Mitzvah Day
View the Mitzvah Day 2009 Slideshow... Click Here
On Tuesday May 12th, students from Vancouver's King David High School were out in full force throughout the community, to raise money and awareness for the situation in Darfur. Over 200 students from King David, along with groups from other secondary schools including Frank Hurt, Churchill and Vancouver Technical were wearing their identifiable pink ?Save Darfur? shirts, while they volunteered at local community charities. This year, the student organizers put together a group of over 22 charities at which students, teachers and parents volunteered.
King David's annual "Mitzvah Day", which means "day of good deeds" in Hebrew, featured a special keynote speaker, named Kamish. He is a survivor of the tragedies in Darfur. After a touching speech at the opening ceremonies, Kamish joined a group of students at the Vancouver Art Gallery to raise money and awareness through the appropriately-named "Never Again Campaign".
Students volunteered throughout the city at various charities and organizations including Canuck Place, Ronald McDonald House, Salvation Army Harbour Light and the SPCA. When the two hundred volunteers began to trickle back to the school after their activities were complete, a congratulatory barbeque was held for everyone involved in the charitable day.
This is the eleventh year that King David, formerly known as "Maimonides", has put on the event. In the past, the school has raised thousands of dollars to send to Darfuri refugees living on the Chad border. The project they fund is known as the "Solar Cooker Project". Essentially, solar cookers are easily-assembled cardboard and aluminum barbeque-like devices. Darfuri women use them as an alternative to facing the dangerous task of going out to find firewood. Many women are raped and murdered by the Janjaweed militia when they search for wood to start fires, so the solar cookers allow them to avoid the dangerous journey and use the sun instead.
Each solar cooking kit costs $30 USD and comes with enough supplies for an entire year's worth of cooking. So far King David High School has provided refugees on the Chad border with hundreds of solar cooking kits, which in turn has saved countless lives.
If you saw someone wearing a pink shirt on May 12th, you may have been looking at someone who was doing their part to repair the world...
Daniel Becker, Class of 2009
View the Mitzvah Day 2008 Slideshow... Click Here
Mitzvah Day 2008 - the KDHS day of community service.
On Thursday May 22nd 2008, King David High School, along with our guest students from Frank Hurt Secondary School, participated in the 9th annual Mitzvah Day. With students arriving in their vibrant purple “Save Darfur” t-shirts, the day was bound to be filled with enthusiasm, school spirit and inspiration. The day started off with a brief assembly run by the Mitzvah Day committee. Along with motivating speeches made by Mr. Seidelman, Gabi Isserow, Dan Blumenkrans, and Kamish, a Darfuri advocate, a video was shown to explain the current situation in Darfur and how we as individuals can repair the atrocities that are occurring each day. After the assembly,students headed to their various community service activities within the many Vancouver neighbourhoods. Students visited numerous homeless shelters, the food bank, Canuck Place, hospitals, the Louis Brier, the JFSA and helped clean up beaches and grafitti, raise money from car washes and garage sales and much more. After the activities, a barbecue was prepared by PAC and students enjoyed a delicious lunch while watching a student vs. teacher basketball game. To conclude the day and raise money for Darfur, the Mitzvah Day committee held a pie-throwing contest where different teachers could be auctioned off for students to throw pies at their faces.
A total of $2000 was raised for Darfur during this contest and of course the smiles on the students’ faces were priceless. Mitzvah Day was definitely a
day to remember. There is nothing like seeing a whole student body truly inspired to make a difference.
Gabi Isserow, Class of 2008
King David's annual "Mitzvah Day", which means "day of good deeds" in Hebrew, featured a special keynote speaker, named Kamish. He is a survivor of the tragedies in Darfur. After a touching speech at the opening ceremonies, Kamish joined a group of students at the Vancouver Art Gallery to raise money and awareness through the appropriately-named "Never Again Campaign".
Students volunteered throughout the city at various charities and organizations including Canuck Place, Ronald McDonald House, Salvation Army Harbour Light and the SPCA. When the two hundred volunteers began to trickle back to the school after their activities were complete, a congratulatory barbeque was held for everyone involved in the charitable day.
This is the eleventh year that King David, formerly known as "Maimonides", has put on the event. In the past, the school has raised thousands of dollars to send to Darfuri refugees living on the Chad border. The project they fund is known as the "Solar Cooker Project". Essentially, solar cookers are easily-assembled cardboard and aluminum barbeque-like devices. Darfuri women use them as an alternative to facing the dangerous task of going out to find firewood. Many women are raped and murdered by the Janjaweed militia when they search for wood to start fires, so the solar cookers allow them to avoid the dangerous journey and use the sun instead.
Each solar cooking kit costs $30 USD and comes with enough supplies for an entire year's worth of cooking. So far King David High School has provided refugees on the Chad border with hundreds of solar cooking kits, which in turn has saved countless lives.
If you saw someone wearing a pink shirt on May 12th, you may have been looking at someone who was doing their part to repair the world...
Daniel Becker, Class of 2009
View the Mitzvah Day 2008 Slideshow... Click Here
Mitzvah Day 2008 - the KDHS day of community service.
On Thursday May 22nd 2008, King David High School, along with our guest students from Frank Hurt Secondary School, participated in the 9th annual Mitzvah Day. With students arriving in their vibrant purple “Save Darfur” t-shirts, the day was bound to be filled with enthusiasm, school spirit and inspiration. The day started off with a brief assembly run by the Mitzvah Day committee. Along with motivating speeches made by Mr. Seidelman, Gabi Isserow, Dan Blumenkrans, and Kamish, a Darfuri advocate, a video was shown to explain the current situation in Darfur and how we as individuals can repair the atrocities that are occurring each day. After the assembly,students headed to their various community service activities within the many Vancouver neighbourhoods. Students visited numerous homeless shelters, the food bank, Canuck Place, hospitals, the Louis Brier, the JFSA and helped clean up beaches and grafitti, raise money from car washes and garage sales and much more. After the activities, a barbecue was prepared by PAC and students enjoyed a delicious lunch while watching a student vs. teacher basketball game. To conclude the day and raise money for Darfur, the Mitzvah Day committee held a pie-throwing contest where different teachers could be auctioned off for students to throw pies at their faces.
A total of $2000 was raised for Darfur during this contest and of course the smiles on the students’ faces were priceless. Mitzvah Day was definitely a
day to remember. There is nothing like seeing a whole student body truly inspired to make a difference.
Gabi Isserow, Class of 2008