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"Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik wrote in 'Shlichut' that every individual has a special mission in life and should be enabled to carry out that mission," says OTS chancellor Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. "At Ohr Torah Stone, we are guided by this concept of creating an environment which encourages students to identify a need and use their abilities to fill it."

Volunteering is an integral part of the curriculum in all OTS high schools. Each student participates in special training seminars provided by OTS's Susan Resnick School of Social Work, and receives close personal guidance from teachers and counselors. With the skills and awareness they have developed, many young students are initiating additional chessed projects for themselves and their classmates.

In Their Free Time
"We are very concerned about improving social conditions in our country," says Shmuel Gutvillig, 15, explaining why 64 ninth graders from the Neveh Shmuel High School launched twice-weekly visits to the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. The students use their free time to provide tutoring and special programming for socially disadvantaged children there, planning and running holiday events that include exciting arts and crafts workshops, stimulating games and uplifting performances.

Eighth grade students at the Jennie Sapirstein Junior High School for Girls also took matters into their own hands to help those less fortunate. While many in the country shook their heads in response to the government's recently-released Report on Poverty, the students took action, spearheading a clothing and toy drive for needy children. By the close of the two-week campaign, they had filled 50 large boxes.

Photo of Chanukah Party for young Ethiopian Olim: Thirty Midreshet Lindenbaum students lit up Chanukah for young Ethiopian olim at the Mevasseret Zion absorption center. "We collected money and went shopping for good toys that would last," relates Nessa Heilpern, a first-year student from Teaneck, NJ. "We involved as many students as we could in wrapping the gifts and putting together a terrific Chanukah party. The kids really loved it!"

Even the youngest students become involved in chessed projects. Seventh and eighth graders at the Ohr Torah Stone Junior High School for Boys in Efrat create four annual "happenings" for developmentally disabled youngsters at the Nitzanim School in Jerusalem. "Each of our boys is paired with a Nitzanim student," reports principal Boaz Columbus. "A number of real friendships have evolved as a result, with phone calls exchanged and visits taking place even outside the framework of the program." Columbus adds that students from the junior high school also staff a rest stop for soldiers at the Gush Etzion junction and volunteer with Magen David Adom in their spare time.

Enthusiasm from Overseas
For OTS students from overseas, a year in Israel is an opportunity to give as well as receive. Two weeks before Chanukah, New Yorker Shari Sussman and four other students at Midreshet Lindenbaum set up a station in the school where students could make greeting cards and decorate gift boxes in their free time. "We organized girls to bake cookies in their dormitory kitchens and collect money from the entire student body to buy small gifts for children," Shari explains. On the first day of Chanukah, 18 students distributed 50 gift packages and many cards to delighted children and senior citizens in Shaarei Zedek and Hadassah hospitals. "One mother told us that when we walked in, her daughter smiled for the first time since her hospitalization," Shari says.

Spreading happiness and good cheer has also become a hallmark of Yeshivat Torat Shraga students, who ran a Shabbaton for 150 residents of Achuzat Sara Children's Home in Bnei Brak. The young men entertained the youngsters with lively singing and nonstop activities, even tucking their new friends in at night. On Rosh Chodesh Adar, the traditional Jewish month of mirth, the students brought laughter to Ilanot, a Jerusalem center for the developmentally disabled. Armed with guitars and fully-costumed for Purim, they sang, danced and juggled their way into the hearts of their young audience.

A Response to Trying Times
For many overseas students, the security situation in Israel has become a call to action. "Our feeling of helplessness propelled us," explains Danielle Ames of Vancouver, Canada, explaining why she and several other Midreshet Lindenbaum students volunteer with One Family, an organization that provides financial and emotional support for Israeli terror victims and their families. The young women work with children who have lost a parent or sibling, taking them on outings and helping them enjoy special activities. Other students visit terror victims in the hospital; after the terrorist bombing in Zion Square, they collected money to buy CDs and other gifts for injured teenagers. And for Purim, the young women donned costumes to personally deliver 200 specially-prepared mishloach manot packages to families who have been touched by tragedy. "We're all very committed to being in Israel, especially at such a stressful time," says Danielle. "We don't want to sit back while things happen, so we're out there trying to help others."

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