What's 'Community Service Day' Like At Hausner Jewish Day School?

From Andrea Sobel/Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School:

Last week, all students at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School are actively engaging in school-wide Community Service Day by giving gifts to those who are less fortunate.

Collectively students will perform acts of loving kindness, do good deeds, participate in philanthropic giving, and work to repair the world. Each grade level focuses on different activities to show their commitment to helping others and experience that at every age they can make a real difference in our community.

“As always, our Community Service Day includes a learning element, an actual activity, a reflection and a celebratory assembly with reflections from two students in each grade about the service they provided,” explained Head of School Julie Smith.

“After several years of Community Service Days, many of the grade level projects are now integral pieces of our curriculum, which is one of the goals of the Community Service Committee. Several classes also host speakers from the various organizations they assist, thus making the experience more authentic.”

 Kindergarten & 7th Grade: Work together to create cards and special envelopes for The Bay Area Jewish Healing Center.

 1st Grade: Package donated school supplies for the Ravenswood Child Development Center Preschool in East Palo Alto.

2nd Grade: Collect and package baby items for the Ronald McDonald House.

 3rd Grade: Make treats for service dogs who work at local hospitals.

 4th Grade: Package gifts for women who receive services from Bay Area Cancer Connections.

 5th Grade: Create Purim Cards and assemble mishloach manot for the Jewish Chaplaincy at Stanford Hospital and for veterans at the Palo Alto Veteran’s Administration Hospital.

 6th Grade: Visit with local senior citizens at four different senior facilities.

 8th Grade: Learn CPR from the American Heart Association and do advocacy work around a number of new laws surrounding education and CPR training.