Written by Aditi Nair Nambiar
Amid rising economic pressures and growing challenges with housing and food insecurities, one student-led club at the University of Washington- Bothell is all hands on deck to make a positive difference in their community.
Helping Handz is a student-led volunteer organization at the University of Washington- Bothell that provides students hands-on experience in community service. The club aligns its projects with members’ academic interests and the issues they care most about. Building bridges with various local organizations, outreach programs, and partnerships, Helping Handz works to make a positive impact by addressing local insecurities both on campus and in the greater Seattle region.
Launched in fall of 2024, the club was founded by co-presidents and seniors, now class of 2025 graduates, Amrit Kaur Sidhu and Gurleen Dosanjh. Motivated by a passion to foster stronger campus engagement and create more accessible community service opportunities, Kaur Sidhu, a law, economics, and public policy major, and Dosanjh, a biology major, were inspired by the volunteer opportunities they had in high school and wanted to find a way to translate more of those involvement experiences to university life. “It gets people wanting to give back to their community and to different aspects of campus, even the area around us,” says Kaur Sidhu.
The club organizes several donation drives throughout the year for personal care, toys, and books, and also leads habitat restorations, food drives, community cleanups, as well as multiple other public aid initiatives. With their online engagement efforts and emphasis on community outreach, they rapidly grew to a network of over 70 club members who contribute to their service projects, each committed to a minimum of 15 volunteer hours quarterly as per the club’s standards.
With a team of 11 officers, including Kaur Sidhu’s brother and treasurer, Sartaj Singh, Helping Handz found success with their inaugural event in October 2024, a card-making and cancer caps donation event for patients at Seattle Children’s. The club was able to generate over 200 chemo caps for donation, along with more than 120 cards featuring personalized messages and specially assembled goodie bags with all their volunteers. Events like this not only offer meaningful moments for volunteers but also strengthen ties between UW Bothell students and the broader Seattle community, modeling compassionate leadership and civic responsibility. For Helping Handz, it is a way to show solidarity to families facing these times of hardship. “It [helps] those children feel more in touch with their community, as they can feel excluded, especially with living in a hospital [and] dealing with something that seems out of the norm,” Kaur Sidhu says.
They shortly after organized a blanket-making session to provide blankets to help local homeless shelters and low-income families stay warm in the winter. With up to five community members working on a single blanket at a time, it was more than a volunteering session. It was a powerful act of collective care through collaborative changemaking for the marginalized.
True to their mission of inclusivity and compassion, the club ensures that volunteers can keep any of the items they help make if they are in need themselves. Co-president, Kaur Sidhu, explains this open policy, saying, “We keep that option open because even if they are in need and don’t want to necessarily showcase that, they have the opportunity to take it home for their own use.” The club candidly expresses how amazed they are at the sheer amount of selflessness of so many who show up just to give back.
For the officers, Helping Handz is an extension of their deeply rooted cultural and spiritual background. Sukhman Singh, vice president and class of 2025 graduate, explains, “We’re all from the same cultural background, Sikhi, where it’s really about giving back.” Between volunteering at local temples and churches, the founding officers grew up engaging in community service and contributing to local initiatives with a strong sense of purpose from a young age. Continuing in this work is a form of taking deep pride in their cultural values and carrying them forward as a true representation of their Sikhi heritage. “We get everybody involved, from every demographic, and we all have one common goal, which is just to leave a better impact on our community,” Singh states.
Co-president, Gurleen Dosanjh, grounds herself with gratitude and an important understanding of privilege in the midst of it all. She shares, “Just being able to go to university or college, you’re already so fortunate. Realizing that and being able to be humble and have that perspective…You should be able to give back anything small or dedicate an hour of your time to make a blanket.”
One of the challenges Helping Handz faced in their initial months was garnering sufficient funding, as they were learning to navigate technical and logistical processes as a brand-new club. Events such as the blanket-making session were covered by the officers, who all came together to pitch in their own funds to see their vision come to life. “Our officers do want to make an impact, and they don't care necessarily if they have to use their own funding to make that impact, which speaks a lot about our students on campus,” says co-president, Dosanjh.
On June 2, Helping Handz hosted their biggest event of the year, the very first “Kindness Carnival”, in celebration of their first academic year of community service. Students and campus community members were invited to donate gently used books and create their own bookmarks and totes to give out, while also painting “kindness rocks” with encouraging words as a special surprise for passersby on campus.
Looking ahead, the graduating officers are excited to pass the baton over to a new diverse team of officers to carry their legacy forward. Based on some of their struggles in successfully launching a club and building up operations from scratch, they have recruited and have been training the next leaders of the club in advance, and are supporting them as they prepare for larger-scale initiatives starting in the fall. As the club continues to grow, they welcome students from the tri-campuses to get involved, including UW Seattle and UW Tacoma, as well as community members from Cascadia College, a local community college which shares campus grounds with UW Bothell.
As for words of wisdom they have for student leaders looking to make a difference, co-president Amrit Kaur Sidhu shares, “Reach out to people who are involved in the same type of organizations or who have started organizations themselves, and get all the help you need… so people are able to see, ‘Oh, I can make a change.’ ”
Vice president, Sukhman Singh, encourages aspiring changemakers to simply go for it, reminding them that there is no need to wait for the perfect moment to take action. “If you really want to make an impact, just do it. Leaving footprints, I feel, is the biggest thing. And that’s why I encourage everyone to get involved with their community.”
With their first year complete, Helping Handz has not only uplifted the community significantly through their steadfast dedication but built a strong foundation for a legacy of care. As new student leaders prepare to take the reins, the heart of the club remains unchanged: a commitment to service, inclusion, and compassion- one helping hand at a time.