Have you ever wondered how you could take one thing and apply it to another? Like adding new rules to a game? Or making something work for a group of people who really need it? Well, us Dillers used our creative minds this past Sunday, and did just that. During the course of our Diller year, we will be creating our very own Tikun Olam (community service) projects, and after speaking with Diller 4, we gained some insight as to what we could possibly do to benefit our community. But, we were going to need help getting started, and our workshop last Sunday proved to be extremely beneficial.
First, we started out with two dice. One die had various games, such as Jungle Speed, Red Light Green Light, Charades and so forth, while the other had things like “Add Candy”, “Add a Ball”, and “Add a Hula-hoop”. Both dice were rolled, and with the results, we’d come up with a way to combine the two thi
ngs to make a better game. For example, we tried using a Hula-hoop to play charades, and candy during the game “red light, green light”. We were even allowed to change the rules of the game completely!
After this warm up, Leah changed our dice. In front of us were two completely different cubes. On one cube were things like “Children”, “Special Needs” and “The Environment”. On the other die, we now had things like “Giving Time”, “Creating Awareness”, and “Building Bridges. As the dice were thrown, ideas were shared about how to incorporate the two words that were rolled – “Awareness” with “Special Needs”, “Give Time” with “Children”, and “Donation Drive” with “Elderly”. And as more and more ideas were shared, we truly started to understand the meaning of these Tikun Olam projects. After leaving the workshop, we found ourselves excited to begin a project that would suit our own ideas and interests, and in addition, most importantly, make a difference.
We all then marched down the hallway showing off our new Diller t-shirts (#swag), on our way to what turned out to be a gathering of many teens in addition to us, all waiting to hear Yossi Katz, an educator from Alexander Muss High School in Israel. Yossi told us a funny and touching story about how a man is rewarded by G-d granting for his good deeds. The main character learns an important lesson about not being quick to judge others.
After being pumped up by Yossi Katz, it was time for us start the talk for Super Sunday, in hopes of raising money for MetroWest’s annual United Jewish Appeal (UJA) campaign by soliciting donations from members of the MetroWest Jewish community. Many of us had never volunteered at Super Sunday before and did not know exactly what to expect. We arrived at the room and were struck by the frenetic activity and loud buzz of people talking on a huge array of phones. I have to admit that I, and I think many of us, were a bit nervous at first. We didn’t want to flub our lines, say something embarrassing, or not know how to answer a question. After making our first few calls, we all relaxed and had fun together while we pursued our common goal. The money that we were trying to raise was in an effort to help the UJA assist people who are in need, such as those experiencing economic or personal struggles, those with special needs, and the elderly, both here and in Israel. Some of the people we called make pledges yearly, some donate inconsistently, and for some of the people we called, our goal w
as to convince them to make their very first donation. Whenever our phone calls resulted in pledges we would proudly wave our mini Israeli flags in the air in order to be credited with a raffle ticket. At the end of Super Sunday, some great prizes were raffled off to the volunteers, such as a watch, a signed New York Giants poster, and the grand prize of a new Dell laptop.
After hours of dialing and feeling the excitement of successfully recording some pledges, Super Sunday was coming to a close. To the delight of everybody, the raffle was about to take place. Participants dug through their pockets to collect all of the tickets they earned, hoping they would have the winning ticket and be able to claim one of the coveted prizes. As it turned out, Noga, the young emissary, drew a winning ticket that belonged to a Diller fellow: Congratulations to Rachel Scheckmen- she won a brand new watch!This happy result marked the close to another great afternoon of bonding with our Diller family! We came away from Super Sunday feeling proud and elated that we had participated in raising funds to help our Jewish community both locally, and globally.
First, we started out with two dice. One die had various games, such as Jungle Speed, Red Light Green Light, Charades and so forth, while the other had things like “Add Candy”, “Add a Ball”, and “Add a Hula-hoop”. Both dice were rolled, and with the results, we’d come up with a way to combine the two thi
ngs to make a better game. For example, we tried using a Hula-hoop to play charades, and candy during the game “red light, green light”. We were even allowed to change the rules of the game completely!After this warm up, Leah changed our dice. In front of us were two completely different cubes. On one cube were things like “Children”, “Special Needs” and “The Environment”. On the other die, we now had things like “Giving Time”, “Creating Awareness”, and “Building Bridges. As the dice were thrown, ideas were shared about how to incorporate the two words that were rolled – “Awareness” with “Special Needs”, “Give Time” with “Children”, and “Donation Drive” with “Elderly”. And as more and more ideas were shared, we truly started to understand the meaning of these Tikun Olam projects. After leaving the workshop, we found ourselves excited to begin a project that would suit our own ideas and interests, and in addition, most importantly, make a difference.
We all then marched down the hallway showing off our new Diller t-shirts (#swag), on our way to what turned out to be a gathering of many teens in addition to us, all waiting to hear Yossi Katz, an educator from Alexander Muss High School in Israel. Yossi told us a funny and touching story about how a man is rewarded by G-d granting for his good deeds. The main character learns an important lesson about not being quick to judge others.
After being pumped up by Yossi Katz, it was time for us start the talk for Super Sunday, in hopes of raising money for MetroWest’s annual United Jewish Appeal (UJA) campaign by soliciting donations from members of the MetroWest Jewish community. Many of us had never volunteered at Super Sunday before and did not know exactly what to expect. We arrived at the room and were struck by the frenetic activity and loud buzz of people talking on a huge array of phones. I have to admit that I, and I think many of us, were a bit nervous at first. We didn’t want to flub our lines, say something embarrassing, or not know how to answer a question. After making our first few calls, we all relaxed and had fun together while we pursued our common goal. The money that we were trying to raise was in an effort to help the UJA assist people who are in need, such as those experiencing economic or personal struggles, those with special needs, and the elderly, both here and in Israel. Some of the people we called make pledges yearly, some donate inconsistently, and for some of the people we called, our goal w
as to convince them to make their very first donation. Whenever our phone calls resulted in pledges we would proudly wave our mini Israeli flags in the air in order to be credited with a raffle ticket. At the end of Super Sunday, some great prizes were raffled off to the volunteers, such as a watch, a signed New York Giants poster, and the grand prize of a new Dell laptop.After hours of dialing and feeling the excitement of successfully recording some pledges, Super Sunday was coming to a close. To the delight of everybody, the raffle was about to take place. Participants dug through their pockets to collect all of the tickets they earned, hoping they would have the winning ticket and be able to claim one of the coveted prizes. As it turned out, Noga, the young emissary, drew a winning ticket that belonged to a Diller fellow: Congratulations to Rachel Scheckmen- she won a brand new watch!This happy result marked the close to another great afternoon of bonding with our Diller family! We came away from Super Sunday feeling proud and elated that we had participated in raising funds to help our Jewish community both locally, and globally.
No comments:
Post a Comment