Last Friday middle schoolers had the chance to participate in Moriah’s first ever Chesed Kickoff event! This year the theme was Shabbos, coinciding with the annual worldwide Shabbos Project on parshat Chayei Sarah. Each grade had the chance to hear about the Chessed Incentive Program from Rabbi Levinson and received their forms to fill in their chessed hours. Throughout the year we will be having raffles, where students will gain tickets based on the amount of hours they have completed in order to win some amazing prizes!

Students then had the chance to start volunteering right away with three different chessed activities. Each child wrote a Shabbos card to a child in the hospital for Chai Lifeline, wrote a Shabbat-o-gram to thank one of their favorite Moriah teachers and packed a Shabbos snack bag for Tomchei Shabbos.

The program continued with an oneg, filled with ruach, kugel and a video explaining more about the annual Shabbos Project that is known throughout the world. In preparation for the raffles throughout the year, the event concluded with a raffle for each grade, where some lucky students won a gift certificate to the school’s snack closet, with which proceeds go to various tzedakas throughout the year.

It was amazing to see the middle schoolers passionately involved in these chesed activities and everyone looks forward to hearing about the chesed opportunities they will continue to take part in this year!