Hello from Sarah Lederer! Sarah lives in Bergenfield, NJ. She is a senior at Lander College for Women majoring in Psychology. This summer will be Sarah’s second on GIVE WEST and she is as pumped as can be! In addition to serving on our incredible advisor team, Sarah is our GIVE WEST programming coordinator. She has been busy planning awesome night activities and Shabbos programming that she cannot wait to share with the GIVE WESters so soon! In her free time, Sarah likes spending time with her family, playing sports, lifeguarding, participating in Friendship Circle (go chessed!) and learning or teaching Torah. Because she loves camp, summer is definitely her favorite time of year. As a camper, Sarah spent some of her most inspiring and fun summers on NCSY SEG for two summers and NCSY Michlelet for one summer. She feels the impacts of her NCSY Summer experience even up until today. Ever since, she has wanted to give back as an advisor on an NCSY Summer program and she feels so fortunate to get to spend a second summer staffing GIVE WEST. She is excited to bond and have a blast with all of the incoming GIVE WESTers. She hopes you are getting ready for the most inspiring, meaningful, super fun, BEST. SUMMER. EVER.

Get ready to meet advisor Shayna Rabin! Shayna is from Plainview, NY and went to Central for high school. She took a year off in 10th grade to spend a year in Israel on the Naale Elite Academy High School exchange program. During that year, she had the unique opportunity to live amongst Israeli peers and take classes with them in Hebrew. The year was full of growth, lots of learning, and new experiences. After high school, Shayna spent a year and a half learning in Jerusalem in MMY. She is currently studying Psychology in Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. In the past, she has worked at Camp Moshava IO as a member of the Beit Midrash and as a counselor. She cannot wait for a new experience of fun and learning on GIVE WEST!

Cayley Stark was raised in Atlanta, GA and considers herself a true Southerner, because she loves country music and iced tea. She spent a year after high school at Sha’alvim for Women and is currently entering her senior year at Stern College for Women majoring in English and minoring in Political Science. In her spare time, she can be found at the nearest Starbucks drinking an iced latte or running along the East River. Cayley is super excited for GIVE WEST because she does not remember anything cool from the first two years of her life spent on the West Coast and she cannot wait to meet all of the amazing girls!

Check out some highlights from Summer 2014, to get PUMPED for Summer 2015 in just #6Days!!!!! Plus, meet your advisors here, and stay tuned for Advisor Spotlights coming up soon 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzEqmsrc9hM

CHECK OUT THE GIVE USA WEST 2014 VIDEO!!!

http://vimeo.com/101741904

This past Shabbos in Seattle was the best Shabbos yet! The weekend began in BCMH with a delicious Friday night dinner, singing, and divrei Torah. Ari Hoffman (Seattle NCSY director) joined us for the Oneg, bringing with him yummy sushi and passion for Jewish Leadership. Shabbos day was filled with goodies as well. We had a Krispe Kreme kiddish, a BMP session about hakarat hatov, a delicious lunch, and played a great game about saying thank you. After a long shabbos afternoon break, we joined back together for an optional shiur, mincha, and shaloshudes. We ebbed shabbos away and then enjoyed the GIVE USA Talent show on motzei shabbos! With bagels and lox to dine on, we all had a ball. Sunday was our last day on GIVE USA West. We woke up early and went to clean up Green Lake Park! Even though the park was quite clean already, the girls had a blast picking up any litter they saw. We learned, had lunch, and headed to the Stand With Us rally in Occidental park. GIVE USA West really made a presence, and a huge impact. Singing “am yisrael chai” and dancing with Israeli’s was load of fun, and very meaningful. After the rally, we went to enjoy free time in the Seattle Center! The space needle, glass museum, and of course Starbucks, were all major hits. After free time, we all walked together to the Bamboo Garden for our GIVE USA West banquet. Each girl was spoken about, as well as all of the advisors. We all received our GIVE USA West sweatshirts, and cheered “give give usa give usa” all the way back to the Super 8 Motel last night! We watched the end of the summer video, got some “sleep” and made it to the airport at 3:30 am. Thank you all for reading our blog! We has the most amazing summer ever. thank you for inspiring and for being inspired. May our chesed and learning be a zechut for all in need. Travel well GIVE USA West! We miss you already!

It was August 24th 2013 and my life was turned upside down. I got home from school and saw my mom sitting on the couch crying. I sat down and my mom looked at me with tears streaming down her face saying, “Your cousin Jessica was paddle boarding in the ocean and drowned.” Right then and there, I knew my life would never be the same. I lost trust in myself, in the world, but most importantly I lost trust in Gd. 

Coming on give USA, I had mixed emotions. I was thrilled to be able to experience something that seemed so amazing, but at the same time nervous about where I was holding in my life. 

After being here for four weeks, my trust in everything has been transformed in three ways. 

1. GIVE USA changed my trust in the world. Doing all the Chesed that we did, helped me realize that while there is so much tragedy in the world, there is also so much goodness. Giving this summer helped me reestablish my trust in the world and in all the good people that live in it. 

2. GIVE USA changed my trust in myself. After a very difficult year, I made decisions that I was not proud of. I came on GIVE USA hoping to start over again. One aspect I chose to focus on, was being shomer. Leora Walfish and I decided to learn the book, The Magic Touch together by Gila Manelson. She changed my perspective on myself my body and on my uniqueness. I have decided to be shomer negiah after this summer and I am really happy with this decision. 

