Students Volunteer for Hurricane Sandy Relief
...Fifth-year rabbinical student Adam Scheldt shares, “This past Shabbat (and through the weekend), I worked at the Red Hook Initiative—a small community center in the midst of low-income government housing in Red Hook, Brooklyn, to help in whatever way I could. When I arrived, they needed a good schlep more than they needed pastoral care, so I began to carry boxes of cleaning supplies to another relief center and then headed a team of three other volunteers to deliver battery operated lighting and supplies to residents without electricity or heat. “And indeed, I was able to give my pastoral muscles a good workout as we delivered supplies to an elderly survivor of both a heart-attack and a stroke who was caring for her grandchildren, as well as a poor mother of 3 very young children who had neither power nor heat. Afterward I worked the information/triage desk to coordinate volunteers and information at the Initiative until the center closed for the evening. I was amazed at the overwhelming number of volunteers who wanted to lend a hand. So many came to help and to donate that we actually had to begin turning volunteers away--asking them to return through the week.
"Even though so much was done and accomplished this weekend and through the past week, there is still so very much to do. Particularly now that much of the subway system has been restored and people who might otherwise volunteer are returning to work; continued effort will be needed in places like Red Hook in the coming weeks. The work of clean-up for those who have no insurance, the work of feeding those who are hungry, and the work of bringing warmth and light to those in dark places (both literally and metaphorically) is hard work. But it is good work. And, I feel deeply blessed that it is work that I could do this past Shabbat. It was, and is a gift.” ...
You can read the full press release by clicking here.
"Even though so much was done and accomplished this weekend and through the past week, there is still so very much to do. Particularly now that much of the subway system has been restored and people who might otherwise volunteer are returning to work; continued effort will be needed in places like Red Hook in the coming weeks. The work of clean-up for those who have no insurance, the work of feeding those who are hungry, and the work of bringing warmth and light to those in dark places (both literally and metaphorically) is hard work. But it is good work. And, I feel deeply blessed that it is work that I could do this past Shabbat. It was, and is a gift.” ...
You can read the full press release by clicking here.
