by Leah Koenig | December 31, 2012 | 0 comments
Every year, newspapers and magazines like to put out “predictions” lists – roundups that attempt to guess what trends and surprises the following year might hold in music, fashion, food, business, politics and so on. (According to those lists, 2013 is likely to bring us more sour foods – yay pickles! – and the return of Bermuda shorts.
We think those lists are fun – but here at Repair the World, we take a slightly different approach to the New Year. That’s because, we know that no matter what becomes trendy (or falls off the “hot” list), one thing that never goes out of style is service. The world’s most pressing issues change from year to year, and decade to decade. But at the end of the day, helping others and strengthening our communities through volunteering is simply timeless.
So this New Year, as we write our lists of resolutions, and dig out our favorite party hats (or those funny, good-for-one-night-only 2013 sunglasses), we invite everyone to rededicate ourselves to compassion and loving-kindness, to acts of service and charity, and to our responsibility to Repair the World. And because we can’t entirely resist those end-of-year lists, here’s our Top 10 favorite posts and interviews from 2012. Enjoy!
TOP 10 POSTS FROM 2012
- Rock Stars Who Make a Difference: In celebration of World Music Day, we checked out some musicians who spend their free time volunteering and making a difference in the world.
- Interview with Seth Goldman: The “TeaEO” of Honest Tea talked with us about their new recycling initiative, which featured a giant recycling bin built in Times Square.
- Gleaning and Feeding in Israel: Joseph Gitler of the Israel-based organization Leket talked about their gleaning program, which empowers thousands of volunteers each year to harvest excess produce from farmers’ fields and distribute it to needy families.
- November, Movember: Repair the World celebrated the international month of mustaches, a.k.a. Movember – when guys around the world grow ‘staches to raise awareness about and funds for prostate cancer research and other men’s health issues.
- Interview with a Teen Book Queen: 11-year old Abby Richmond wowed us with the books (yes, more than one!) she’s written, and the $3,000 she’s raised and donated from book sale proceeds.
- Feeding Teens’ Body and Soul in Seattle: We interviewed Robert Beiser of JConnect in Seattle, which works with the awesome organization Teen Feed to help teens who are homeless in the city.
- Harnessing the Power of Video Games: In honor of National Video Game Day (it really exists!) we checked in with the organization Global Kids, which uses video games and Second Life to empower teens to do good.
- Interview with Noam Parness: Find out how one awesome college student brought LGBT awareness to campus at Queens College in New York.
- Two 9/11 Heros: For the 11th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, we interviewed two rabbis, Stephen Roberts and Simkha Weintraub, who played an important role in helping families grieve and heal.
- Two views on Hurricane Sandy: In addition to providing up-to-the-minute service opportunities after the hurricane, we published the powerful reflections from several volunteers and responders, including Repair the World staffers Jacqueline Broder and Talya Gillman.
What was your favorite Repair the World post from 2012? Let us know in the comments below or by tweeting @repairtheworld.
by Leah Koenig | December 27, 2012 | 0 comments
Photo courtesy of Annie Harkavy (pictured, right).
For more than 40 years, the WUJS Israel program has empowered post-college age men and women to live, experience, and volunteer in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. Participants grow personally and professionally, while making a difference in their jobs and communities.
Over those past four decades, more than 8,000 graduates have participated in WUJS. Current WUJS participant, Annie Harkavy, took the time to talk with Repair the World about her volunteer work with children at the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, and how service really runs in her family.
Can you tell me more about your background with service?
I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and our JCC was a big part of our life. My parents were also really involved with the Jewish Federation. I first got involved with volunteering and group philanthropy around my bat mitzvah. Then in college at Indiana University I was in a Jewish sorority that did a lot of work with Sharsheret, and also involved in community service in a local hospital. We would go hang out with the kids at the hospital, and throughout the year we’d hold events and invite the kids to come to campus.
How did you find the WUJS program?
My aunt actually did it 30 years ago, so that’s how I first learned about it! My mom lives in Israel now and wanted me to come do something here after college. I knew I wanted to do hands-on work and get experience and stay in the field of medicine, which I studied in college. I also knew I wanted to work with kids. This program seemed to have all of those components.
What do you do there?
I work in the children’s emergency room, and basically do anything they tell me to do! I work on the patient charts, assist when nurses are drawing blood and spend time with the kids, comforting them when they’re sad. They laugh at my Hebrew and try to teach me.
