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Monday, January 22, 2018

Chesed Mission 2018/5778: Day 6

Time really does fly when you’re having fun! Today, on another day of the Chesed Mission after a filling and yummy breakfast, we headed out to our first stop: The Meshi Children’s Rehabilitation Center. Here we interacted with children with different disabilities, and we were beyond amazed by the spectacular capabilities that some of the children had developed with the help of adaptive technologies! We helped them with drawing and decorating pots for the plants we planted that they could bring home in honor of Tu B'Shvat.
Next, we revisited the Todah L'Zhal Soldier Center, where we were this Shabbat, and gave out gift bags to many soldiers in the army. We also danced with them and got to hear their stories. 
Following that, we drove down to the unbelievable Oz Vegaon park/center that was established in memory of Gilad Shaer, Eyal Yifrah and Naftali Fraenkel, the three boys who were kidnapped and tragically murdered a few years ago in Israel. We had the opportunity to hear the story from Steve Garr, who’s amazing words inspired me, as well as my fellow friends to think about how important it is to appreciate Israel and show our love towards our home country. We helped expand the park and planted three trees in their memory.
After a long bus ride, we made it to the really interesting Holon Children's Museum where we experienced the Dialogue in the Dark and Invitation for Silence. We got to feel what it was like to be visually impaired and hard of hearing for an hour. We also had the opportunity to be guided by people who face this challenge everyday themselves.
The day was not over yet! We headed to the Pantry Packers Center, a project of Colel Chabad, where we split into groups and packed different foods for poor families in Israel who really need it. It was amazing to see the progress we made after our hard work! The night ended off with a late dinner on Emek Refaim, where we finished it off with a walk home. We can’t wait to see what Rabbi Besser has in store for us tomorrow! ~Rhonda Azar, Class of 2019