Below are activities supporting a variety of causes. Some involve a regular-time commitment. Others are time-limited (e.g. a collection drive of some kind).
1. Waltham Fields Community Farm, Waltham. Help grow food to give to local food pantries. Help is needed Sundays 10 – 4, and/or on weekdays. No experience necessary: orientations offered regularly. Visit www.communityfarms.org for more information, or contact Derek Christianson: (781) 899-2403. Student congregant Elana Rome did this same type of volunteering for a community farm in Concord (1997); Julia Hausman (2004) volunteered at Land’s Sake, a community farm in Weston (www.landssake.org, 781 893-1162).
2. The Community Day Center, Waltham. The Day Center is an afternoon shelter for homeless people. Director Elliott Hipp is looking for one to two kids to do a mini-internship: learn about the Day Center and homelessness in Waltham, and develop a presentation to present to kids at other Newton Hebrew schools (and other places, if there’s time and interest). Contact Miranda Phillips: phillipsville@hotmail.com.
3. The Second Step, Newtonville. The Second Step is a half-way house for moms and kids who are victims of domestic violence. The shelter needs a huge variety of help including (but not limited to) the following: painting rooms, doing yard work; also, organizational work (writing letters, making phone calls). Or, if you want to do a somewhat larger tikkun olam project together with your parent(s), you could do the following: “adopt” a Second Step family and do a variety of important things to help them transition from Second Step to their own apartment. Contact Miranda Phillips: phillipsville@hotmail.com.
4. Bristol Lodge Soup Kitchen, Waltham. Help serve meals to families. Sunday is a great time, but help is needed other times as well. Contact Dick Rogers, (781) 883-2050. DT congregants who have volunteered at Bristol Lodge are the Kaufman/Boguslaw family, and Saltz/Fader family.
5. Jewish Family Table, Brookline. Help organize food for delivery to needy families. Sunday mornings, once a month. Contact Dorshei Tzedek congregant Barbara Zolit: bzolit@aol.com. Kitah Zayin will volunteer as a group here in the fall. Monthly help would be greatly appreciated, and/or any of these time-limited projects: 1) collecting new kids gloves for winter (goal: 125 pairs), 2) raising funds for Thanksgiving turkeys, 3) Collecting items specifically for mothers for the Mother’s Day food deliveries (May).
1. Breaking Barriers tutoring program, Waltham. Help a Waltham elementary school child (and their parents) learn reading and math skills. The parents know English as a second language and would love tutoring from adults, so if your own parent would like to help, that would be most welcome! Call Gabriella Canepa: (617) 969 7100. Congregants who have volunteered with “Breaking Barriers” are Shana Hausman (student), and her dad, Ezra Hausman, and students Eli and Chloe Kuh.
2. The Harbor School, Dorchester – help Karen Engels, a teacher and Dorshei Tzedek congregant, collect supplies for her school. The following materials are all sorely needed due to recent Massachusetts budget cuts: copy paper (this year we'll be rationed) notebooks, especially Mead-style composition books three ring binders, 1 1/2 inch or bigger (for portfolios) used reading books, appropriate for middle school, arts/crafts supplies, pens, pencils, scissors, colored pencils, house paint (for play sets), fabric, etc. Contact Karen for more information: karenrosey@yahoo.com. She could also arrange for you to attend an event at the school – a dance performance (January) or exhibition of student work (mid-February) – so you can see where your donations are going!
3. The Second Step, Newtonville. (see Hunger/Homelessness, above).
1. Special Olympics – help with pre-schoolers at their summer day camp. Contact Mark Kelly at Newton Park and Recreation, 617 552-7120. Also ask about year-round opportunities to teach disabled kids to do a particular sport or physical activity. Student congregants who have done this are Rachel Sacks and Joey Hattis. Once a week, Rachel helps a disabled boy learn to swim; Joey helps with a baseball team of kids with special needs.
