Mitzvah Project Ideas

Description of Organization:
Project Sunshine is a nonprofit organization that provides free educational, recreational and social programs to children affected by medical challenges and their families. Project Sunshine sends volunteers to hospitals and medical facilities to provide arts and crafts, reading, tutoring, cooking, and special events. Our chapters throughout the United States, Canada, China, Israel and Kenya, organize 3,000 events for children and family members every year. In the past year, over 12,000 volunteers have participated in our programs in 150 medical facilities worldwide.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Description of Organization:
The Prospect Park Alliance is the not for profit entity of Prospect Park. They offer many environmentally oriented volunteer opportunities, clerical, educational and history related projects.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Children ages 11-13 can get involved with some of their environmental projects such as mulching, weeding and cleaning. They have additional projects appropriate for older children.

Description of Organization:
Pups for Peace is an 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-political organization that trains bomb-sniffing dogs and uses them throughout Israel to protect innocent civilians from terrorist attacks. The dogs are taught to find bombs before they explode to prevent kids and adults from getting hurt.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Description of Organization:

Since 1968, the Queens Jewish Community Council has served the needs of the people of Queens with kindness, compassion and understanding. The QJCC has provided social services, cultural programming and educational forums for senior, immigrant, and low-income communities living in Queens. The QJCC sponsors a well known series of concerts, such as "Jewish Music Under the Stars", featuring great performers such as Zalman Mlotek, Ira Heller, and Blue Fringe. The concerts are sponsored by Queens Council woman Melinda Katz. Their holiday food distributions go out to families all over the borough of Queens and occur for Rosh Hashanah, Passover and Thanksgiving. Their daily food pantry gives out over 900 packages each month to those in need.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Food pantry volunteers pack food into individual packages to go out to those in need. Over 900 packages are given out each month! Office volunteers help put together mailings which reach over 3,000 people each month to let them know about social services, community events, concerts and lectures sponsored by the QJCC. Friendly Visitors visit seniors in the community who may be isolated or just in need of companionship. Visitors talk , and sometimes play games/puzzles, or take brief walks with the seniors. Bnai Mitzvah students are invited to volunteer as friendly visitors with their parents or guardians.

Description of Organization:
Rachel's Table is a central food distribution service to help feed the hungry. Our mission is to relieve hunger in Greater Springfield and to reduce waste of our food resources. Six days a week, volunteers pick up extra food from area supermarkets, restaurants, caterers and bakeries and distribute it to agencies that serve the hungry and homeless. We raise money to purchase milk, fresh protein products, produce and healthy snacks for our agencies. We have a gleaning program in the summer and fall for teens.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Description of Organization:
Reader To Reader, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to bringing books, free of charge, to needy school libraries and classrooms in poor communities across the United States. It is their belief that books have a singular power to inspire and change people's lives. The need for books is critical, because 60% of underprivileged children do not own a single book. This makes a well-stocked school library a critical resource hub that is a necessity not a luxury.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Bnai Mitzvah Project participants and other volunteers organize local book drives collecting gently used children's books. Volunteers sort the books by age group of the reader and weed out books in poor condition. The books are then shipped to Reader To Reader for donation to poor schools. Reader To Reader works closely with the volunteer in preparing materials for the book drive and in strategies on how to run the book drive. Reader to Reader offers a meaningful project that will directly impact the lives of thousands of children. They work personally with each volunteer in order to guide them in all stages of their project. As a small organization with a big mission (currently serving over 200 schools) Reader to Reader values each volunteer's contribution. Please contact them so that they can show you how to have a special experience you will never forget.

Description of Organization:
Seeking peace and pursuing justice, confronting intolerance, defending individual freedom, fighting for social justice, pursuing moral values, making America a better place for all, connecting to Judaism, repairing our world… Through youth seminars and other educational programs for Jewish high school and college students, campers, and religious school students, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC) keeps the flame of social justice burning brightly today and ignites it in the hearts of the next generation. The RAC is in Washington D.C.'s, office of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership includes more than 1,800 Reform rabbis. For more than 40 years, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism has used its influence to mobilize large segments of the American Jewish community, providing up-to-the-minute electronic resources to the entire Jewish community to help young and old alike turn convictions into action.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Check out our website (http://resources.rj.org/rac/bnaimitzvah/)  for 100s of program ideas and ways to be involved in the important and vital work of tikkun olam -- repairing our world!

