“Don’t discriminate! Don’t! Don’t hate! Don’t discriminate, just communicate!” –Ofarim campers raising awareness for their anti-discrimination cause

As you may have read, the Ofarim unit has been focusing on tikkun olam and social justice during Limud. They chose one of three causes: discrimination, poverty, and the environment. Then they studied their issue in depth over the course of a week and selected organizations to represent at the camp-wide Tzedakah Fair. On Thursday, each unit visited the fair and received five beads.

Campers went around the booths and heard Ofarim campers pitch their organizations. Then they showed their support by putting a bead into the empty water bottle that represented the various organizations. We used the beads to divide up the extra trip day money that campers had donated. In total, we raised $1000 dollars, with further contributions continuing to come in. Below are the amounts of money we raised. We also raised a tremendous amount of awareness as well as the spirits and self-esteem of our campers!

Click on the links to find out more about each organization.

World Wildlife Fund                                           $130

Keshet                                                                    $130

Everything Starts with One                               $110

Stand for Trees                                                     $110

Mazon                                                                    $100

Food Bank of Western Massachusetts            $100

Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation    $80

National Disability Rights Network                 $80

Anti-Defamation League                                    $80

Leket Yisrael                                                          $80

This week, K’tanim and Machon will lead us in our all-camp Shabbat T’filot. Focusing on this week’s Torah portion, Balak, which is the original source of the prayer Mah Tovu (How Good!), both units will focus on the positive aspects of our camp and our world. Here are some of the readings that will be shared by our K’tanim unit this evening:

Myles
How good is camp! We are so blessed to be here together.
The best part of camp is:
being with all my fellow campers

Zoe
How good is camp! We are so blessed to be here together.
The best part of camp is:
When we went to swim and boating. I love to swim.

Brayden
How good is camp! We are so blessed to be here together.
The best part of camp is:
Meeting everyone and Breira and the Mo and everything else…even Limud.

Sarah
How good is camp! We are so blessed to be here together.
The best part of camp is:
That we are all together like a family.