Walk/Run for a Good Cause: Sevathon is July 17

More than 2,000 walkers are expected to gather at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale for the annual Sevathon on July 17.

Organized by the India Community Center, Sevathon lets participants choose a cause they wish to support from among 40 nonprofit organizations. Participants may either walk or run 5 kilometers, 10 kilometers or a half marathon. 

"There is no event that we know of that really brings different non-profits together," said Sevathon chairman, Raju Reddy. "We're not saying one cause is better than another—just get involved." 

This year, the ICC is giving awards to organizations and individuals on the basis of their growth, innovation, local focus and youth involvement. In addition, a symbolic torch is being passed around the Bay Area in ceremonies that allow the nonprofits involved to showcase their organization.

There will be one ceremony Friday night at at 8 p.m., featuring five or six nonprofits. More are planned for next week until the torch is lit for the last time on the morning of the walk.

The name of the event comes from the Sanskrit word "seva," meaning "to serve." Reddy said that the spirit of the event highlights volunteers in the Indian community who are recognized less often than successful businessmen, doctors and engineers. 

"We have a lot of constant heroes who are doing phenomenal work through volunteering, whether it's the two brothers who left their jobs to do the Sankara Eye Foundation, or the mother who lost her young child and started Jeena, a foundation for 600 special-needs children," he said. "These are the heroes in the community whose stories need to be told."

Both the and Jeena will participate again in this year's Sevathon. Sankara focuses on curing blindness by providing surgeries and follow-up care for India's poorest people in a rapidly expanding network of hospitals across India. To date, it has provided around 730,000 free eye surgeries.  

Now Sankara is working on "Vision 20/20 by 2020," a mission to eradicate curable blindness in India by 2020 by providing 1 million eye surgeries. At Sevathon alone, Sankara hopes to raise enough money for 1,000 free eye surgeries. 

, a founder and executive chairman of Sankara Eye Foundation USA who decided to work for the nonprofit full time when he was laid off as an engineer, admitted that these are ambitious goals but remains optimistic. 

"What is impossible?" he asked. "If someone says something is impossible, we're not going to accept that ... We're going to eradicate blindness in India. We are determined. Nothing can stop us."

Other organizations, like Jeena, primarily hope to raise awareness by participating in Sevathon.

Jeena is a Milpitas-based parent support group for children with developmental disabilities and provides special-needs children with social interaction through play groups, field trips, and therapy sessions. It also helps parents navigate through systems (like insurance) to get the support they need, as well as provides some financial aid to monolingual families and those new to the country. It has around 500 parent members. 

Founder Rajni Madan said that although they did not raise much money at last year's event, participating in Sevathon was an opportunity to raise much-needed awareness about developmental disabilities, particularly among members of the Indian community. 

"There’s these assumptions made of disabilities and there’s this sadness surrounding disability, she said. "The glass is not half-empty; the glass is half-full."

Last year, she said there was a tremendous amount of respect for the Jeena parents and children who walked in Sevathon. 

"We believe in the potential of our children, we respect life, and we know that we are the people who need to bring that awareness first and show the importance of a child’s life," she said.

Disclosure: Milpitas Patch is a media sponsor of Sevathon, although no money was exchanged between Patch and ICC.