My name is Gursimran Singh and recently I have collaborated with the UNITED SIKHS to donate musical instruments for the Anova School for the Autistic in Santa Rosa, California. After reading a CNN article about how the Anova school for the Autistic was destroyed in the recent devastating California Wildfires, I was deeply touched for these kids, who are less resilient to change. It must be extremely upsetting to lose their school and, in some cases, their whole lives, and these special kids need an immediate response to return their lives to normal. With that in mind, I paid a visit to Anova school to get a firsthand look at the destruction and determine how I could bring smiles to their faces. Through leads from the CNN article, I met with the Anova School Founder & Co-founder, Mrs. Mary Beth Ludwig & Mr. Andrew Bailey and saw the impact of the destruction, the wildfire caused.
I belong to the Sikh faith, a minority religion that believes in helping everyone. In fact, one of the three pillars of the Sikh faith is to share with those in need. After my visit, I shared my experience with UNITED SIKHS, a UN-based International NGO and explained the plight of the Anova school, and they too were touched and pledged to help the school.
During our discussion, I learned that they had lost everything in their school. When asked what we could do to help, they supplied us with a list of items that the Sikh community could donate. Among these items was a set of music supplies. Children at Anova school with mild autism are shy and introverted. Therefore, music supplies would be perfect in helping them adjust and become more social.
In the weeks that followed, I collaborated with the relief and rehabilitation team of UNITED SIKHS to order and deliver the music supplies. On March 23rd, 2018, we were able to hand deliver musical instruments to the school at Santa Rosa. As the school had rented these musical instruments, there were now ecstatic when we donated these to them.
The Anova School has been extremely grateful to UNITED SIKHS & the Sikh community for the aid provided to them in a time of need.