Volunteering is intended to help others, but acts of tzedakah can also help one learn about one’s own life.
“It made me realize that our lives are pretty easy,” says Josh Hubert, a seventh-grader from Menlo Park. “You can forget how lucky you are and Team Tzadek made me think about that because I met some people who have a very different life.”
Team Tzadek is a new community service project from S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services. The effort is designed to help kids preparing for their b’nai mitzvah to learn about the value of community and the important role that youth can play in making a difference.
More than 35 sixth- and seventh-graders from around the Bay Area participated in the inaugural year of the program. Throughout the last few months, the Team Tzadek groups have performed a variety of community service activities helping the elderly, poor, infirm and disabled in both the Bay Area and Mexico.
Josh, along with seven other Peninsula youth, chose to throw a Chanukah party at Lytton Gardens, a senior facility in Palo Alto. They were also each matched up with a child from Mexico to whom they donated school supplies. Josh’s mother, Helen, who participated in several of the Team Tzadek events, was impressed with the program’s ability to get the kids to engage. “Matching the children here up with someone in Mexico really helps the kids connect. It makes it more personal and gets them involved.”
“This is an age where children and parents are really looking for growth and understanding,” says Rachel Kesselman, director of volunteer services for JFCS. “We thought it was a great time to communicate the value of community responsibility and what it means to be an adult.”
The three chapters of Team Tzadek, in Marin, San Francisco and on the Peninsula, all began with an educational session for the youth as well as some workshops to help the kids decide what projects they would like to tackle. “We wanted to make sure,” continues Kesselman, “that we were helping the kids walk in the shoes of some of the people they were going to interact with before introducing them.”
This approach was very effective for Tiburon seventh-grader Sarah Jainchill. “One of the projects we chose was working with people with disabilities,” she says. “We went through a couple of exercises beforehand so we could feel how hard it may be to read or write with a disability. That made it more interesting when we actually went and met the people and it was easier to understand what they go through”
In San Francisco, sixth-grader Kailin Koch and 14 others at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav were quick to jump at the opportunity of Team Tzadek. “I met so many people that I would have never met had I not done the program,” says Kailin. She and her teammates made Chanukah baskets, which they delivered in the community, and worked with Chicken Soupers, a Congregation Beth Sholom group that prepares meals and delivers them to homebound recipients.
“When we delivered the food,” adds Kailin, “you would always stay for a visit. You learn a great deal about people, and they are always so thankful. That makes it rewarding.” Kailin, who will have her bat mitzvah in May 2006, is considering participating in the program next fall as well.
All three teams will have a Team Tzadek graduation later this spring, at which time they will talk about their experiences with the program. Kesselman is already looking forward to increasing the scope next year and involving as many kids as possible. “We think children really respond to the idea of doing these activities as a group. It gets them more involved and they can share it with friends.”
Team Tzadek will be expanding in the fall. Information: Rachel Kesselman, JFCS, (415) 449-1288.