Caring at carnival
MACCABI Junior Carnival’s third Community Day is expected to enlighten and enrich the lives of more than 800 participants with the help of more than 30 organisations.
MACCABI Junior Carnival’s third Community Day is expected to enlighten and enrich the lives of more than 800 participants with the help of more than 30 organisations.
Community Day, which was introduced at last year’s Maccabi Junior Carnival in Melbourne, aims to provide Jewish teenagers from Australia, New Zealand
and Hong Kong with a unique social, charitable and educational opportunity.
“Maccabi Junior Carnival has traditionally been about sports and social events.
“The idea [of Community Day] is to give participants an opportunity to give back to the community in some way, as well as build an awareness about various charities and organisations,” 2013 Sydney Carnival Community Day committee manager Leanne Shelton said.
The first Community Day involved students visiting bushfire-affected regions, cleaning up beaches and helping Jewish Care in various ways, while participants at this year’s carnival in Brisbane were addressed by speakers from various organisations, including the police, and the Guide Dogs Association.
Next year, the Sydney-based Community Day will see carnival participants volunteering at, and learning about, one of 30 different organisations.
The students’ tasks will range from making food packages for the homeless at OzHarvest and baking challahs for the underprivileged at Challah for Hunger to gardening in the homes of elderly or disabled with Easy Care Gardening and learning about the Holocaust at the Sydney Jewish Museum.
“The aim is for every single participant to walk away from the day feeling empowered and gain insight into something they’ve never experienced or known about before,” Shelton told The AJN.
“So before the Friday-night service, they will have well and truly fulfilled the mitzvah of tzedakah.”
Maccabi Junior Carnival will be in Sydney from January 15-22, 2013. Community Day will be on Friday, January 18, 2013 from 9am-1pm. For more info, contact Leanne Shelton: leanne.shelton@hotmail.com.
CASSILEE KAHN
Children at a previous carnival.
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