Silver Heart Care: A Youthful Pact to Provide Care for Older Generations
The Singh family, from left, Sanjay, Meenakshi, Raghav and Devika with Ft Bend Commissioner Pct 3 Andy Meyers at the meet and greet on Tuesday, January 7 at the Ft Bend Chamber of Commerce building.
By Jawahar Malhotra
SUGAR LAND: It started off with a conversation between Raghav Singh and his dad Sanjay on the driveway of their house. It was 2020 and COVID had just started spreading all over the nation and Raghav came up with an idea to take care of older people who were unable to get around. Sanjay was impressed by his young 16-year-old son, who was then a junior in Clements High School, and encouraged him to develop the idea of further.
And that he did, with a walkathon at Lost Creek Park in March 2020 to raise awareness and money for the ideas germinating in him for senior care. Raghav started a nonprofit which he called, “Silver Heart Care”, to offer transportation, meals and other assistance to seniors. So far, SHC has organized four charity runs, provided four senior home performances to uplift their spirits and participated in six distribution events.
About 50 people attended the event.
Meanwhile Raghav graduated from high school and moved on to the University of Texas in Austin where he is now a sophomore studying finance. His entire family – dad Sanjay, mom Meenakshi and older sister Devika – have jumped in to help him keep his dream going, while Raghav keeps tabs from a distance. This year’s charity walkathon is slated for March 23 in Sugar Land Memorial Park.
At a meet and greet held on Tuesday evening, January 7 at the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce, Raghav expanded on his ideas. “Action speaks more than words,” said Raghav from the podium. “All seniors have different needs, one size does not fit all. There needs to be cross generational help for seniors”.
He described the three services SHC offers: Wheels of Wellness which has booked 100 Uber rides so far from the $25,000 that has been raised in four years; individualized services and disaster relief. He played a video clip testimonial from one of the seniors who has benefited.
Fort Bend Commissioner Pct 3 Andy Meyers applauded Raghav’s initiative, noting that Fort Bend has 14% seniors and hoped that SHC and the county would coordinate senior activities. Sugar Land City Council District 4 Carol McCutcheon said she “loved that young people take leadership roles and strengthen intergenerational outreach”. Texas House Representative Dist. 26 Jacey Jetton was impressed by Raghav’s outreach, saying “nonprofits do it better than government”.
Several other key sponsors were in attendance in the packed hall, as well as several young adult friends of Raghav who had volunteered for the evening, besides other charity events held by SHC.