New Jersey NCSY is sending a delegation of 17 Jewish teens from both public high schools and yeshivas to Boulder, Colo., from Sunday, Oct. 20-Wednesday, Oct. 23 to assist with flood relief in the area.
This will be will be New Jersey NCSYs twenty-second student leadership disaster relief mission in five years.
Rabbi Rael Blumenthal, director of the Bergen County NCSY chapter, will lead students from the Torah Academy of Bergen County (TABC) and local public schools such as Freehold Boro High School, Marlboro High School, and Teaneck High School
The student mission is coordinated with NECHAMA: Jewish Response to Disaster, a Minnesota-based organization that provides volunteer-based disaster cleanup assistance to communities, to coordinate relief work plans and locations.
Students will be assigned specific work based upon needs closer to arrival.
Past flood relief work has included cleaning-out basements, clearing debris, hauling trash to curbside, and ripping out ruined carpets and dry wall.
The New Jersey NCSY volunteer missions, coordinated by Rabbi Ethan Katz, regional director of New Jersey NCSY, sends Jewish teen leaders across the country two fold: as proud Americans, teens assist communities damaged by natural disasters, regardless of the faith and cultures of those citizens; and as proud Jews, they invest energy and love to inspire and strengthen the local Jewish communities by their presence.
Student participants are chosen by their schools based on scholastics, character development, leadership potential and a qualifying essay.
Students attend training seminars before the trip, covering topics such as the concept of what a persons responsibility to mankind is and the country in which he or she lives; the Jewish ideals of tikkun olam, repairing the world; and responses to expect from non-Jews unfamiliar with Jewish clothing or ways of life.
New Jersey NCSY has worked with Habitat for Humanity for past missions in New Orleans, Alabama and Buffalo; with SouthEast Recovery in Nashville; Hike for Katrina; Hands on New Orleans and Green light New Orleans.
Last fall, New Jersey NCSY coordinated a carnival in Hoboken, NJ for more than 1,000 children whose homes were impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
A student leadership mission is also planned to return to New Orleans in February, 2014.
