Tikkun Olam In Thailand
Teen dedicates a month to helping orphans and elephants.
Jordyn Waterstone
T2T Staff Writer
M
y family has always been
involved with community ser-
vice in many ways and, from
that experience, I have fallen in love with
helping people.
This summer. I will be traveling to
Thailand on a month-long community
service trip. I will be working through an
organization called Rustic Pathways, which
connects high school and college students
with community service work around the
world.
I leave for Thailand on July 1 to help
mentor Thai orphans. I will be teaching
them how to read and write English. Also,
I will be building playgrounds and doing
other types of work for the kids. This
means a lot to me because I know that I
will be making a difference in someone's
life, and in return they will be making a
difference in mine.
The second part of my community
service involves an elephant rescue. My
aunt, Carla Feldsteen, who lost her battle
to breast cancer a few years ago, was one
of the biggest influences on my life and
was captivated by the luck she thought
Jordyn Waterstone is selling T-shirts and collecting returnable cans to raise $5,000
to build a house for a needy family in Thailand.
elephants brought her. This part of my
trip is for her because I know helping the
elephants would have made her very proud
of me and because it was a dream I wish
she could have fulfilled.
On this part of my trip, I will be working
with endangered elephants that have been
hurt in the wild. For 10 days, I will learn
how to bathe, feed and care for them.
When I was researching my trip, I began
to learn about Thailand and the place I
would be visiting. I learned a lot about the
poverty they are trying to overcome, and I
knew that there must be a way I could help.
I discovered that building an entire
home with running water in Thailand only
costs $5,000. Although $5,000 seems like a
lot of money, it is tiny compared to the cost
of a building a house in America. I decided
to raise $5,000 to build a house. So far, I
have raised about $2,000. It is important to
me to reach my goal and build a home for
an underprivileged family that isn't fortu-
nate enough to have one.
To raise money, I have been selling T-
shirts for $15, collecting returnable pop
cans and taking monetary donations.
Many people have helped, and I am hoping
for many more to get involved.
This mission is very close to my heart
because I have always wanted to help kids
that are not as privileged as I am lucky
enough to be. This summer I will be fulfill-
ing my dream and, hopefully, many people
can be involved with me.
If you would like to get involved and
help me reach my goal of $5,000, please
contact me by e-mail J_waterstone@yahoo.
com, or by phone (248) 943-3000. Please
don't forget, I'm not just building a house,
I'm building a home.
❑
Jordyn Waterstone, 17, will be a senior
at North Farmington High School in
Farmington Hills.
1 Ate My Own Homework'
Jewish-style cooking classes give FJA students food for thought.
Raquel Cohen
T2T Staff Writer
A
bout once a month, food writer
Annabel Cohen, a Frankel Jewish
Academy (FJA) parent (who also
happens to be my mom), comes into our
school's new kitchen just outside the Jewish
Community Center's In-Line Hockey Center
to teach students how to cook "Jewish style."
Annabel has a theory: Give a kid latices
and he'll eat for a day; teach a kid to make
latices and his family will bug him to make
them every Chanukah for a lifetime.
So in class we make Jewish-themed food.
I've been to a couple of classes and in one
hour or so, we can make one or two recipes
— and eat them, too. Last April, the class
fried up Passover-themed hot and delicious
matzah brei and made an easy charoset
with only four ingredients.
As usual, class started with Annabel
arriving with recipes in hand. Evelyn Wolff;
the school's guidance counselor, who always
assists the class, had already done the gro-
A40
June 12 • 2008
Although Annabel coordinates the cook-
ing, the students actually make the recipes.
So while one person cracks eggs, another
measures milk and a third breaks up mat-
zah for the brie. Meanwhile, apples are cut
up for the food processor by another team
and nuts are scooped for the charoset. Each
recipe preparation is a group effort.
Every class has a seasonal or holiday
theme. In December, the lesson was lakes
and homemade microwave applesauce. In
another class, cheese blintzes and spinach
crepes. By the end of blintz class, everyone
knew how to prepare and fill a perfect crepe.
The great part about class is that with
every session, you get to eat your home-
work.
❑
FJA cooking students Brett Ferber, Mitchell Giidenberg, Ilan Ben-Ami and Branden
Rottman with school counselor Evelyn Wolff, who assists in class.
cery shopping. She bought boxes of matzah,
eggs, milk, sugar, apples, cinnamon, nuts
and maple syrup. The mashgiach (kosher
supervisor) this time was junior Ilan Ben-
Ami. He checked for the hechsher (kosher
symbol) and made sure every ingredient
was kosher.
Raquel Cohen, 18, recently graduated from
Frankel Jewish Academy in West Bloomfield.
For recipes, go to jnt2t.com .
Watch for teen 2 teen in next week's Jewish News