Description of Organization:
Remember Us offers an invitation to children who are preparing for bar/bat mitzvah to connect with the memories of children who were lost in the Holocaust before they could be called to the Torah. Bnai mitzvah accept the responsibility of remembering one child who died during the Holocaust. More than 13,000 children in over 500 congregations worldwide have chosen to participate.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
The Remember Us program is simple. A student preparing for bar/bat mitzvah receives the name of a lost child, and information about that child. Students voluntarily choose how they will remember that child. Some do "mitzvot b'shem (in the name of) remembered children. Others speak about the child and the program as part of the dvar Torah or speech. Some take on the responsibility of saying kaddish or lighting yahrzeit candles annually, others parrticipate in community or synagogue commemorations. There is no cost to families or synagogues and partipation does not add an additional time requirement. The project is transdenominational, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Orthodox and Renewal congregations have participated

Description of Organization:
Reuth,is one of Israel's oldest and largest non-profit organizations. Since 1937, it has responded to the country's evolving needs by providing health care and social welfare programs for a population that includes children, wounded soldiers, and the elderly. All segments of Israeli society benefit from Reuth’s facilities. Reuth's major project is the Reuth Medical Center--a 310-bed, state of the art, rehabilitation and chronic care hospital serving patients of all ages: from the infant who is conscious of the world around him thanks to special infant stimulation equipment, to the the soldier undergoing rehabilitatitive therapy, to the older patient learning to walk again after an accident. Reuth’s outreach network includes senior homes in Tel Aviv (Beit Jenny Breuer & Beit Shalom) and Jerusalem (Beit Barth); subsidized housing and meals for the elderly—many of them Holocaust survivors; and the Reuth-Eshel Data Center, providing round-the-clock information on rehabilitative and geriatric care.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Because Reuth cares for people of all ages in so many different ways, there are numerous options for chesed projects. The following are chesed activities that have already been performed on behalf of Reuth both in Israel and abroad. You can choose to do them, as well—-on your own, or with a group. Bnai Mitzvah and other guests have participated in art projects with our seniors. Others have served a tasty lunch in the kitchen of Beit Bracha, one of Reuth’s Subsidized Apartment Housing Complexes. One Bar Mitzvah combined his love of chocolate and music by visiting one of our senior homes with his family and guests on Chanukah. He joined them in making chocolates in Chanukah shapes and then entertained the crowd with a spirited rendition of Chanukah music on the piano. Others have joined patients in planting flowers in the Reuth Medical Center Roof Garden, while learning about the therapeutic value of gardening as part of an interdisciplinary range of therapy techniques. It is possible to perform chesed for Reuth even if one is unable to visit Israel. One Los Angeles friend spearheaded a pre-Shavuot bake sale and held an auction of the most extraordinary cakes. These are just a few of the projects undertaken to benefit Reuth. For those of you who have a special area of interest and would like to do something different, the folks at Reuth would be happy to tailor a project just for you.

Description of Organization:
Our mission is to safeguard the ecological integrity of the Hudson River, its tributaries and the watershed of New York City (protecting the city's drinking water supply) by tracking down and stopping polluters. Since 1983, Riverkeeper has investigated and brought to justice more than 300 environmental lawbreakers. Riverkeeper believes in the rights of every citizen to enjoy and defend our nation's water resources.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
We are primarily an environmental litigation organization, however we do involve community volunteers in our large springtime event called Shad Fest. Occasionally we host a river clean up or tree planting day, schedule allowing, and this is a great way to do something outside and physical in support of Riverkeeper and the Hudson!

Description of Organization:
Riverside Park Fund's mission is to preserve and improve New York's classic waterfront green space. Stretching over four miles along the Hudson River from 65th to 155th Streets, the 330 acres of Riverside Park provide recreation and relaxation for a uniquely diverse population. From seasonal attendants to emergency callboxes, from horticultural projects to creative playgrounds, Riverside Park is cleaner, greener, safer and better because of Riverside Park Fund’s supporters

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Groups of 15 or more are eligible to help assist with a range of horticultural activities in Riverside Park. Minimum age is 12.

Description of Organization:
Rockefeller State Park Preserve is 1,233 acres of natural habitat located in Sleepy Hollow, New York. The Preserve has been made possible through the farsighted and generous gift of the Rockefeller Family. Walkers, equestrians, joggers, skiiers, snowshoers, artists, birders, and anglers all share the twenty miles of carriage paths. These scenic paths wind through wetlands, woodlands, meadows, and fields and past streams, rivers, and the 24 acre Swan Lake. They cross over wood and stone bridges, including the first triple arch bridge in America. One carriage path passes by the foundation of Rockwood Hall, once the 220 room home of William Rockefeller. Its Olmsted designed landscape with its panoramic view of the Hudson River remains a spot of beauty for all who visit.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Rockefeller State Park Preserve would not be what it is without our fantastic volunteers. We are always looking for new people to join our volunteer team. Volunteers help the Preserve by gardening, patrolling, cleaning up the trails and lake and much more. Projects vary depending on the season and on our needs. We like to match up the volunteer opportunities with the interests of our volunteers.

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