!
Vijay, You were a silent storm, and we can’t wait to know more about you. You were our super-efficient star-making machine today.
Aarthi, You are a super mom. You left your lucrative job to become a driver for your daughter’s dreams, and that’s so hard to do. We salute you!
Rhea, We will surely visit your school and ask for Rhea- the National Level swimmer! Your energy was just infectious.
Nanda, You are such a lively smiling person, with such amazing ideas of art. We could see that invisible mom-cape behind you as you walked!
Khushi, True to your name, you are such a happy-go-lucky girl. Your creations of art were as sweet as you are!
Manu, It’s pure serendipity meeting you today. So much to learn from your accomplishments. We look forward to your guidance and support! Also, thank you for those beautiful lines you wrote.
Dheeraj, Thank you for choosing to come volunteer with us and bringing a friend along. Cannot wait to see the pictures you have clicked!
Suman, Thank you so much for coming all the way and adding more cheer to the gathering. That little house you built will soon be someone’s home 🙂
Shridevi, It was our utmost pleasure meeting you today. You have supported us in every possible way till now, and we cannot be more grateful. Thank you for coming.
Gayatri, It was a pleasure getting to know you, and your CD craft was much-appreciated by everyone.
Santosh, We wish to see you and little Saanvi again next Volunesia, doing your own father-daughter craft!
Sandeep, Your book art brought so many laughs out of people. Super creative! We can’t wait to see what you create next time.
John, So much creativity with the cycle, the book… In spite of coming straight to Cubbon Park after a night shift of work, fighting sleep!
Shashank, Thank you so much for being the man behind the camera and capturing all the beautiful moments, and of course for the wisdom tree art!
Archi, Your candy-stick art was the cutest, and we are so happy that you came. You brought so much joy to the gathering.
Rahul, You were the quiet one, with your back to the crowd! But everyone now knows you as the Spiderman Guy! You’ve moved to Bangalore only 15 days back and you’re already out here volunteering. So beautiful!
Sid, Prashanth and Praveen, you graced the occasion for a bit, and disappeared because you had to rush for your commitments. But thank you for making it a point to contribute whatever you could. We are so grateful for your presence!
A special mention of Debjyoti, Yeshi and Jaiprakash is required for stopping by and encouraging our event with their supportive words. Your thoughts that the event actually appealed to you and looked fun, was a happy outsider view for us. We look forward to seeing you next time!
Fellow Volunesians, due to popular demand, we are happy to announce that the next Volunesia circle will be conducted this Saturday – 1st April, 2017, at the same place, same time, and under the same tree!
We hope you will be there again in service. We have uploaded the pictures from the first circle on our FB page here. For more details about the event, please read this!
If any of you are inspired to join the Volunesia Core Team, please get in touch with us. You are most welcome to our tribe! We will be extending these circles in areas other than Arts & Crafts, and we would love to have some suggestions and creative hearts on-board! 🙂