How did you get so passionate about working with children?
I have always loved helping kids. Growing up I was a camp counselor and baby sat. With kids, and especially working in a hospital, every day is different and you really feel like you’re making a tangible difference. It’s hard work, but really satisfying.
Tell me more about the experience at WUJS – what’s it like?
It brings together a group of post college-age students to come and experience living in Israel. We live together an apartment complex in South Tel Aviv, and all work in different places. We have a travel day every week, and there are many different lectures, events, and leadership trainings that we’re able to take advantage of. Even though I am not getting paid for my work this year at the hospital, I don’t think about it that way. This is my chance to make a difference. I’m hoping to stick with volunteering here once a week, even when this year is over.
by Leah Koenig | December 24, 2012 | 2 comments
Jewish tradition decrees that all Jewish people are obligated to eat Chinese food and watch movies on Christmas. Well, okay, that’s not officially true – but sometimes it seems that way!
On a more serious note, for people who do not have family or religious obligations on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the holiday offers an amazing opportunity to give back and volunteer. The world’s needs do not stop for the holiday – hunger, poverty, and other challenges continue on as always. With much of the country’s citizens spending their days celebrating with loved ones, the need for Christmas volunteers – in soup kitchens and pantries, at hospitals and senior homes, and elsewhere – is particularly great.
Celebrate the season of giving! This year, in between bites of vegetable lo mein and heading out to see Monsters, Inc. 3D at the local movie theater, make time for service. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Help Hurricane Sandy Victims Do you live in NYC? Join the Family to Family network and get paired with a family in need for a week (or more!) to provide them with support in making their holiday special. Or sign up to host a family in need at your holiday table. You can also make a hurricane relief donation from anywhere – via UJA-Federation, Nechama, or the Mayor’s Fund.
- Find a shelter. The National Coalition for the Homeless offers ideas and resources to help plug into volunteer opportunities, and links to a few national databases so you can locate a shelter nearby.
- Find a soup kitchen. Feeding America, an anti-hunger organization lets you search by zip code to find a soup kitchen near you. And FoodPantries.org helps you locate a nearby food pantry that may be accepting volunteers on Christmas.
- Find an animal shelter. The ASPCA’s website features a shelter finder database. Spend Christmas day playing and walking with the adorable dogs and cats at a shelter nearby.
- Visit a hospital or senior center. For seniors and hospital-bound patients without family members, Christmas can be a particularly lonely time. Head to a nearby hospital or senior center and spend time with a resident or patient. Bring an instrument, a game, or just a smile and a listening ear. There’s no better way to make someone’s holiday.
Do you and your family have a tradition of service on Christmas? Let us know in the comments below, or by tweeting us @repairtheworld.
by admin | December 21, 2012 | 0 comments
by Devon Rubenstein and Emily Phillips
If you told us when we were still students at the University of Michigan that we would graduate to organizing monthly service days for Michigan State, we would have said, “Thanks but no thanks, AmeriCorps!” Of course, we are only kidding, but the rivalry did have a funny way of initially affecting our enthusiasm for the partnership. And yet the true colors of volunteering have overcome school colors to create Destination Detroit.
Destination Detroit is a partnership of Repair the World and MSU Hillel, which brings diverse student groups together through service and shared experiences in Detroit. On monthly Fridays throughout the year, groups of about 40 students come from East Lansing to Detroit for a fun-filled day of volunteering, sightseeing and, of course, food. The participating groups include:
- Arab Cultural Society
- Asian Pacific American Student Organization
- Black Student Alliance
- Camp Kesem
- Culturas de las Razas Unidas
- The Greek Community
- Jewish Student Union
- Student Housing Cooperative (Co-Op)
For our most recent Destination Detroit, we partnered with Davison, a Detroit elementary and middle school known for its dedicated teachers and creative curriculum. For a testament to Davison’s commitment to education, look no further than Judy Robinson, who recently retired after teaching kindergarten at Davison for 39 years, still volunteers there, and was integral to bringing Destination Detroit to her school.
Davison has attracted a large population of Detroit and Hamtramck’s recent immigrants from Bangladesh. (More on Hamtramck below.) and attracts a large population of Bengali students. The diversity of both the Davison and MSU students enriched everyone’s experience, but the day’s theme — Science Rules! — showed us we had more in common than we thought.
Room One: Ecosystem Art!