2. ASPIRE, An After-school Program for children with special needs. Held Monday-Friday from 3-5:30PM at the Day Middle School in Newton and at the Paul Merritt Center in Needham. Participate and be a role model for special needs kids in after-care activities: games, crafts, music. No experience necessary – just an interest in helping kids with special needs! For more information, call Doreen Cummings 781-972-1018.
1. Hebrew Rehab, Center St., Roslindale – contact Jodie Portman, 617 363-8459, director of volunteer services. Need volunteers to (1) Help residents in wheel chairs to attend and return from on-site Shabbat services (9-11:30) and concerts, etc. (2) Visit regularly with a particular elder (min. commitment twice/month for 2-3 months): play chess, chat, etc. (3) Through Carol Rose (clinical supervisor of recreation therapy) can help with special projects (e.g., holidays, rituals, oral history, other proposals). (4) Help lead a piece of Shabbat morning services (with lots of guidance and prep from Hebrew Rehab professionals).
2. Jewish Family & Children’s Services - Margie Sokoll, 558-1278; Also, Dorshei Tzedek member Ira Schor. Friendly visiting program in non-sectarian nursing homes.
1. Clean-up: Adopt a body of water (or piece of a body of water) near you. Collect trash there with friends and/or family. Take some time you would have spent with friends or family anyway and use it to make our water cleaner! Minimum time commitment: twice in fall and twice in Spring.
2. Waltham Fields Community Farm: See listing under “Hunger” above.
“The Green Squad”: Make your school healthier by helping to check for environmental hazards: pesticides, dangerous cleaning fluids, molds and mildews, and things that cause asthma. Go to www.nrdc.org/greensquad, an award-winning website specially designed to help kids improve their school environment.
Unfortunately, most animal shelters cannot use volunteers under the age of 14. However, shelters are always in need of funds and supplies:
1. MSPCA (Mass. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), Jamaica Plain. MSPCA is a shelter for all kinds of animals. They need clean blankets and towels, toys, and pet food. A student congregant who has collected supplies for the MSPCA is Laura Greenly. Michelle Blitzman collected blankets for another shelter – the Animal Rescue League.
2. Canine Companions: Occasionally there are opportunities for kids to help this wonderful organization which trains seeing-eye dogs. Help is needed with fundraisers, advertising, and sometimes playing with the dogs to help socialize them. For details, visit www.caninecompanions.org. Look for contacts in the Northeast region.
1. Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown. Kitah Zayin will visit Perkins as a group in the winter, and will do a project in class at Dorshei Tzedek to benefit the Perkins school. Perkins also needs help sorting audio cassettes in their library. An hour every week or every other week would be most welcome! Call Mike Catarazolo, head of volunteer services, 617 972-7224.
1. Labor: Learn about Disney’s misuse of labor in foreign countries and advocate for fair treatment of their workers. This would involve making calls and writing letters to Disney and to politicians. To learn more about this issue, visit http://www.DisneySweatshops.org. To learn more about labor issues generally, visit the National Labor Coalition at www.nlcnet.org.
2. AIDS Orphans Education Project (AOEP): AOEP is a group of Newton middle-school and high-school students raising funds to help African AIDS orphans attend school in their own countries. To volunteer with AOEP, email aoep_contact@yahoo.com. One way to help is with the group’s fall fundraiser. Every fall AOEP has its “Walk for Hope” – a 3.5 mile walk to raise funds and awareness. The walk begins and ends at Newton North High School. Help is needed with set-up and clean-up for the walk, and support for the walkers.
Need More Ideas?
The United Way of Massachusetts Bay has a fabulous guide for kids of all ages who want to volunteer. Visit www.uwmb.org/volunteer.htm. Click on “Volunteer Guide for Youth”. Download the 66 page guide. Go to page 58 and 59 for a list of volunteer opportunities organized by geographic area and minimum age. See page 56 for a list of family group opportunities.