SAN FRANCISCO, California—Sikh Coalition has reached out to Sikhs across the US to do seva, or selfless service, this week in remembrance of those innocent lives taken on August 5, 2012 at the Wisconsin Sikh Temple last year. The seva should be directed at the wider community in order to make Sikhs visible. August 3rd is the official day of service set aside by Sikh organizations to pay respect to the victims.
On Saturday, the Oak Creek, Wisconsin sangat (congregation) has organized a Chardi Kala 6K Memorial Run and Walk at the Oak Creek High School Track Area. Simran Kaur, Advocacy Manager for Sikh Coalition said that the Day of Seva is a way for Sikhs not local to Oak Creek to get involved.
“We wanted a way for our community to come together and do something integral to the faith—which is seva,” said Simran Kaur.
Events range in community involvement, such as in New York, where sangat are doing a park cleanup while in Detroit, Sikhs are packing meals for hungry children and their families.
“In Texas, Sikhs are doing a library and garden cleanup, similar to New York,” said Simran Kaur. She continued, mentioning that if volunteers can’t make it out to an event you can always send messages of love and support to the survivors of the tragedy—information is on the Sikh Coalition website at http://www.sikhcoalition.org/get-involved/act-now/show-love-and-support-to-oak-creek-sangat.
The Seva Selfless Service group in Northern California has been in contact with Sikh Coalition and other Sikh organizations for various volunteer work including food drives, langar preparation, coat and blanket donations, and other donations.
On Saturday August 3, 2013 at 2pm, SEVA is participating in an event that is hosted by the Sikh Coalition at UN Plaza in San Francisco. They have asked Sikhs all over California to come out and show support. In preparation of the event they are preparing roti at Roseville Gurdwara at 7:45 am on August 3rd.
Jaskaran Johal of the Seva Group said, “To me its important because we need to reach out in the community to other cultures and religions and help them. In this world, until you do something for somebody, they don’t care who you are. If we reach out to the non-Sikh community maybe we can change their minds about us by showing them the basic principles of our religion.”
You can find more information about events taking place around the US here: http://www.sikhcoalition.org/get-involved/act-now/national-day-of-seva-8-3-13
