SERVE Week: the stories we pack along the way

Every year, SERVE Week in Hamilton County reminds us that service is never just about the task in front of us. Through Serve Village and the many nonprofit organizations that come together, we show up year after year asking a simple but powerful question: What can we do next to serve our community?

Sometimes the answer looks like landscaping projects. Sometimes it means helping local nonprofits, supporting food insecurity initiatives, assisting elderly neighbors, or rolling up our sleeves for projects that simply need more hands. And yet, every single year, I find myself realizing that while we come to serve, we leave carrying something much bigger – the stories behind the service.

Over the last two days, our family joined SERVE Week efforts at IDES – the Indiana Disaster Recovery Center here in Noblesville – helping pack meals for communities facing crisis around the world. Together, hundreds of volunteers, with small hands and big hands and everything in between, packed nearly 28,000 meal packets. Each station had a simple role: rice, oats, dry vegetables, seasoning, sealing, boxing. Repetitive motions, simple ingredients, but each meal carried a deeper purpose.

Every sealed packet reminded me that somewhere, beyond borders we may never cross, someone we may never meet will receive that meal in one of their darkest moments. And while they may not know our names, these meals quietly say something powerful: We see you. We care about you. You matter to us.

But what stayed with me most yesterday was not just the meal packing itself. It was a story I unexpectedly became part of.

One of the IDES employees, Ryan Naylor, was wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt – something that stood out on an ordinary Wednesday in Indiana. I complimented him on it, casually mentioning how fun it felt for the middle of the week.

That simple observation opened the door to a story that immediately gave me goosebumps.

Ryan shared that the Hawaiian shirt has become his way of honoring his daughter, Anna, who passed away last year. Before her passing, Anna and Ryan spent years doing meal packing events together at churches and service projects across Michigan and neighboring states. It became their daddy-daughter tradition – family time centered around serving others. Somewhere along the way, Hawaiian shirts became their inside joke.

After losing Anna, Ryan made a promise to wear a Hawaiian shirt every Wednesday to keep her memory alive. Over time, coworkers, friends, and community members who know the story quietly joined in, wearing Hawaiian shirts alongside him.

A few hours later, another volunteer arrived – a disabled gentleman, proudly wearing his own Hawaiian shirt, making sure Ryan knew he was standing beside him in remembrance of Anna.

And in that moment, I saw community at its purest form.

Sometimes supporting someone grieving is not about grand gestures. Sometimes it is simply wearing a shirt. Standing together. Silently carrying someone else’s memory with them.

My youngest daughter was deeply moved by Ryan’s story. She insisted on returning the very next day, determined to pack even more meals than before. Somehow, daughter to daughter, she connected with Anna’s story.

And it felt familiar to me too. As a daughter myself, I think of my father living oceans away in India. Every time I see the solid black shirts he loved wearing for every occasion, I feel our connection continuing forward.

Serve Week reminds us that while we come to serve others, sometimes the greatest gift is discovering the beautiful human stories we carry home with us.

Pooja Thakkar is working to build cultural connections. You can read her column each week in the pages of The Reporter.