Dear Families, Our last few days in DC were packed with speakers, service projects, and a visit to the BBYO International Office. Instead of writing to you about what we have done, I am emailing with thoughts, comments, and reflections from your teens. You’ll notice that some of the quotes have names while others don’t. [...]
Washington, DC
Dear Families, What a busy few days we’ve had! Thursday started at A Wider Circle, an organization that works tirelessly to support those living in poverty and provide them opportunities to furnish their houses with lightly used donations. Your teens spent the morning moving furniture, folding and organizing linens, and sorting and packaging books for [...]
Dear Families, We have enjoyed countless name games, ice breakers, and personal moments where we feel so lucky to learn about your teens, their passions, and goals they have for this trip. They spent the first few days diving in to service projects, pushing themselves out of their comfort zones, and embracing the amazing people [...]
Stand Up DC 1 Update #3! Can you believe we are heading into the homestretch of the program? We have done so much in the last few days, its hard to remember that we were strangers only 7 days ago. On Thursday we worked with an organization that specializes in youth outreach. We helped them [...]
Stand Up DC 1 Update #2! Wednesday morning we ate breakfast at the Dog Tag Bakery and learned about the services they provide. Founded by a one-armed Jesuit and a philanthropist with a passion for veterans, this non-profit provides small business venture education as well as bakery jobs for disabled veterans. Through a tour of [...]
Stand Up DC 1 Update #1 By: Sean Riordan, Boston, MA Hello, BBYO Passport parents and guardians! These last 2 1/2 days were filled to the brim with exciting and rich activities.We began in our respective airports with some light meetings. Once we all met up, stopped by CVS and situated ourselves in our rooms, [...]
Hello from our last day in Washington DC! We really can’t believe that this program is over! It has been an incredible 10 days, during which we have learned so much about service, the issues of homelessness and hunger, and ourselves. On Monday, we spent the day putting together a playground for a wonderful family [...]
Hello from Washington DC! The past three days have been busy and we have been having a lot fun! As a staff, we have been thoroughly impressed with how excited and engaged our participants have been so far. By Sunday evening, all 18 participants had gathered at our dorm at George Washington University, gotten a campus tour from [...]
We are officially over a week into our program, but it definitely feels like we have been together for much longer as we have had a packed schedule. All of our participants have enjoyed that the program has relaxed a bit more because Shabbat was this passed weekend. This allowed our group to reflect on [...]
Greetings for Stand UP DC again! We have continued to have a very busy past few days. Again all of our participants have been fantastic in their engagement toward our programs, events, and speakers. The topic of hunger and homelessness is not a light one to deal with and to see the issue in great [...]