On October 1, 2011, the CHYK West Seva Retreat organized by CHYK Austin. In this unique retreat, CHYKs participated in a community service project as part of Be The Change, an initiative by SAALT, where 1000s of people around the country came together on Gandhiji’s birthday to do community service. At the retreat, CHYKs participated in seva for the first half of the day, and then reflected on the service in an afternoon workshop conducted by Brahmachari Girish Chaitanya.
The service project our group volunteered for was the Montopolis Greenbelt clean up. Volunteers were requested to remove trash and invasive species of plants from the park, which was to be donate to the City of Austin. Over 30 youth worked together to remove trash, and it was truly eye-opening about what had been dumped on the trails.
