{"id":53241,"date":"2016-02-25T12:48:01","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T17:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=53241"},"modified":"2016-02-25T13:12:46","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T18:12:46","slug":"ncsyers-make-a-difference-in-flood-ravaged-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/ncsyers-make-a-difference-in-flood-ravaged-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"NCSYers Make a Difference in Flood-Ravaged Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-post-53241 wp-image-53249 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/txweb3.jpg\" alt=\"txweb3\" width=\"256\" height=\"224\" \/>Ten student leaders from the New York Region of NCSY flew to Texas over Presidents\u2019 Day Weekend to volunteer in a city still recovering from flooding. The disaster relief mission to Taylor, Texas was part of a new leadership program developed by NCSY\u2019s New York Region to meet the needs of students looking to build their volunteer experience outside the confines of the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This program allowed our teens to take the learning and discussions they do in our various programs and put it into action,\u201d said Rabbi Yehoshua Kohl, regional director of New York NCSY. \u201cWhen they actually do the hard work that <em>chesed <\/em>and <em>tikun olam<\/em> often requires, it&#8217;s no longer simply intellectual. It becomes a transformative experience that makes lasting impressions on their future Jewish engagement as adults.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>NCSY is the international youth movement of the Orthodox Union.<\/p>\n<p>Led by staff members DL Lavin and Avi Warman, students came from various high schools around New York including the Special Music School in Manhattan; SAR Academy in Riverdale; Westchester Hebrew High School; Medgar Evans College Prep High School; Hewlett High School; Midreshet Shalhevet; the Sinatra School for the Performing Arts and Oceanside High School.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-post-53241 wp-image-53248 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/txweb2.jpg\" alt=\"txweb2\" width=\"257\" height=\"224\" \/>The students flew down to the Lone Star State determined to make a difference.<\/p>\n<p>Craig Gilman, 16, of Oceanside, didn\u2019t want to miss the hands-on opportunity to directly help someone else. \u201cI wanted to go because I saw we could make a difference for one family,\u201d he said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t going to simply send money and wonder what good came of our actions. I knew this would be a wonderful opportunity for me to grow as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An 11<sup>th<\/sup> grader at Oceanside High School, Craig participated on <em>The Anne Samson Jerusalem Journey (TJJ)<\/em> two years ago, which sparked his increased participation within NCSY. Since then, he has become active at regionals and was encouraged by his mentor Avi Warman, Central Long Island NCSY chapter director, to apply for a slot on the delegation.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as they arrived in Texas, the NCSYers began working on a house that had been severely damaged by flooding. With sturdy shoes and working attire and some help from construction managers, the delegation spent two full days fixing up a single home. They repainted the house, trimmed windows and removed decayed wood from the house walls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was so much decay,\u201d reflected Ruthi Wasserman, 16, from SAR Academy in Riverdale.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-post-53241 wp-image-53247 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/txweb1.jpg\" alt=\"txweb1\" width=\"224\" height=\"229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/txweb1.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/txweb1-60x60.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/>\u201cThe NCSYers were prepared to help in whatever manner was needed; they understood that what they were there to do wouldn\u2019t be glamorous or fun, but would make a difference in someone\u2019s life,\u201d said DL Lavin, Westchester chapter director.<\/p>\n<p>As Shabbat approached, the New Yorkers travelled to Dallas to spend the weekend with the local NCSY chapter, Yachad, and Bnei Akiva.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpending Shabbat in a small community, the teens were blown away by the warmth of the community\u2014they took for granted that in the New York area, there are so many Jews,\u201d noted Jon Ackerman, managing director of NCSY\u2019s New York Region..<\/p>\n<p>The Texas mission made Ruthi Wasserman feel more appreciative of what she has. \u201cHere I\u2019m able to attend a private high school, while individuals have no ability to live in their own homes\u2014there are so many aspects of life that are out of our control, it\u2019s crazy. But there are people like us who care and want to help.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ten student leaders from the New York Region of NCSY flew to Texas over Presidents\u2019 Day Weekend to volunteer in a city still recovering from flooding. The disaster relief mission to Taylor, Texas was part of a new leadership program developed by NCSY\u2019s New York Region to meet the needs of students looking to build<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":775,"featured_media":53244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NCSYers Make a Difference in Flood-Ravaged Texas - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/ncsyers-make-a-difference-in-flood-ravaged-texas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NCSYers Make a Difference in Flood-Ravaged Texas - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ten student leaders from the New York Region of NCSY flew to Texas over Presidents\u2019 Day Weekend to volunteer in a city still recovering from flooding. The disaster relief mission to Taylor, Texas was part of a new leadership program developed by NCSY\u2019s New York Region to meet the needs of students looking to build\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/ncsyers-make-a-difference-in-flood-ravaged-texas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-25T17:48:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-25T18:12:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/txfeature.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"430\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Batya Rosner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Batya Rosner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/ncsyers-make-a-difference-in-flood-ravaged-texas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/ncsyers-make-a-difference-in-flood-ravaged-texas\/\",\"name\":\"NCSYers Make a Difference in Flood-Ravaged Texas - OU Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/ncsyers-make-a-difference-in-flood-ravaged-texas\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/ncsyers-make-a-difference-in-flood-ravaged-texas\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/txfeature.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-25T17:48:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-25T18:12:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/69bade8a188706c98f053e793b2efd81\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/ncsyers-make-a-difference-in-flood-ravaged-texas\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/ncsyers-make-a-difference-in-flood-ravaged-texas\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/txfeature.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/txfeature.jpg\",\"width\":430,\"height\":375},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/\",\"name\":\"OU Life\",\"description\":\"Everyday Jewish Living\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/69bade8a188706c98f053e793b2efd81\",\"name\":\"Batya Rosner\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c2512983144e83677d175eaaa0ed12a4a0720e1edf8652d9b67602130b5df457?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c2512983144e83677d175eaaa0ed12a4a0720e1edf8652d9b67602130b5df457?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Batya Rosner\"},\"description\":\"Batya Rosner is a staff writer of the Orthodox Union and ou.org\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/batya_rosner\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NCSYers Make a Difference in Flood-Ravaged Texas - OU Life","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/ncsyers-make-a-difference-in-flood-ravaged-texas\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NCSYers Make a Difference in Flood-Ravaged Texas - OU Life","og_description":"Ten student leaders from the New York Region of NCSY flew to Texas over Presidents\u2019 Day Weekend to volunteer in a city still recovering from flooding. 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