Karma Yoga in Action - AYUDH Room Project Day on Jan 26, 2013

Summary Headline - AYUDH Room Project Day

AYUDH Members, with the help of their parents and AYUDH Liaisons, did selfless service to clean, organize, and set up MACC AYUDH Room in the Admin building on January 26, 2013.

Click Here for Slideshow from AYUDH Room Project Day

AYUDH Room Project Day - Detail News Report

It all started with a simple idea: to clean-up and organize AYUDH room so that its members can feel welcome and help take a small step to work towards Amma’s message of selfless service. Many AYUDH members showed a lot of excitement for this volunteer day to work together and set up the AYUDH room in the Admin building.

The day started around 9am with AYUDH members, liaisons, and some of the parents joining throughout the morning. With great enthusiasm we worked together to clean surfaces, windows and walls, clean up closets, and organize materials on shelves. We cleaned up and reused an existing unused bookcase to start the MACC AYUDH library. We fixed broken fluorescent lights and vacuumed all floors multiple times.

The AYUDH room now houses an altar area to use during Bhajan practices and Sloka chanting. It is also furnished to facilitate its regular activities, such as personal development discussions, multimedia presentations, and helping AYUDH members access the meetings via Skype. Finally, the work included setting up a supply room to meet AYUDH members’ needs.

Quotes & reflections from AYUDH members about the project:

Leela - I really enjoyed the project!! It was a lot of fun and I got to spend a lot of time with friends. The room is only going to get better. :)

Divya - It made me feel extremely happy that we are starting to make that room our second home! This is a seva that we have just started but will continue till that room becomes an ideal room for everyone to enjoy! What made it even more special was working together with my ayudh friends :)

Divin - I like how we are improving our room. I feel like this is a start or a base of a foundation we are going to create. This room will represent the unity and creativity of AYUDH as a whole. It will help all the members feel like home.

Laszlo - I thought it was fun.  I liked the fact that it was a work project, and that I got to work with people.

Devashree - I thought it was really great. We got a lot done and it was good to do a project together and get to see result. It is a lot cleaner now and I'm excited to see it with real furniture and painted walls.

llsa - I liked that it was a project we could do as a group. I think more cleaning projects would be a great idea. I also liked that we could do it in one day and it didn't take too much organizing :)

A Vote of Thanks

The participating AYUDH members and Liaisons enjoyed a pizza lunch, courtesy of Pankajam and Ramachandran, Divya and Divin’s Parents. In celebration of their 25^th wedding anniversary, they insisted on supporting us with a delicious lunch and treats. The MACC AYUDH team once again congratulates them on sharing this occasion with us and sincerely thanks them for their contributions.

The AYUDH team would also like to thank Molly Babu for her support and help by taking memorable photos for us during the project event.

Regular AYUDH Activities Also Conducted on Jan 26

The project day was followed by regular AYUDH activities and sessions.

On Jan 26, these included:

• Personality Development Session - Led and co-ordinated by Santosh Kumar
  
  • Main Topic – Networking (What is it? Why is it important? How do you build one?)
• Bhajan Practice
  
  • The group practiced two group Bhajans in preparation for Amma’s 2013 program:
    • Amriteshwari Vandanam
    • Vraj Mein Aisa

WHAT IS AYUDH?

AYUDH, the International youth movement of M.A. Centers, seeks to empower the youth to integrate universal values into their daily lives. Starting with themselves, AYUDH helps establish a future of hope, peace, and social engagement while maintaining an awareness of spiritual principles.

For more information or to join – please visit:

http://amma.org/groups/north-america/ma-center-chicago/projects/ayudh