This is my third time participating in the JCC Maccabi Games, and every time JCC Cares is run in a very different way. Last year Austin went to Boca where we weren’t allowed to go see other JCC Cares projects. This year I was able to take part in helping and then see others do the same thing. This morning I got on a bus at 8:45 and headed to the JCC garden. All that I had known was that the JCC garden feeds people who can not afford to get the food that they need. We walked into the introduction room where we were told about what we would be doing and were shown a video. After watching the video and seeing the statistics of how many people really rely on this garden to feed there families, I understood that this was very important. My group had to build new beds so that they could have more space to grow fruits and vegetables. I enjoyed my JCC cares project but still didn’t feel like I was making a very big difference. After our project was done we got on the bus and headed back to Nicolet. I had heard about how amazing the Special Olympics have been in the past so I went to check it out. When I got there it was amazing to witness what was happening. I was able to see so many Jewish teens playing with so many children who are special needs. Watching what was going on made me proud to see what we could accomplish it just a few hours. When I did my own project I was just doing the labor. I wasn’t really thinking about who would benefit, but sometimes we need to just step back and see what our work can do.