3. GIVE USA changed my trust in Gd. After such a tragedy, where you ask, “How could Gd take such a young soul away? How can one keep placing there trust in Gd?” Coming on GIVE USA, I davened every once in a while, I payed attention Chumash class because I had to, and Shabbos was just another day in the week for me. GIVE USA changed all of those things for me. I daven everyday because I want to, I learn Torah because I love it, and I look forward to the holiness of shabbos because it is the most special day of the week. As shabbos goes away, we sit in a circle and ebb shabbos away. The ebbing on GIVE USA does something very unique to my soul and my spiritually. My soul feels uplifted and connected to my Father in haven, the creator of the world, Hashem. We sing “modeh ani” which is my favorite song. When I thank Gd for returning my soul to me, I am putting my trust in Him, because I know Gd put his trust in me too. 

This summer is only a beginning to my new chapter in life. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and dedication to continue rebuilding my trust in the world, in myself, and in Gd. Thus is where you guys come in! GIVE USA West, you are all my inspiration. I hope you will continue to be this inspiration for me after the summer. I have so much trust in each and every one of you and I hope after the summer your trust in me will continue forever.

Thank you! 

Hi everyone!

I don’t do public speaking and the last time I spoke, by my bat mitzvah, I started laughing at myself. So ya don’t laugh at me or make me your snapchat story ok thanks.

Some of you might not know, but the summer after tenth grade is usually the summer when people go to Israel…but wait — I’m here on GIVE USA. I couldn’t go to Israel because my brother’s Bar Mitzvah is this Shabbas. So My parents decided that they were going to find me a program, so I would have an amazing summer. They found me GIVE USA. I told them no way. I wasn’t going on this program with only 3 friends. I went to the parlor meeting all by myself and I was forsure that I wasn’t going to come here. It was so scary being at the meeting not knowing anyone there. But my parents told me that I will regret it a lot if I don’t go on an NCSY program. So I decided to listen to them and come on GIVE USA. The first day was so insanely scary because I only knew a few people…even though most girls here go to my school, I still didn’t know them. By the end of the first day I had already met a lot of new people that was going to be my friends…hopefully forever. Every day since then, I kept on meeting new people. Some people were even special enough to get nick names. When Leah told us that we would have to room with strangers I always thought that it would be horrible and awkward but it ended up making me get close with lots of new people…thanks Leah. I also started to meet new people during shuir and when we were sitting on the bus forever.
A lot of the places that we went to were interesting but they were experiences that I will never forget. Remember right before we went into midnight mission how scared everyone was? Ok now remember how you felt right after you left midnight mission. It’s insane how much our minds changed. I know, I will never forget the smiles people gave me when I took there plate and they saw  us helping out. They were so confused why we were being so nice to them but they loved it soo much. Me and Samantha held were taking peoples plates together and we decided that every time we took someone’s plate we would say have an amazing night instead of have a good night just to change it up a drop. You don’t know how many people smiled when they left because they just felt special that someone was talking to them and acknowledging that they were there. We don’t realize what we do will impact someone else in the future, for the good or for the bad. It can either make someone’s day or ruin it and by midnight mission we made everyone’s day. If we had the choice to stay back on the bus, most of us would have stayed — but then we would have ever never known what was happening in that building. We don’t know how many people left the midnight mission building smiling and feeling good about themselfs. What we say to someone will change them forever. I will never forget what people said to me or what I learnt this summer. Our actions will impact so many people in the future, we don’t even realize. We sometimes got to do things even though we don’t want to. Just like how I was scared to come on GIVE USA and how most of us were scared to go into the midnight mission building. It all ends well…no matter what. I came here with 3 friends and now I’m leaving with 47 friends. Just like I have my real family and my ska-family, you guys are my NCSY family. I love all of you so much. This summer was amazing because of all of you, our 5 amazing counselors, and of course Ayelet and Leah. Every single person made this program so fun and if you weren’t here it wouldn’t be as great. So, if anyone is in the 5 towns you are always invited to my house…you just have to deal with my siblings. Also some of you might not know but I kept a journal with all the amazing memories that I made with you guys so I will be able to remember all the fun we had together forever. I will forusre keep in touch with all of you. I love you guys…this is definitely a summer to remember.


Just remember this isn’t goodbye — it’s a see you later!

We had a jam-packed and fun-filled day in Portland today! We started off our day by heading to Zenger Farms. We were greeted there by a farmer, Jesse, and he explained how Zenger Farm is owned by the city but is used to cultivate and grow healthy food to benefit people that live off of food stamps. We spent the next few hours weeding, sowing, seeding and picking, and even playing with some farm animals! From there we headed to The Rebuilding Center, a place that gives wood and building supplies to those in need. They spoke to us about other charity work they do such as funding community projects. We all learned how to de-nail wooden boards in order to prepare them for construction. Everyone had a great time working on this and we were so excited about making this beautiful Kiddush Hashem. We then had a few hours at the Pioneer District, a pretty shopping area. It was nice to be able to walk around, get coffees, shop and hang out with friends. We then headed to the JCC for a delicious dinner. The Portland JCC was holding a big rally in support of Israel so there was a lot of action there. We decided to do our part, and made huge banners for the rally. We split into groups and using paint and poster signs, created large banners bearing classic taglines supporting our state. We are always thinking about and praying for Israel. After creating these posters we were able to make use of the JCC gym for a fun game of basketball. It was great to play some sports, and we all felt refreshed and active. We were then able to make use of the JCC pool that they let us rent out. Everyone had a great time swimming, diving and splashing around. Feeling tired but accomplished and refreshed, we headed back to our hotel for our last night in Portland. We are off to Seattle tomorrow, good night everyone!