How could college volunteers and elementary school students who’d never met before create individual works of science-themed art that would then be combined to beautify the school? Enthusiastically, it turns out. Each grade tackled an ecosystem — ocean, desert, and forest — with students and volunteers decorating their own sheets using found objects like pine needles, cotton balls, paper bags, and shiny fragments from old CDs (ones we feverishly broke prior with gloves and bolt cutters). While each kid’s picture was great on its own, the truly spectacular part of the project was seeing hundreds of these pictures collaged together and mounted in the hallway.
Room Two: Science Experiments!
Pennies don’t command much respect as currency these days, but they are are great for experiments. 1. Inertia: resting pennies on an index card on a cup and trying to get pennies to drop directly into a cup while only moving the index card. (It’s harder than it sounds.) 2. Chemical Reactions: testing to see whether dish soap or hot sauce (Sriracha, in case you’re curious) would clean the tarnish off pennies. If you’re anything like our friends a Davison, you’ll be amazed by which worked.
Room Three: Food Chain!
Classes created their own ecological rock-paper-scissors with predator, prey and producer — replete with pantomime. For example, lion eats antelope, which eats grass, which survives lion. Elementary and college students faced off repeatedly, transitioning accordingly (i.e. in Lion vs. Antelope, Lion stayed Lion and Antelope became Lion) and learning about ecological balance and interdependence in the most chaotic way imaginable.
Destination Detroit blends service and Detroit experiences in a way that always manages to excite, engage and exhaust everyone. After many hugs and high fives at Davison, the MSU students ventured into the cold for a tour of the amazing work by Powerhouse Productions, including the Ride It Sculpture Park, Sound House and Power House. Then, out of the cold — and, for that matter, out of Detroit — to Hamtramck, a city surrounded by the City. At the Polish Art Center, we learned from residents (experts and authors) about the rich immigrant history that preceded the current wave of Bengalis and Yemenis who now fill many of Hamtramck’s homes and storefronts. And the trip would not have been complete without pierogi, stuffed cabbage and more from Polonia.
by Leah Koenig | December 20, 2012 | 0 comments
Unless you are lucky enough to live in California or another warm and sunny locale, winter can get pretty chilly! And for too many Americans across the country, winter also brings the painful choice between paying rent and putting food on the table, or buying adequate winter coats for themselves and their families.
This year, with the recession continuing to put an extra strain on families, and many families on the East Coast still suffering from losses after Hurricane Sandy, we think there’s a need for a little extra warm stuff. Fortunately, there’s something you can do. Got a new or gently used extra coat in your closet? Instead of letting it hang around collecting moth balls, put it to good use in a local coat drive that redistributes gently used gear to those in need.
According to New York Cares, “90% of homeless adults need a new, warm coat each winter because they have no place to keep one over the summer months.” That means, coat drives play an important role every year in making sure everyone has equal access to warm clothing during the colder months. Here are a few coat drive opportunities across the country:
- New York Cares’ Coat Drive: Help this New York City-based organization collect 200,000 winter coats through December 31 to help New York City families who are living in poverty keep warm.
- One Warm Coat: This national organization helps individuals and local charities organize coat drives for men, women and children in need. They’ve helped distribute close to 3 million coats since 1992. Help them do even more!
- Clothes4Souls: This national clothing donation organization teamed up with outdoor retailer, The North Face, this holiday season. Through December 24, bring your gently used clothing and coats to participating North Face retail locations and help give the gift of warmth.
There are too many local coat drives across the country to list them all – so we’re counting on YOU! Do you know about a local coat drive in your neighborhood or city? Let us know by tweeting @repairtheworld.
by Leah Koenig | December 20, 2012 | 0 comments
Rabbi Marc Katz.
In the days and weeks following Hurricane Sandy, tens of thousands of people pitched in to help their neighbors and communities – and many people continue to help with the rebuilding efforts today. Their individual and collective generosity of spirit was and is truly remarkable. In honor of their service, Repair the World is interviewing people who saw a need, stepped up and made a difference. Check back often to find more stories and interviews!
Volunteer: Rabbi Marc Katz
Who he is: Assistant Rabbi Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
What compelled you to serve in the days after Hurricane Sandy?
A few people from our congregation, including some of the clergy, showed up on the first night to volunteer at one of the local emergency shelters. One of our rabbis, Shira Koch Epstesin, called me and I met her there for a couple of hours to do pastoral care. From there we realized there was a real need to feed people.
