Days of Caring and Sharing Community Service Program for JCC Summer Camps Focuses on Honoring Creation
New York, NY June 3, 2009—Forty-one JCC day and resident camps are using grants from the JCC Association/Legacy Heritage Fund Days of Caring and Sharing program to help their communities this summer. Thirty-three day camps and eight resident camps have been awarded grants totaling more than $68,000 to fund activities and projects focused on tikkun olam, improving the world we live in. To help ground the JCC Association/Legacy Heritage Fund Days of Caring and Sharing activities in Jewish values, JCC Association’s Mandel Center for Jewish Education has developed companion curricular units about Kevod Ha-briyot: Honoring Creation, the Days of Caring and Sharing theme for this summer. Through various activities and stories, campers and counselors will grapple with what it means to honor one another’s similarities, as well as differences. They will also examine the meaning of humanity’s charge to, “…fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth.” (Genesis 1:28).
In previous years, the themes for Days of Caring and Sharing included Gemilut Chassadim, Acts of Loving Kindness; V’ahavtah L’rei-akhah Kamokhah, Love Your Friend the Way You Love Yourself; and tzedakah, the Jewish concept of justice and charity. Patterned on the Days of Caring and Sharing projects at the JCC Maccabi Games® each August, participating camps spend time working on service activities that contribute to the welfare of the community. JCC Association held training sessions for this summer’s Days of Caring and Sharing program at its New York City headquarters, as well as in Atlanta, Atlantic City, California, and the Midwest, to help camp directors and staff get the most out of the program.
In participating camps this summer, campers will be creating recycling programs, planning and planting gardens, developing projects with teens with special needs as well as with seniors, starting composting programs, and doing other projects that help them appreciate the value of the environment and of other beings. As the criteria for the grants states, “It is very important to connect the community service to Jewish Values. Everybody does community service; however, we do it because it is a Jewish Value, and we want our campers to know that. It is written as a commandment.”
The following camps are participating in the 2009 program:
2009 JCC Association/Legacy Heritage Fund Days of Caring and Sharing Grant Awards
Day Camps
JCC Camps at Medford, Milton & Betty Katz JCC, Cherry Hill, NJ
Camp Achva, JCC of Northern Virginia, Fairfax, VA
Camp Butwin, JCC of the Greater St. Paul Area, St. Paul, MN
JCC Rainbow Day Camp, Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC, Milwaukee, WI
Neil Klatskin Day Camp, Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, Tenafly, NJ
JCC MetroWest Camp Diny Riback, JCC MetroWest, West Orange, NJ
Suffolk Y Camps, Suffolk Y JCC, Commack, NY
Camp Bernard Soloman, I.J. & Jeanne Wagner JCC, Salt Lake City, UT
Camp JCC, JCC of Greater Washington, Rockville, MD
Camp Olami, Stamford JCC, Stamford CT
JCCs of Chicago Day Camps
"Z" Frank Apachi Day Camp
Elaine Frank Apachi Day Camp
Apachi Chicago Day Camp
Apachi Village Day Camp
Anita Stone JCC Day Camp
Hyde Park JCC Day Camp
Bernard Horwich JCC Day camp
Meyer Kaplan JCC Day Camp
Barness Family JCC Camp, The Barness Family JCC, Chandler, AZ
Hot Time in the City Summer Day Camp, Washington DC JCC, Washington, DC
JCC Camp Ted Weisberg, Adolf & Rose Levis, Boca Raton, FL
Camp shalom, Jewish Community Association of Austin, Austin, TX
South Hills Day Camp, JCC of Greater Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Camp Haverim, Merage JCC of Orange County, Irvine, CA
JCC of the Greater Palm Beaches
Camp Shalom, Harold & Sylvia Kaplan JCC, West Palm Beach, FL
Camp Shalom, Henry & Ida Hochman JCC, Boynton Beach, FL
Rady JCC Day Camps, Rose & Max Rady JCC, Winnipeg, CA
Camp Hoover, Leo Yassenoff JCC of Greater Columbus, Columbus, OH
Osher Marin JCC Camp Kehilla, Osher Marin JCC, San Rafael, CA
Shorefront YM-YWHA Day Camp, Shorefront YM-YWHA of Brighton-Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, NY
Durham Chapel Hill JCC Day Camp, Durham Chapel Hill JCC, Durham, NC
Marks JCH Day Camp, Edith & Carl Marks JCH of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, NY
Samuel Field YM-YWHA, Little Neck, NY
Resident Camps
Camp Interlaken JCC, Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC, Milwaukee, WI
Camp Chi, JCC of Chicago, Skokie, IL
Surprise Lake Camp, New York, NY
Pinemere Camp, Philadelphia, PA
Camp Poyntelle Lewis Village, Samuel Field YM-YWHA, Bayside, NY
Denver Ranch Camp, Robert E. Loup JCC, Denver, CO
Berkshire Hills-Emanuel Camps, Ardsley, NY
Emma Kaufmann Camp, JCC of Greater Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
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JCC Association
is the leadership network of, and central agency for the Jewish
Community Center Movement, which is comprised of 350 JCC,
YM-YWHA and camp sites in the U. S. and Canada. JCC Association
offers a wide range of services and resources to strengthen
the capacity of its affiliates to provide educational, cultural,
social, Jewish identity-building, and recreational programs
to enhance the lives of North American Jews of all ages and
backgrounds. Additionally, the movement fosters and strengthens
connections between North American Jews and Israel as well
as with world Jewry. JCC Association is also the U.S. government
accredited agency for serving the religious and social needs
of Jewish military personnel, their families, and patients
in VA hospitals through JWB Jewish Chaplains Council.
Miriam
Rinn
Communications Manager
JCC Association
520 8th Ave., NY, NY 10018
212-786-5092
fax: 212-481-4174
send an e-mail
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