Swati Goel Family
“I was looking for a way to get more involved in something,” says Swati. In 2018, an online search brought her to Honeycomb, where the family’s first project was gardening along the train tracks in the Pullman neighborhood.
Swati Goel and her husband, Akash, and their daughters Alisha (10) and Maira (8) are older and are asking to do more. “Our youngest was three-years-old when we started to volunteer,” says Swati. “Then Covid happened…but we’ve become more active since and have more of an appetite for volunteering.”
“We live in the city and see a lot of the homeless and migrant population,” she continues. “The kids can read now, so they see signs and they ask me about why others don’t have a home or why they need food.” “Not everyone has the same circumstance as we do…Honeycomb provides a small window for my kids, into that world.”
Alisha and Maira have their favorite Honeycomb projects. These include baking brownies and cookies for guests staying at the IMD Guest House and at the Ronald McDonald House. Other favorites are organizing classroom donations that allow CPS teachers to get supplies for their classroom, and creating poufs from discarded fabric at Sew Crafty Studio.
Most recently in February, the family brought their dog, Clawdia, to visit and play with seniors at Wesley Place Memory Care center for Honeycomb’s new Puppy Love Promotes Healing event. “Alisha loved it,” says Swati, “we made some great connections with the seniors there.”
The Goel’s participated for the first time, in December’s Holiday Cheer Challenge as Team Positivity Pollinators. Alisha was so inspired that when the event was over, she expressed her goal of completing 12 projects for the year. “Every small deed has a big impact,” says Swati. “Volunteering has a butterfly effect and this is what we are trying to share with our kids.”
Outside of attending Honeycomb Project events, the Goel family keep busy. Swati is an operations and strategy consultant. Akash works at Chicago Trading Company. The Goels live in Bucktown and Alisha and Maira attend Bennett Day School and both love reading and playing soccer. The family loves to spend time traveling together and taking walks with their dog, Clawdia.