RKYHS has launched the Chesed Executive Board this year. The Chesed Executive Board, together with RKYHS Mashgicha Ruchanit Rebbetzin Sarah Proops, have begun to facilitate engaging, impactful and life-enhancing chesed programming for students throughout the high school. The 13 person board is peer led and composed of student representatives from each grade.
Their meaningful initiatives to-date include the RKYHS Lost and Found, prioritizing the mitzvah of hashavat aveida by utilizing Instagram to reach the student body and return lost items to their rightful owners; the B’Kesher program matching juniors with freshmen to help the transition into high school; the peer tutor program, which has been a staple in the school for many years, allows students to work with peer tutors, and Tehillim Together, which enables students, faculty and parents alike to sign up to say Tehillim together as a school community and submit names of cholim to be davened for. The Chesed Board wants to remind each and every member of the school family that even in the darkest of times, when it is so easy to feel alone, your community, your family, will stand with you.
In response to the ongoing and deepening crisis in the Ukraine, the Chesed Executive Board is encouraging all RKYHS students to join the effort in supporting those suffering and in need. Their efforts are part of a three-stage program throughout the school to help those affected by the war, as well as develop their understanding of the situation in the region. The Chesed Executive Board is overseeing a donation drop-off, at which students are asked to deposit specific items that will be given to Ukrainian refugees in conjunction with the AFYA Foundation. The AFYA Foundation is working in partnership with U.S.-Ukraine Foundation and others to support the Ukrainian medical community and refugees seeking aid. Students will have the opportunity in the coming weeks to take the donated items to the AFYA Foundation and assist in sorting through the vast array of collected items in the warehouse, before they are airlifted to the region. RKYHS students jumped at this incredible opportunity to see and be part of the large-scale humanitarian project undertaken by the AFYA, and all of the spots to perform this mitzvah were filled in less than one hour.
RKYHS is inspired by the cohesive efforts of the Chesed Executive Board, which expands the continuous chesed performed for the community at large by RKYHS students.
