Hi I’m Ivan and I’m Safira and we are the Amirim Unit Leader and Assistant Unit leader this summer. This is both our first summer at CMC. Ivan is from Argentina and Safria is from London England.
Amirim is the unit for 7 and 8th graders here at CMC. Every session, we go on our service trip to a river down the mountain, where we help the volunteers from the National Forest. With gloves and pickers we collect pieces of trash along the path that people leave behind. Then, we get into the river and take down recreational dams or pools that the visitors build with rocks. The work we do does not only help the wildlife there to have a cleaner and safer place to live, but also everyone else: those pools and dams make the water flow another way, which makes the river get wider and more shallow every time. With the sun burning on top for multiple hours a day, and especially now during the summer, that water can start to get warmer and warmer, letting bacteria grow on it and eventually not being safe enough to even jump in.
This service trip has 2 special meanings for Amirim as the reasons we do it every session and every summer: first of all, most 7th and 8th graders are entering Bnei mitzvah age, and start preparing for this amazing and incredible journey that is stepping into adulthood. This service trip helps them complete their service tasks in a fun way, but also gives out plenty for the community here.
The second reason is related to the Amirim values: Confidence and tikkun midot (building character). By giving them a task so meaningful and useful to every visitor we help them realize how important each one of them is here, and how tiny actions (like picking up trash or moving rocks) can have such an impact on our society. Teaching them to be responsible, hard-working and aware of their own strength and weaknesses can guide them to develop this self awareness and build of character. We, Safira and Iván, in addition to their own counselors try to not light the way for them, but rather lead them into shining for their own.
