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August 16, 2002/Elul 8 5762, Vol. 54, No. 48
Repairing the world
Teens do community service across the Southwest
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
Care-a-van participants are, front row, from left to right, Leigha Mason, Allie Spitz, Tate Golden, Justin Harvey, Myra Shindler and Benjamin Harvey. Standing are Ean Goldberg, David Durr, Justin Pearlman, David Uffens, Josh Breisblatt, Ari Semons, Craig Miller, Dustin Seplow, Mike Evans, Andrew Weitsman, Beth Shindler and Ben Kluger. Back row are Adam Moskowitz, Ben Segel and David Kaminsky.
Photo courtesy of Myra Shindler
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While many teens were on vacation or away at camp, 20 Valley high school students spent part of their summer making a difference.
These students - 16 boys and four girls - participated in Hebrew High's Care-a-van, a 10-day-trip across the Southwest spent "repairing the world one city at time," according to Myra Shindler, Hebrew High principal.
After mulling over the idea for a couple of years, Shindler finally saw her idea come to fruition as the students, ages 14-18, along with four chaperones, boarded a charter bus on June 17. The group then spent the trip traveling through New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada doing community service, participating in social events, forming close bonds with new friends and immersing themselves in Jewish life.
The students spent the day before the trip serving more than 900 meals at the St. Vincent De Paul Dining Hall in Phoenix and then moved on to Las Vegas, N.M., where they cleared weeds from a Jewish cemetery.
The project that stood out most to Benjamin Harvey of Chandler, 15, involved clearing an alley of weeds and litter in Denver. The alley was located in a low-income neighborhood and once the group started making some progress, "several people came out of their houses and started cleaning up their own personal yards," Harvey says.
"The students saw that by helping to get things started, people will begin to help themselves," says Shindler.
To Tate Golden of Phoenix, 14, the most rewarding project was assisting an elderly woman clean her home and yard in Las Vegas, Nev.
"She had been in a situation where she couldn't clean up her house, and it had gotten so messy there was trash under her furniture and all over her house," Golden recalls. "The impact we made was so tremendous because she could then take it from us going there and then start working harder to keep her house up."
While Golden and others worked inside the woman's house, Justin Harvey, Benjamin's 17-year-old brother, worked with others on the outside.
"The backyard hadn't been maintained and it looked like a jungle," Justin Harvey says. "We trimmed back all the trees that were in desperate need of it. By the time we left, the yard looked pretty decent."
In addition to the community service work, there were also a variety of social events, including a Colorado Rockies and New York Yankees baseball game in Denver, a Las Vegas show and amusement park, and a white water rafting trip.
Despite the fact the young people said the social events were "fun" and "exciting," they were more impressed with the opportunity to live a Jewish life for 10 days.
"It was a good way to meet new friends who are Jewish because there aren't many Jewish kids at my school," says Golden, a freshman at Sunnyslope High School.
Justin Harvey agrees and says he only knows of four Jewish students, other than himself and his brother, at Chandler High School.
The group held daily services and discussion groups on the bus and brought food along with them to maintain a kosher lifestyle, restocking along the way and cooking their own food.
"They did learn about kashrut on the trip and that it was meaningful and they saw that it wasn't that difficult when the students were living it," says Shindler.
Shindler felt the most meaningful part of the trip for the teens was the Shabbat they spent at a Utah ski resort, where the young people all dressed for Shabbat dinner and then held a Torah service and song session in the woods.
"It was very heartwarming to hear all these kids singing on Shabbat and enjoying it and wanting to do it," she says.
Benjamin Harvey found the service particularly meaningful.
"I really loved the Shabbat service. We had it outside, and it was just a beautiful atmosphere that I don't usually experience. It was really wonderful," he recalls.
After living in such close quarters for nearly two weeks, the teens developed a close bond.
"We had a great group, but I think that was partly the people who were interested in this type of activity," says Shindler. "I think it was a special kind of young person who did sign up for (the trip). Not everybody thinks that community service is the type of thing they want to be doing."
The teens have already planned reunion events, and Golden and the Harveys all say that they want to participate in the trip again next year.
"It's a really good opportunity to meet new people and help out the community and reach out to people in need," says Golden.
While the trip was sponsored by Hebrew High, it was open to any Valley high school student. Hebrew High - the Phoenix High School of Jewish Studies - is a project of the Bureau of Jewish Education. The trip was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation. For information about next year's Care-a-van trip traveling through California, call the BJE at 602-234-1645.
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