The first night, the shelter was passing out these ready to eat meals – really disgusting, sauce-filled things that were not healthy or tasty. So we sent out an email to our congregation that said, “we need volunteers to drive to Costco and help prepare meals.” So many people showed up, we ended up having to turn some away at the door. Once we realized how much people wanted to help, we made up a schedule for the rest of the week on Google Docs. From that point, we continued helping the shelter here in Park Slope and then started bringing food and supplies down to Red Hook, when we heard there was a need there.
How did your work evolve over the days and weeks?
In starting to do this work, we realized that there was way more need than we originally thought. We also realized that the need was wider spread than we thought. We started hearing reports about buildings in Coney Island and the Rockaways where elderly Russian Jews were trapped up on high floors with no power and no way to get down. So we started branching out and sort of adopting buildings to canvas and care for. We would have volunteers running supplies and hot meals up and down stairs. In some of these buildings, we were the first people the residents had seen. Many of them needed medicine, so we would call pharmacies with them and have them give their information. Then we’d go get their prescriptions and deliver them directly to them. Honestly, for the two weeks after Sandy I barely did any other synagogue work!
Did you feel it was important as a religious congregation to rally others to help?
Yes, we quickly became a main hub in Park Slope. If you wanted to drop off supplies or find out what to do, you came to us. We sort of fell into that role and then put our resources into that. One amazing story of community impact was the Thursday after the storm, we put a call out via Facebook and our networks asking for 600 hardboiled eggs to serve to the shelter for breakfast. Almost immediately people started showing up with eggs, and within three hours we had collected 6,000 eggs! That’s 500 dozen. It was incredible to see that collective effort, and we ended up being able to put all of the eggs to use. We made a lot of egg salad!
What are your plans going forward?
What we’ve done is adopted a partner public school in Brooklyn. We’re sending hot meals and sandwiches for them to bring to their families. School is in session and the school didn’t get flooded, but a lot of the students’ families lost their homes. We’re also continuing to send volunteers down to areas that need help and partnering with Occupy Sandy on that. Really, this has been a huge team effort within CBE but also within Brooklyn and New York. The Mayor’s office has been fantastic, Brad Lander’s office (of the New York City Council) has been unbelievably great. And our broader team of partners from Occupy Sandy, to UJA-Federation, the Kings Bay YMCA and the Jewish Association for Services-Aged (JASA), have been truly incredible to work with.
Our vision long term is to harness this outpouring of community energy – we had 1,500 volunteers come through our door, both Jewish and not Jewish! – and leverage it into a longer-term project. Hurricane Sandy helped to shine a light on neglected, impoverished areas in Brooklyn that needed help before the storm, and will continue to need help after. Now that we’ve been woken up to the larger issues, our job is to figure out how we can make a sustained difference.
How can people plug in and get involved?
The real champion of CBE’s volunteer efforts around Sandy has been our program director, Cindy Greenberg. People can reach her via Sandy[@]cbebk.org to find out more ways to help.
Find out more about Congregation Beth Elohim here.
by Jacqueline Broder | December 19, 2012 | 0 comments
By Jacqueline Broder and Ilana Gatoff
During our celebration of Chanukah, we commemorate how thousands of years ago, people persevered with their traditions despite seemingly insurmountable odds. Each year brings forth new hardships and obstacles. But this year, the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy created a new urgency around rededication and renewal. When Repair the World decided to spend a HoliDay of Service packing literacy kits for the first and second graders of PS 253, it wasn’t only the devastation that touched our hearts and opened our eyes – it was the untold stories of people from different backgrounds joining forces to forge through the flooding.
Assessing the damage
PS 253, The Magnet School of Multicultural Humanities, is an elementary school located in the neighborhood of Brighton Beach that was hit by Hurricane Sandy. As the name suggests, the students come from diverse backgrounds; but they all experienced the same horrific aftermath of the Hurricane.
The school’s basement was completely flooded, damaging school supplies, including years worth of art materials and books. Beyond the school, families of students experienced severe destruction to their homes, businesses, and places of work. With the commercial strip in Brighton Beach shuttered, some parents even lost their jobs. The community is still struggling and grappling with longer-term recovery issues, but staff members like Parent Coordinator Gina Dacchille have been working overtime to bring comfort to their school community. With so many students displaced, PS 253 has become a community hub, with Ms. Dacchille, the heroic teachers, and award-winning Principal Lisa Speroni working tirelessly to manage donations, coordinate FEMA information sessions, and supporting the individual needs of families.
