Our Chicago team put together a family event called “Bake a Difference”, which was a huge hit. It was a bake sale, a bazaar, a perfomance with different types of shows, a theme park, and a spectacular food show all in one. Amazing to see outpouring support for our deserving children around the world!
Check out the pictures here from our event! GiveLight team in Chicago is growing and thriving. In our third year, we have surpassed the expectations of our team and the feedback has been incredible. We grew from 10 volunteers in year one to over 100 in year three. Our core team consisting of Nabila Ali, Mehereen Khan, Talha Azeem, Hana Khan, Shazia Arshad, Reema SK and Mirza Baig worked hard to motivate others to join the cause.
Here’s a personal account of Nabila Ali, whom we are so blessed to have as our lead for GiveLight Chicago.
Working towards children’s causes is my passion. GiveLight’s entire philosophy is to provide love and nurturing to children in order to raise people that are physically and spiritually healthy to eventually become productive, positive members of society. It’s not enough to just provide food and shelter, but a safe and loving home where children do not just survive, but thrive. That’s GiveLight. That is what inspires me to collaborate with my team and community in Chicago every year to Bake a Difference for GiveLight. At the end of the day, the fruit of our efforts are the stories of our children smiling and knowing we have made some sort of positive impact on their lives — and that is the greatest blessing that we could ask for.
On April 23, 2016 GiveLight Chicago hosted their 3rd annual Bake Sale and Family event bringing together roughly 500 people under an 11,000 square foot facility to raise money and awareness for the cause. This year’s event featured a beautiful baked goods display, savory food, a fun fair, crafts stations, henna artists, princess station, face painters, balloon twisters, photo booth with children’s characters, and exciting interactive family shows featuring reptiles and a fire-eating magician. This year, local food and goods vendors also came together to showcase their home based businesses to the local crowd. The best thing about GiveLight Chicago event every year is how much participation it draws on from the community – it empowers people to feel that they are really ‘baking a difference’ and this is done by encouraging everyone to bake and package their favorite item that is in turn sold at the event to raise awareness and funds for GiveLight.
A few of our amazing volunteers shared their thoughts below:
What inspires me to work hard is knowing that just a little bit of effort on my end is helping change the life of an innocent child. What motivates me is the amazing team! Each of them has dedicated endless hours to ensure the success of this event and tried to make it memorable for our community.
~Farha Badal
Just want to send a big thank you to each and every person that coordinated and participated in the GiveLight Bake a Difference event!! From people that baked treats, that showed up to support the cause, that donated in so many different ways to help make this event possible – you were each a part of its success. We were so impressed at all the volunteers that came on the day of the event especially all the kids that participated! Nabila Ali – you deserve a special thank you for making all this happen!!
~Mehereen Mazhar Khan
Every year I’m stressed pre event and exhausted post event, but then, more importantly I am so proud of what we have accomplished together. The reasons why we do what we do and all of the stress and exhaustion is beyond worth it. I hope we continue to stay blessed enough to give more light! Couldn’t ask for a better team either! Thanks everyone.
~Sara Sonia Davoodi
We look forward to seeing more growth in Chicago. As we expand our chapters nationally and internationally, Chicago will always stand out as one of our best. Thank you GiveLight Chicago!!!
