CHUSY: Can Food Drive
Although this program sounds like a typical collection of can foods, our drive was much more. Our weekly programs are on Tuesday nights, and this year Halloween happened to be on a Tuesday night. Knowing most people would be home, we mapped out different neighborhoods of our congregants and went door to door, collecting can foods to donate. We started at one of our USYers houses, divided into groups with maps of the neighborhoods in our area, and started ringing doorbells. As the homeowners came to the door, we were offered candy, but turned it down, explaining that we were not trick or treating, but that we were collecting food to donate to different food pantries. After an hour, when our trunks were full, we meet at another USYers house for dinner and then set off to collect more cans. After all was said and done, we collected 280 cans that were donated to the local food pantry and 288 cans that were donated to the ARK. For more information about the ARK please check out the website at www.arkchicago.org.

CRUSY: BGUSY Rent-A-Kid
This year, our chapter rented USYers out to help Beth El congregants with their daily chores. We realized that in the past, we have spent a lot of time asking for money in various ways without actually giving near enough back to the community. So, we had several kids rented out to rake lawns, baby sit, move furniture, help around houses, do lawn work, and much, much more. This way, we were not simply basing SATO upon retrieving money, but we were helping out our Beth El community as well. Rent-A-Kid lasted the entire month of November, and we received enthusiastic remarks from several members of our congregation about the helpful work that we did for them.

Hagalil
For our SA/TO Night this year, USYers began by helping the synagogue's Men's Club to pack and label Yom HaShoah remembrance candles to be mailed to synagogue congregants. Each congregant receives a candle to light in memory of those who perished in the Holocaust. After packing the candles, USYers wrote Pesach cards to be delivered to the Jewish Federation senior home.

Hagesher
On a Sunday in spring, The Friendship Circle, a group of special needs children from the Philadelphia area, came to Har Zion to spend the afternoon with USYers. Members of HZTUSY joined forces with members from several other chapters to meet the kids and spent the afternoon interacting with them. To start the afternoon off, each USYer was partnered with a child from The Friendship Circle. First, the pairs moved around the room, traveling to different stations: some created matzah covers while others made Israeli Flags out of matzah, using vanilla icing and strips of sour candy. Then everyone joined back together to wrap gifts that USYers brought to the event. Toward the end of the afternoon, some of the partners went to the synagogue playground and played games while others read books and did puzzles in the synagogue classrooms.

Hanefesh: Purim SA/TO Carnival
Sunday morning, March 4, Emanuel USY put on a Purim Mitzvah carnival for the congregation. This was the synagogue's first ever Purim Carnival. However this was not your average Purim carnival. We worked to have the carnival included into the Hebrew schools special family program and from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Emanuel USYers and Synagogue members made sock puppets for the Connecticut Children's Medical Center and peanut butter & jelly, tuna fish, and egg salad sandwiches for the South Park Inn, a food kitchen in Hartford, CT. There were various booths run by Kadimanicks that displayed their Bar/Bat Mitzvah projects and encouraged carnival goers to help. We also had the synagogue's B'yadenu committee present to run a Save Darfur booth. Overall USY made approximately 250 sandwiches and by working with other branches of the synagogue we were also able to raise the awareness of USYers and synagogue members alike.

Hanegev
Project Ezra is a program where we took a Friday night in November to lead Kabbalat Shabbat and Oneg for the seniors.

METNY
Every year, Bet Torah USY and Bet Torah Kadima join together to host a special Purim carnival for adults with developmental disabilities. USYers and Kadima members meet clients at the door and spend the afternoon playing games and coloring with them. After the USYers assist our guests at the game stations, we all join together to enjoy a sing-a-long with the rabbi and cantor of our synagogue. Our guests are encouraged to dance and our USYers help to lead them. Following our sing-a-long, the USYers bid our guests farewell, giving each guest a goody-bag as they leave. Since we have been doing this program for a number of years, many of our guests return each year and have formed special friendships with some of our members.

NERUSY: SA/TO Sundays
We started with lunch and a text study on homelessness. Then we traveled to Cambridge to help serve dinner to the needy and stayed after to wash dishes and clean up. This was a very rewarding experience. The guests and the volunteers were all so nice and appreciative. We had some very interesting conversations with the guests. Cradles to Crayons is a collection and distribution agency for toys, games, school supplies, etc. to homeless and underprivileged children. On our visit, we're going to help sort through donations. We're really excited because we've been trying to go there for a few years now. They're very popular!

New Frontier: Marin Crop Walk
The highlight of our Social Action programming was our participation in the Marin County Interfaith Crop Walk, which is directed at spreading awareness about hunger and lack of clean water the world over. USYers marched with members of their congregation, young and old. They carried picket signs, alerting the public to our cause, and hauled large buckets of water for several miles in the hot sun so that they, too, could feel what many of the world's poor have to go through each day, if only for an hour or two. The event raised thousands of dollars for disaster response, refugee resettlement, self-help development, and poverty alleviation, but we were particularly proud of being one of the few representations of the teenage religious population of Marin.

Pinwheel
One of our best social actions that we held this year took place at a homeless shelter in North Vancouver where we both prepared and served a Jewish home cooked meal of chicken, vegetables and potatoes. Our kids also had a chance to entertain the needy with live music and singing, as well as smiling faces and many plates of good food. Both the residents, the staff and the Chesed committee complimented and thanked us for doing such a wonderful job. Although, the most rewarding part was the warm feeling that all of us left with.

Tzafon
Akiba's number one social action program with year was the Senior Prom. We decided to hold a themed dance for the senior citizens at a nearby assisted living facility. At the board meeting before this event we picked a theme, which was Movie Premieres/Academy Awards. The decorations and food revolved around this theme. The President and the Social Action VP met with the program director at the facility who offered to book a band and have their kitchen make snacks for the event as well as provide drinks. The day of the program we arrived a few hours early to set up the room and hang decorations such as streamers, movie posters, old fashion movie reels, and movie tickets. We also all got dressed up, girls wearing dresses, and boys wearing suits. When the attendees arrived and the music started playing we introduced ourselves and had a fun afternoon full of dancing and socializing and making sure the residents had a good time.

Seaboard
Peanut Butter and Jelly Lounge Night was our best Social Action program. This is the third year of this lounge night as a result of its popularity. We create many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, usually in the form of a competition between USYers (to see who can make the most). In the end, we donate to the Rockville Men's Shelter. Who can resist playing with and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?

SWUSY: Challah for Hunger
Hillel is always looking for new ways to become involved in what our local USY chapter is doing, and when they contacted us, we were looking for a really exciting and fun Social Action project.

click here to return to the main page