Repair in action
With many families struggling to provide their children with enrichment and entertainment because of the disruption to their daily routines, Repair, in partnership with PS 253, saw an opportunity. Using the experience and expertise from our current education campaign, Repair offered to pack literacy kits for the students to enjoy at home. The team at PS 253 were thrilled and pointed out that with winter break just around the corner, students would have an opportunity to share these kits with siblings and friends.
On December 9th, the first day of Chanukah, Repair the World staff joined up with an amazing group of volunteers from all over the tri-state area to participate in an important HoliDay of service at our NYC headquarters. Nearly forty volunteers buzzed about, together with our Repair staff, to transform stacks of children’s books into reading kits for first and second graders at PS 253.
From The Magic School Bus to Curious George, Repair the World backpacks were stuffed with well-known children’s books, handwritten flashcards written by volunteers that included words from the book to help students build their vocabulary skills, personal holiday notes from volunteers, a notebook, glittery pencil, rainbow crayons, and the coolest of all – a little book light to clip onto their new book and read in the dark. Our volunteers were packing machines, exceeding our original goal of 200 kits and ending up with a total of over 230 – one for every first and second grader in the school! Additionally, our partners at Midtown Workmen’s Circle School collected over 100 books that were given to the school for their library and classroom use.
Back to school
Fast forward a week later…this past Monday, Repair the World’s campaign team played hooky in order to visit the staff and students of PS 253 in Brighton Beach. The trip in and of itself, was eye opening – the destruction is still visible, and everywhere.
We arrived at the school just in time to present the kits to approximately 200 students right before dismissal. The staff graciously let us spend time with each class of students, who gleefully ooed and ahhed as we unveiled the contents of each kit. “We heard you liked to read,” we explained to each class, “is that true?!” Each group’s impassioned cheers of “yeah!” combined with their genuine enthusiasm around being able to create their own “word walls” with their new flashcards showed us that these students, and this school, were special.
While all kids love sparkly crayons, it takes someone who knows that learning is fun to rejoice over a book light or a vocabulary card. Each colorful classroom, hand-painted book mural, and shining bulletin board we saw at PS 253 spoke to the commitment of the teachers and staff to create a community where joy is equated with knowledge. Their team has maintained that same feeling, even while they collect cots and sleeping bags for children who still sleep on the floor of moldy apartments, or light-up shoes for kids who lost sneakers in the same eight feet of water that destroyed the schools brand new, $3 million heating system. Whether it was packing hundreds of bags with make-up and toiletries for students mothers, providing water, housing FEMA agents, or giving a few extra hugs, the staff of PS 253 have turned their community into a hub of service. Different cultures, different religions, different beliefs – all have been inspired and united by the kindness of the PS 253 community.
The party’s just getting started…
Repair the World is currently assessing the needs of other local schools that have been impacted by Hurricane Sandy. We will continue to work with PS 253 throughout the school year in a variety of capacities – everything from assisting with their famous science fair in the winter months, to collecting and distributing donated items.
The volunteer opportunities with PS 253 and other partnerships is just beginning, so stay tuned for future news on ways you can help! In the meantime, find out how you can spread the gift of literacy in your community by emailing Aaron Miner at [email protected].
by Leah Koenig | December 18, 2012 | 1 comment
Erika Davis.
In the days and weeks following Hurricane Sandy, tens of thousands of people pitched in to help their neighbors and communities – and many people continue to help with the rebuilding efforts today. Their individual and collective generosity of spirit was and is truly remarkable. In honor of their service, Repair the World is interviewing people who saw a need, stepped up and made a difference. Check back often to find more stories and interviews!
Volunteer: Erika Davis
Who she is: Chief of Staff at Hazon and founder of the blog Black, Gay and Jewish.
What compelled you to serve in the days after Hurricane Sandy?
Honestly, at first there was literally nothing else to do but help. There was no electricity in much of the city, and we couldn’t take the train to go anywhere. Because my house never lost power, my girlfriend and I watched streaming Sandy coverage on TV and saw the growing devastation. After two straight days we were like, “Okay, we have to do something.” So we got on our bikes and headed to the financial district in Manhattan – that is where we first saw how crazy everything was.
