Patel Family
Birthday Traditions
“When can we sign up for Honeycomb again?!?” This is constantly heard in the Patel Family household by five-year old, Mira.
Mira will be turning six this month (July) and part of her birthday festivities includes picking a Honeycomb project to support. Jasmin and her husband, Tushar decided early on, to celebrate their daughter’s birthday by including a tradition of helping others in need.
“My husband and I are big on volunteering, and we wanted our older daughter to experience helping out at a young age,” says Jasmin. “We found Honeycomb through a Google search and Mira did her first project for her birthday month in July 2019…she baked cookies for veterans and absolutely loved it.”
The Patel family continue to support Mira’s excitement for volunteering during the pandemic. “I read descriptions of Honeycomb events to her, and she will help choose what she wants to do,” continues Jasmin. Some fun projects for Mira include going to the supermarket to buy groceries for the food pantry and shopping at Target to pick out toys for the toy drive.
One of Mira’s favorites is making food for youth experiencing homelessness at Ignite’s Belfort House & Youth Shelter. Mom says, “after signing up, we received a recipe to make a caprese pesto salad for a family…she loved mixing up the pasta and cutting up the grape tomatoes with her kid knife. Honeycomb does an amazing job keeping kids engaged during this unique time.”
“Mira understands that some kids don’t have as many toys or as much food that she has. This is our opportunity to explain and show our daughter there is a need in our communities,” Jasmin stresses. “Kids learn by seeing and experiencing…this is especially important since Mira has a two-year old sister, Aanika, who loves to follow her big sister around.”
Originally from New York, the Patel Family lives in Elmhurst and loves spending time outdoors and at the beach.Jasmin is a Physician Assistant and Tushar is a Software Engineer.Mira attends Field Elementary School, and you can find her playing T-ball, soccer and making crafts.Aanika loves her big sister and enjoys singing and blowing bubbles.