By Khalida Sarwari
While most people were sound asleep on Sunday morning, Seema Kumar was out and about checking items off of a shopping list. But this list wasn’t for herself or her family; it was for a 14-year-old girl in the Moreland School District. Kumar helped the girl pick out shoes and clothes for the new school year–items that would have been a hardship for the girl and her family to buy on their own.
For Kumar, the Aug. 9 outing was her first big event with West Valley Community Services, an organization that describes itself as a nonprofit community-based agency that provides basic needs, family support services and housing services to the communities of Cupertino, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga and West San Jose. Kumar joined the organization’s board of directors last month.
The back-to-school shopping event they held at JCPenney at Vallco in Cupertino wasn’t the first of its kind and it won’t be the last, Kumar assured. On the morning of Aug. 9, volunteers and WVCS staff helped more than 90 kids buy school supplies that their families could not afford otherwise.
“It was a very fulfilling event,” said Kumar, who lives in Saratoga and is the wife of Councilman Rishi Kumar.
WVCS raised money for the shopping excursion through donations from the community leading up to the event, said Kumar. They then identified students that required financial assistance based on their applications. Students were given a shopping stipend based on their grade level, with those in elementary school receiving $75 and the older kids getting $150.
Each student was paired up with a volunteer for a short shopping spree, at the end of which they were handed a backpack filled with school supplies.
“For me, when I found out about West Valley Community Services, I was just completely surprised that there are all these needy families in an area that we consider pretty affluent,” Kumar said.
She added, “If people can open up their hearts and checkbooks and donate, that would be wonderful. We’re always looking for donations and funds to somehow help our needy families in this area.”
To learn more about WVCS, visit wvcommunityservices.org.
Link: Shopping spree helps children in need get ready for the school year
