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Happy Kids

Michigan State Hillel students find the meaning
of tikkun olam in a child's smile during spring break.

Marisa Meyerson

jewish@edu staff

ver the years, tikkun olam has been
a staple when learning about Jewish
values. Our rabbis have spoken about it,
our Sunday school teachers gave us creative proj-
ects to learn about it and our high school youth
group directors helped us plan community service
programs around it. Since the beginning of our
Jewish educations, we've been trained to act with
the intention of repairing the world.
On March 8, a group of 13 Michigan State
University students gathered at the airport
to begin our journey to Orlando, where our
Alternative Spring Break trip would take place.
Our final destination was the Give Kids the World
(GKTW) Village, where we would spend the next
four days working with children with life-threaten-
ing illnesses and their families.
When we signed on for the trip, we thought of
it simply as volunteering, but by the end of our
short week, we realized it was so much more —
we were really helping to repair the individual
worlds of hundreds of young children.
GKTW has worked tirelessly over the last 26

O

years to give more than 135,000 families week-
long cost-free fantasy vacations. The organization
has clocked more than 2 million volunteer hours,
more than any other nonprofit, and welcomed
families from all 50 states and 75 countries.
When a child is diagnosed with a life-threaten-
ing illness, they are often approved to be granted a
"wish." If the child expresses a wish to visit any of
the attractions in the central Florida area, as more
than half of all children do, GKTW is contacted.
Upon arriving in the Village, each family is given
the utmost care and support. Families stay on-site
in one of 144 villas, which are fully equipped with
everything they need for the week, including a car
for the parents and a daily dose of magic for the
kids.
It's the magic and inspiration that really sets
GKTW apart from any other organization and, ulti-
mately, what led to its impact on us.
Trip participant Hannah Kahn said, "This experi-
ence has helped me realize that there are so many
bigger things in life than worrying about irrelevant
things. This trip has made me realize how valuable

MSU Hillel students do mitzvot on trip to Give Kids
the World Village in Orlando.

my friends and family really are, how much more
I should appreciate things like my health, and not
place so much importance on trivial matters, but
rather on my own happiness."
In addition to being given free tickets to the
theme parks of their choice, the Village is a fantasy
resort itself, allowing the families to be surrounded
by happiness and magic for the entirety of their
stay. The Village features dozens of activity venues,
ranging from a life-size fully handicap-accessible
Candyland playground, to the Ice Cream Palace,
where dessert creations of the child's choice are
served for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Participant Jessica Sherbin remarked, "The
families we touched and the encounters we made

were extremely enriching and uplifting by simply
being able to put a smile on an adorable kid's face
for a few hours."
In four short days, we became experts on
smiles, high-fives and doing things just for the
memories. We came back from Orlando finally
understanding that you don't have to fix the
whole world to do tikkun olam; sometimes
just repairing the world of a child is more than
enough. @

Marisa Meyerson of Farmington Hills is a fresh-

man at Michigan State University in East

Lansing.

Richard Goode

Sunday, April 26, 4:00 pm
Hill Auditorium

"[Richard] Goode makes the familiar sound unexpectedly fresh,"
proclaimed the Financial Times in reviewing his 2009 recording of the
complete Beethoven piano concertos. Goode has won a large and
devoted following for music-making of tremendous emotional power,
depth, and expressiveness, and is acknowledged worldwide as one of
today's leading interpreters of Classical and Romantic music.

PROGRAM

Mozart
Beethoven
Brahms
Dubussy
Schumann

Adagio in b minor, K. 540
Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp Major, Op. 78
Eight Piano Pieces, Op. 76
Children's Corner
Humoreske, Op. 20

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16 • 2015