We logged onto the Occupy Sandy relief website and saw they were doing a supplies collection at a church in Sunset Park. We helped out there for a day taking in donations and sorting supplies. It was good to be doing that work, but we wanted to do something more hands on. So for the next three days straight we drove out to the Rockaways.
What was the experience like?
It was really unlike anything I’d ever experienced. I was not in New York during 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina felt very far away and removed from my life. But getting to the Rockaways for the first time was a shock. It’s where I go to the beach every summer, so I had a distinct picture of it in my head. But when we arrived there were cars haphazardly placed wherever they’d landed when the water receded. The beach parking lot was filled with rubble. Driving through the Rockaways people looked tired and exhausted. There were so many people who needed help and supplies – so many children. I have travelled through developing countries before, but I had never experienced that kind of desperation so close to home.
What did you do while you were there?
We kept heading back to a location run by Occupy. They were there as the main organizers, but I liked that location because there were a lot of local people and community leaders involved. The first day, we directly handed goods to people who needed them. I was in charge of the personal hygiene section so someone would say, “I need a toothbrush or soap,” and I’d give it to them. The last few days my partner and friend climbed up and down 28 flights of stairs delivering things to people, particularly older people. It was pitch black except for head lamps and flashlight apps on people’s cell phones. And some volunteers had placed glow sticks in the hallways – that’s it.
What other types of post-Hurricane service have you been involved with?
The following weekend we went to help out a friend at her family’s home in Long Beach. Her family had been living there for 40 years, and they lost everything in their basement. Walking around, you would see pictures of her from years ago floating by in the standing water. What’s interesting is that Long Beach is an upper middle class neighborhood and The Rockaways are a lower middle class neighborhood, but the devastation was the same regardless. What’s different was the response. Long Beach had support from established relief organizations, for example, but The Rockaways did not.
What are your thoughts now as we get further away from the Hurricane itself?
I am back at work, so I feel somewhat disconnected to things now. But talking to friends who keep going back, they say it’s getting better and yet there are still tons of people who have no heat, power and running water. It’s important that we keep talking about this, and that we do not fall into the idea that everyone is fine again just because many people are.
Do you know a Sandy relief hero? Let us know in the comments below or by tweeting @repairtheworld and tagging #hurricanesandy.
by Amy Goldsmith | December 17, 2012 | 0 comments
My day began at 5:15am. Three trains, one bus and a 20-minute walk later, I arrived at the Christian Pentecostal Church on Staten Island for what I thought was a shift with the Food Bank for New York City. “Who here has a car?” asked the Pastor, as he surveyed the room of about fifteen volunteers. As two people raised their hands he began to explain that volunteers had been coming in and out of the food bank site all week and if we gave him our permission he’d prefer to send us “into the streets.” Weekdays were slower-going there, he explained.
“We” was actually a group of six individuals from across Long Island and Manhattan who had chosen to sign up online and donate our time on Friday. Besides the mutual desire to step outside of our comfort zones and give of what we could, we had very little in common. One of us was a recent college graduate living at home, two were grad students, another was in-between jobs, and two others had been given the day off from work. Regardless of our backgrounds, we instantaneously joined forces and became a team.
Driving into the destruction, it was not hard to imagine we were somewhere else entirely. The National Guard’s presence both on the ground in tanks and overhead in choppers cut the silence as if we were in a combat zone and added to the eerie atmosphere. Houses once filled with life, sat abandoned and boarded up with the entire contents of ground floors laid out front alongside the curb. It was as if the guts had literally been ripped from the body of the home. And yet even more bizarrely, we were actually there to assist with the “gutting” of the homes , removing contents from the lives that people had once lived.
As we got out of the car, an enthusiastic middle-aged woman in a colorful macaroni necklace came running up to us, excited to ask us who we were and who had sent us. After a few moments comparing phone numbers and names, she assured us that we were in the right spot. As one of the volunteer coordinators with the Staten Island Evangelical Relief Fund, she had been overseeing donation drop-offs, construction teams, and food bank deliveries for the neighborhood of Midland Beach. Not to mention that her home (the very one she had run out to greet us from) had also sustained four feet of flooding and no longer had a usable first floor. And yet, as she surveyed her fully-gutted, unfurnished house, she still managed to make the funniest, bittersweet comment of the day, as she yelled, “Someone move that soggy drywall out of the living room! There’s no room left to sit down!”
