I recently had the privilege to travel to Israel through the Boston-Haifa Learning Exchange, sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston.  Several other non-profit leaders also made the trip and we spent 8 days together exploring some of the  complex layers of Israeli society.

My time in Haifa, a port city in the North, was the main reason for this journey.  It was there that I spent four days meeting with Israeli non-profit leaders and social activists, walking through busy neighborhoods, visiting small businesses, eating and smelling wonderful foods. The Haifayim (group from Haifa) will visit us in  Boston in May.

Of course, I wanted to observe senior volunteers in action! I met Michal, a retired social worker who now volunteers twice a week at a kindergarten school.  On the  day of my visit,  Michal was eagerly engaged with the children on a lesson about street safety.  While I didn’t understand the language, it was clear what was being said.  The kids created red and green traffic lights, and with Michal’s help, rolled out a striped 4 foot wide, 12 foot long “sidewalk”.  They practiced holding hands, waiting for the signal to turn green, looking both ways, and crossing the street. For the second part of the lesson, she explained the importance of wearing seat belts in the car. One youngster burst out, “My mommy doesn’t wear a seat belt!”  So Michal went through a wonderful explanation that sometimes little kids can teach adults a lot, and that if the child tells her Mom why it’s so important to wear her seat belt, she probably would buckle up. I can guess what the discussion might have been between the 5 year old and Mom on the way home that day.

After class, I asked Michal why she volunteers. “My grown children and my grandchildren live in the US. I miss being near them. I volunteer so I can have a connection to children.”

That afternoon, a Boston colleague (Michael Weekes) and I visited a public school for children with Muscular Dystrophy and Cerebral Palsy. These kids are very disabled. There are 80 students in the school, and they represent a true cross section of Israel:  Jewish, Muslim, Christian children. There are 60 professional staff and 20 volunteers so on any given day there are nearly as many adults as students. The school boasts incredible therapies for the children, including garden therapy and aqua therapy.   The  volunteers are highly trained and many that I saw were assisting children with their meals.  Eating is not easy when you have no ability to control your hands.   Galit, the school principal, and Debby, the school’s social worker, showed us around.  They said that volunteers are needed to compliment  the very best care and education for the children.   When we were about to leave, Mike and I observed an 7 year old boy, trying to put one foot forward in front of the other with the help of a walker and leg braces. He was very tentative, perhaps because we were present. We both  gave him our best thumbs up and big smiles and a  lot of encouragement. In seconds, his confidence was restored and he was walking through the room, laughing with joy.  That’s  when I teared up. This little guy has such a hard climb ahead. But he  knows joy.

Civic engagement is a huge part of Israeli life. It starts early when teens are encouraged to volunteer in community and when most young adults serve in the Army. It is clear that the presence of volunteers in the two settings that I visited make a huge difference, for the very same reasons that it makes a difference here. People feel connected to others when they serve. And the kids who are served know that others  care about them and want to help. A price tag cannot be placed on this mutual benefit.

Reading Coaches Sessions in Action

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Florence leads small-group literacy activities two mornings per week, assisting the teacher in a variety of ways.  Recently, she took a student who was having a difficult morning on a walk around the school.  “If there hadn’t been someone else there, she wouldn’t have been able to leave class.  After we walked around, she was able to go back into class and work.  I find the response of the kids to the attention I can give beyond what the teacher can do the most rewarding part of being at Blackstone,” she says.

Early on during her service, Florence noticed that many of the students in the class had very poor dental hygiene.  Fortunately, dentists from Boston University School of Dental Medicine came to Blackstone to talk to the students about taking care of their teeth.  They brought a toothbrush for each student, but no toothpaste.

Florence took it upon herself to make sure that each student had toothpaste to take home as well.  “I went to my dentist, and I said, ‘I’ve given you a lot of business over the years.  Now it’s time for you to do something for me,’” she recalls.  Florence secured a donation of toothpaste from her dentist to supply the entire class.

As a thank you for the generous gift, the students made Florence (“Ms. Flo”) several large cards.  “They made me close my eyes and block my ears as they gave them to me.  I was enormously affected and appreciative of their response, and for the help of their incredible teacher.  The cards are now hanging on the wall in my study.”

Story by Dana Moyer