by Maya Seligman, Sophie Levine, and Kira Isenman
The following blog post is adapted from a presentation that Maya, Sophie and Kira, representatives of the Davis Center Youth Board, made at a recruitment dinner for the 2023-2024 Youth Board.
Maya Seligman: The Davis Center Youth Board (DCYB) is a group that meets around once a month before NOAR. We are a group of teens learning about and working on issues that are central to Temple Sinai’s Davis Center for Social Justice.
Sophie Levine: Recently, we made signs to raise awareness about the native plant garden the Green Team is creating. This garden is helping native plants and animals thrive, and it is important for us all to understand how vital this is for the environment and its ecosystems. We also hosted a cereal dinner fundraiser for the Capital Area Food Book because we remembered how fun the cereal breakfast on the first day of Sunday school was, and even though we are not in Sunday school anymore, that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun too. Through this, thanks to so many of your donations, we raised over $900 for CAFB, providing over 1,800 meals to people struggling with hunger and food insecurity.
Kira Isenman: Something really cool about the DCYB is that we can decide what we want to focus on, so if we’re all talking about, say, climate change, we could plan an activity to correlate to that. Another – perhaps less obvious – thing is that being part of the DCYB means that you get to work with other kids who are super passionate about lots of the things you are, so you make a lot of friends. For me, one of my favorite things was planning the cereal breakfast. One meeting, we were talking about it, and that inspired us to make it happen. We have meeting agendas that help and guide us through what we say, but part of the DCYB is coming up with new, fun ideas that not only allow us to help people or the environment, but also to have fun and use our creativity in the process.
Sophie: I agree with what Kira said: I think it is a really great outlet to express our passions and meet other people who feel similarly to the way we do. Together, we have the opportunity to really make a valuable difference and have fun with people we connect with at the same time.
Maya: We’ve already taken plenty of time on this, so we’re going to wrap it up. We just want to remind you that the Davis Center Youth Board is a really great experience for people who want to make a difference and meet other people who feel the same way. If you are interested in applying to join next year’s board, please complete this form.