Staten Island Evangelical Relief Fund has existed for less than a month. Its efforts are made up of a collection of individuals from the Evangelical churches and ministries on the Island, who have come together in support of their communities and neighbors, in response to Hurricane Sandy. Together, the churches have divvied up responsibility for the entire Midland Beach zone, one of the hardest hit areas in Staten Island. Despite limited formal training and experience in volunteer management, and the fact that so many of the key organizers are among the same homeowners in need of volunteer help, they have a clear understanding of who needs what and how to get it to them. They have developed a rudimentary albeit effective system of assessment that has allowed them to survey entire neighborhoods. They have set up a volunteer and distribution center that not only provides food and goods to storm victims but feeds hundreds of volunteers who pass through the Island daily. Most importantly all of this is done in a way that validates and dignifies each volunteer and each recipient.
What we saw and the work we did was difficult and heavy. The day began with removing and disposing of a waterlogged dry wall from the home of a pregnant immigrant who had been working with a stranger to gut her entire house prior to our arrival. Afterwards, we moved along to the home of a man who had returned after the storm to find four feet of water sitting in the ground floor of his newly renovated house. Emotionally, this assignment was the most difficult part of the day because as we tore down walls, we watched this man go through his unsalvageable belongings for the first time. He was present to watch us rip apart his house and essentially discard his family’s previous life. It makes sense now why removing walls is called “gutting” in construction lingo. A wall is never just a wall– as you tear it down, you truly feel it internally, in your gut.
For a volunteer, it can be easy to get caught up in the tasks of swinging a crowbar and tearing out insulation, even to the point that you forget where you are. When a building is stripped down to its studs it loses the memories it once held. When working alongside a homeowner and holder of the memories, it is hard to forget the importance of where you are standing. Most of the people we met who had suffered the most during the storm, were working-class individuals who had watched their stable lives wash away with the hurricane.
I am both fortunate and unfortunate enough to have volunteered numerous times in response to disaster. In the years following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I spent weeks rebuilding in both rural and metropolitan Louisiana. I am comfortable leading a crew on a demolition project or in the rebuilding of a collapsing home, but it never gets easier to see devastation and watch people struggle to rebuild.
Until this experience, I had never stopped to think about how volunteering in the wake of a disaster is incredibly different than any other kind of volunteer work. Disaster relief is always retroactive – of course one can prepare for a storm, become trained in disaster response, and dedicate effort to planning and implementing specific protocols, but that can only get you so far. Until you are confronted with a disastrous situation, it is impossible to predict your necessary reaction. And that is what makes it all the more remarkable when you see organizations and volunteer managers who spring forth in not only dedicated, but also organized ways. It is not easy to manage a predetermined group of volunteers working on a traditional service project, let alone organize a haphazard stream of thousands of volunteers working on disaster relief. The volunteer managers and community organizations that spring forth to provide support in the wake of a disaster deserve incredible recognition.
by Leah Koenig | December 16, 2012 | 0 comments
Join 350.org in fighting back against climate change.
Welcome to Repair the World’s 8 Nights of Sandy Service: volunteer projects, donation opportunities and tikkun olam ideas for the week of Hanukkah to help the individuals and communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Keep track of all 8 nights here.
While no single weather event can be directly tied to climate change, scientists and politicians increasingly agree that human-influenced climate change is linked to the recent increase of severe and damaging weather events our world has faced. That includes Hurricane Sandy.
As Repair the World winds down our 8 Nights of Sandy Service, we figured there was no better way to conclude than by looking forward to a brighter, more sustainable future. Take a stand against climage change: support 350.org. 350 is an “international campaign that’s building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis…[and] create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet.” Co-founded by environmental journalist and author Bill McKibben along with colleagues and students from Middlebury College, 350.org empowers communities around the world to stand up against climate change and bring inspiration back to the conversation.
There are lots of ways to give your support to 350.org in the coming year – either by donating money or your volunteer/organizing time. Here are just a few:
- Sign up to join an action on February 17 (Presidents Day weekend) in Washington DC. Jointly backed by 350.org and The Sierra Club, this action will encourage President Obama to stop the development of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which will “carry 800,000 barrels a day of the dirtiest oil on earth for export.”
- Join or create a local 350.org group and help educate and mobilize your community around the climate crisis. There are currently 86 groups working in 51 countries – get on board!
- Make a financial donation to support 350.org’s ongoing work to rally the world around sustainability.
Find out more about 350.org’s work at their website, or by reading Repair the World’s interview with former social media coordinator, Joe Solomon.
