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January 30, 2004/Shevat 7 5764, Vol. 56, No. 19
Social action
Youth groups work together to do community service
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
More than 150 teens volunteered throughout the Valley on Jan. 16 as part of the North American Federation of Temple Youth's Social Action Weekend. Pictured at Jewish Family & Children's Service's People's Thrift Shop are Hadas Gold; Florence Curry, store manager; and Tera Dollin.
Photo by Mike Pressendo
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The People's Thrift Shop of Jewish Family & Children's Service is in need of volunteers, so a group of teens went to lend a hand.
On Jan. 16, more than 150 teens descended on a variety of organizations in the Valley, including the thrift shop, to spend a day serving the community as part of the Social Action Weekend for North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) Southwest, hosted by Temple Chai Temple Youth (TCTY).
The teens, who came from Arizona, New Mexico, Las Vegas and El Paso, Texas, were broken down into teams. Each group participated in a community service project in the morning and another in the afternoon, according to Jody Leeds, TCTY adviser. Projects included packing food boxes at food banks, painting over graffiti in Phoenix with the Graffiti Busters program, painting the Boys and Girls Club of the East Valley, sorting donated items at a shelter for pregnant women, reading and singing with chronically ill children and doing office work at Phoenix Children's Hospital.
Florence Curry, manager of the People's Thrift Shop, says the store "desperately, desperately, desperately needs volunteers." While she has two regular volunteers, she says she could use assistance on a daily basis. She says the teens were a great help.
"They were fabulous. The guys were helping weed out clothes in the women's section that had been hanging too long ... and another group went in our kitchen room and straightened dishes and china and set a little table we have in the room," recalls Curry. "I had two hours of pure joy with those kids."
Stacy Leeds, regional vice president of membership and communication, participated in packing food boxes at the Salvation Army, and helping sort donations at Maggie's Place, a shelter for pregnant women.
"It was very rewarding to know that you were helping a real, live person - that you were making a difference in someone's life," she says.
After finishing the community service projects, the teens went to their host homes to prepare for Shabbat. On Saturday, the group worshipped together and took part in an educational workshop about social action in the afternoon. Dan Nichols, a modern Jewish rock musician, performed a concert for the teens on Saturday evening.
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