10th Grade students pick volunteer spots

This month the high schools in Ashkelon focus on volunteer opportunities for their 10th Graders.

Each school holds at least one "focus day" when students view an interesting play about civic responsibility and spend a morning listening to representatives from local organizations who come to describe their activities, to recruit volunteers from the schools.

Below, Gad Manor from Katzenelson Community Center describes a variety of programs needing volunteers to Henry Ronson High School 10th grade students.

10th graders must complete a minimum of 60 hours of volunteer work in the community during the year, but they can choose where they volunteer.

Below, at left, Oriana Hadad from Beit Canada absorption center and Dafna Biton of AMEN together with her assistant, Itamar Shumen, and Ilanit from Hatzalat Hayot (Animal Rescue) read the board advertising various volunteer options for Henry Ronson school students.

Below, a representative from Halpern Old Aged home explains volunteer options for those interested in working with senior citizens.

Many organizations show a short movie or a presentation. Below, the first screen of a presentation by Hatzalat Hayot (Ashkelon Animal Rescue)

Below, a Magen David Adom representative outlines the duties of their volunteers

After the presentations, students must sign up for one of these volunteer options. The idea is to get the students involved in the community in a field they care about. Most students become involved and work far beyond their 60 hours, often continuing to volunteer for many years.

If the students are regular volunteers during their last 3 years of high school, they receive a "Civic matriculation certificate" which awards them 10 additional bonus points when applying to institutions of higher education.

Below, a Sherut Leumi volunteer explains what "Kav LeHayim" does, working with kids and young adults with cerebral palsy, and how volunteers can help.

Nicole

Gilad Shalit - 1000+ days a Prisoner of the Hamas

photo by Gil Yohanan (ynet) of the Shalit family in the protest tent in Jerusalem this week

Today, Saturday, March 21, 2009, marks 1,000 days of captivity of the soldier Gilad Shalit, held in Gaza by the radical Islamist Hamas movement since June 25, 2006. Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas, Army of Islam and Popular Resistance Committees terrorists in an attack on an IDF outpost at a Gaza crossing, where two other soldiers were killed and a fourth was gravely wounded. br>
The Shalit family will commemorate the date with a mass rally in Jerusalem this evening.

The Hamas has never allowed the International Red Cross to visit Gilad Shalit. The Hamas' denial of visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) violates the Geneva Convention. The Shalit family still have no proof of whether he is alive, or of his physical and psychological condition.

During its final days in office, the Olmert government attempted a last-ditch bid to secure Gilad Shalit's release, through intensive indirect negotations, mediated by Egypt, with Hamas. The negotiations collapsed this week over the Hamas' insistence that Israel free hardcore militants imprisoned in Israeli jails These dangerous terrorists were involved in planning some of the worst terrorist and suicide-bomb attacks that killed many Israeli civilians and have publicly declared that when released they hope to kill more Israelis.

Pupils from Ort Henri Ronson High School in Ashkelon went up by bus to Jerusalem to support the Shalit family and take part in the vigil in the protest tent. This sticker was designed by 1oth grade student Itai Ben Naim and all the students

wore it on their shirts. 1000 days in captivity. How much longer?

nicole