30 Mar Community Outreach Program for Youth

LA Fire Disaster Relief (Jan 12, 2025)

CMLA Rameshwaram organized a donation drive for the LA Fire Disaster Relief. The drive aimed to collect essential items such as diapers, formula, canned goods, rice, pasta, toothbrushes, hygiene kits, and laundry supplies for donation. This initiative was successfully carried out with the help and participation of CMLA parents and Balavihar kids, who assisted in sorting, categorizing, labeling, and packaging all the donations. The collected items were delivered to the Jain Center of Southern California in Buena Park, CA. Balavihar kids. They helped sort, categorize, label, and package all the donations to be delivered to the Jain Center of Southern California at Buena Park, CA.

CMLA Redlands Chapter also participated LA fire Disaster relief donation. All Redlands BalaVihar parents donated Canned goods, Diapers, hygiene kits, Rice, pasta, etc.

Hygiene and Emotional Kits (Jan 2025)

Operation Teddy: In the month of January CMLA South Bay Bala Vihar chapter partnered with a local not for profit in Torrance called Volunteer Center and packed hygiene and emotional support bags for elementary school children from low income families in south bay. These bags were distributed to over 1000 children in several schools throughout the South Bay.

Brea Balavihar Chapter’s 9th annual toy drive (Dec 2024)

The Chinmaya Mission Brea Chapter hosted its  in collaboration with the Los Angeles Mission, bringing the spirit of giving to life in our community. The event brought together students, parents, and community members in a collective effort to make Christmas a little brighter for children in need. Thanks to the generous contributions from alumni of the Brea chapter, students, their families and many more, we were able to collect over 650 toys suitable for all age groups. Multiple groups filled shuttles, transporting us to the Los Angeles Mission, where we were greeted by the friendly staff who helped organize us into various roles throughout the center. On-site, our responsibilities varied: some of us distributed toys, others welcomed children as they arrived, and many helped wrap presents and gift cards.

Food Distribution at Pacific High School by Redlands Balavihar (Dec 2024)

Students from the CMLA Redlands Balavihar Chapter, along with some parents, volunteered with the Pure Land Foundation to support their mobile pantry service. This initiative provides daily groceries, canned goods, and other essential items to the local community in San Bernardino. The children experienced firsthand the importance of service and the value of supporting those in need within their community

Thanksgiving 2024  9th annual food drive

CMLA Brea Chapter had a food drive for  in partnership with Heart of Downtown Food Coop in Fullerton.  Our goal was to gather as many vegetarian canned goods and non-perishable items as possible to support local families struggling during the Holiday season. We collected pasta, pasta sauce, peanut butter, jelly, cereal, canned vegetables and fruits, mashed potato power, 200 lbs of rice, 150 pounds of beans and more. It provided an excellent opportunity to contribute to those in need and offered me new insights and perspectives. As we collected canned goods for donation it is evident that when a large group of people comes together with a shared goal – to help those who may not have enough to eat – great things can happen. It became clear that this collective effort could make a real difference and that the same spirit of teamwork can help achieve many other goals. Each donation represented a small act of kindness, and it was inspiring to see how everyone could play a part in making a difference.

Mr. Bryan Maxwell of Heart of Fullerton food pantry welcomed us warmly and shared stories about the families we were helping. He explained that our donations could provide food for up to 300 families for several months, which was both humbling and motivating.

Hygiene Kits Donation (October 2024)

CMLA Rameshwaram Bala Vihar Chapter children assembled close to 300 hygiene kits for donation to underprivileged children in the surrounding communities. These kits were donated to South Asian Network (SAN), Olive Crest and Santa Ana School District. In addition, we had an overwhelming response from our Chinmaya families for our request to donate new or gently used finished sets of men’s, women’s and children’s Indian clothes. We donated over 3,100 lbs of clothing items to a wonderful organization known as Ahaana (www.ahaana.org). These clothes to underprivileged communities throughout India, with an emphasis on supporting at risk women.