By Adam Baron and Meir Lightman, Juniors at TABC
Adam Baron and Meir Lightman
Yachad’s First Winter Leadership Shabbaton and Service Mission was an amazing experience and those who attended are sure to never forget the lessons they learned, the skills they were taught, and the relationships they built.
The weekend started with a long but entertaining bus ride to Pearlstone Retreat Center in Maryland, where we had an enriching Shabbos in which we learned about the meaning of true leadership and how anyone can step up and become a leader. We engaged in hands on activities and listened to inspiring words from both advisors and guest speakers. We even had the privilege of hearing from Special Olympics athlete, Loretta Claiborne. She informed us about how she overcame obstacles throughout her life in order to become the face of the Special Olympics. In addition, she told us that as a child she had been discriminated against due to her disability and race, but that she was still able to overcome those challenges and win gold medals for her victories in numerous Special Olympic marathons.
On the last day of our weekend, we went to Baltimore and served lunch at Sarah’s Hope, a local shelter, and at Tudor Heights, an assisted living center. While these two experiences involved people from very different backgrounds, we were able to connect and have fun with the kids, at the shelter and the elderly, at the assisted living center. Through this, we were all able to expand Yachad’s philosophy of inclusion to people that we do not usually interact with on a day-to-day basis. After finishing up at these community service events, we ended off the trip at Art with a Heart, where we created art that was going to be distributed to local children.
This was a unique trip where we all strengthened our leadership skills and our inclusiveness with whom we interacted with. We would strongly urge current 10th and 11th graders to join the Shabbaton next year so that they can benefit from all that we had the opportunity to learn from. We can’t wait to return next year!