International Youth Day 2015
Posted on August 11, 2015
International Youth Day is celebrated on August 12 each year to recognize efforts of youth throughout the world to enhance our society. This special day also promotes ways to engage youth in becoming more actively involved in making positive contributions to their communities.
We couldn’t be more excited to celebrate International Youth Day as Areyvut is all about inspiring kids and teens to be active members of their community through the Jewish values of chesed (kindness), tzedakah (charity) and tikkun olam (social action).
The theme of this year’s International Youth Day is Civic Engagement, encouraging youth to participate in various projects that help achieve sustainable development.
We wanted to share with you stories of exceptional children who are actively working to make this world a better place and are truly embodying the values of kindness, charity and social action.
1. Ora Friedman : Inspired by Areyvut to give back to her community, Ora organized a teen committee to facilitate and execute a bake sale. After putting hard work into organizing all details of the bake sale, Ora and her committee raised $1,900 for OneFamily, an Israeli organization that helps victims of terror.
Read more about how Ora is impacting her community here:
http://www.freshinkforteens.com/articles/raising-dough-israel
2. Marissa Hacker and Andrew Plotch: Marissa and Andrew, two teens from New Jersey have recently received a $36,000 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award on behalf of the work they are doing to make the world a better place. Marissa founded Fantastic Friends, an organization for special needs children that is staffed and managed by teen volunteers. Andrew has created the Fight Apathy campaign which encourages students to stand up for their beliefs, both politically and socially.
3. Jake Vistoso: Jake, who wears a hearing aid yet had trouble understanding their rabbi, wanted to help tackle that auditory challenge for his bar mitzvah project. He created a “hearing loop”, a stand of wire hidden under the carpet of the sanctuary that transmits audio from the Rabbi’s microphone directly into hearing aids. He raised $3,500 to make this possible and is making a major change in the lives of the hearing impaired at his synagogue.
If you would like to share a story of an exceptional teen who embodies the values of kindness, charity and social action, please email us at [email protected]. Looking forward to hearing from you!
