Effort hopes to build
a stronger community
through involved kids.

The Education Committee

of the Building Community

Initiative hopes to build

bridges by engaging

middle-school children

in social action projects

that will benefit the Chaldean
community, the Jewish community
and the Metro Detroit community.
By working together, we hope to
attain our ultimate goals: breaking
down barriers that may exist
between the two groups to create
one group with a common goal.
Our pilot project will involve
students currently in
the sixth grade at
the Beth Achim
Religious School
at Adat Shalom
Synagogue on
Middlebelt Road
in Farmington
Hills and chil-
dren whose fami-
lies are members
at the St. Thomas
Chaldean Catholic
Parish on Maple Road in
West Bloomfield.
We initially plan to do two
projects with the students, one at
the Chaldean American Ladies of
Charity warehouse to assist with
sorting goods for refugees and
another at the Yad Ezra kosher food
warehouse in Berkley. We want
the children to understand that
although they may live in affluent
neighborhoods, there are people in
each community who are hurting
and need help.
We also hope to partner with
Summer in the City so the children
continue to volunteer over the
summer as a group. It is our goal to
recruit Jewish and Chaldean high
school students to act as mentor
volunteers for our middle school
volunteers.
Once the children move to the

Vinos iMrsab
Nancy Welber Barr
Guest Columnists

seventh grade, we intend to plan
more projects throughout the
school year for the group and
start the program with the new
sixth-grade class. We hope to have
enough projects available so the
children will be able to vote on
those that appeal to them. But our
core concern will be working in
the Jewish and Chaldean
communities to allevi-
ate suffering within
the communities.
Finally, the
Anti-Defamation
League has
agreed to facili-
tate a session
with the children
about the stereo-
types that have been
broken down between
the groups as they work
together.
Our ultimate goal is to have this
smaller pilot project spread to a
larger portion of the Jewish and
Chaldean communities. We chose
middle school because it is a time
of change in the lives of the stu-
dents, when groups become more
important and when ideas about
the groups can be changed in a
positive manner. We look forward
to our children getting to know one
another and making friends once
they find out that their lives are a
lot more similar than they are dif-
ferent. BC

Nancy Welber Barr and Vinos Kassab co-chair

Building Community's Education Committee.

Welber Barr is an attorney in West Bloomfield.

Kassab is an elementary school teacher in the

Bloomfield Hills School District.

WALSR 4IZAP5 N17
ttIE 4ROUNC, RUNWINA,

..

.

1

1
As t4 area's only all-business college,
we alt act serious, business-minded
stud4rots. Then, we prepare them for
the ntt level with challenging degrees
taugh by successful business leaders.
Put al trong business mind to work.
Hire a Walsh graduate today.
CoLLE6E.com/WIREwALS14
\NA

WALSH®

COLLEGE
uvE. BREA-NE. BUSINESS.

May 2011

CHALDEAN NEWS I JEWISH NEWS 11