Hewlett High School students spent their day off from school doing community service through with the Chabad of Five Towns CTeen group.
More than 40 teens wrapped blankets, winter essentials and decorated pillowcases for the local women and children’s shelter, on Nov. 5.
The CTeen group is an organization for Jewish students in grades nine to 12 to participate in different service events to earn credit for school and aid the community.
The Election Day event, Bowling for a Better World, allowed students to wrap and decorate, with some pizza and a round of bowling after. Hadassah Geisinsky, assistant director of Chabad of the Five Towns organized the afternoon at Woodmere Lanes in Woodmere.
“It’s an honor to work with our local teens from Hewlett High and doing this community service for our own community,” Geisinsky said. “Most of these kids don’t know that there’s a women and children shelter here. They connect to it, they feel for it and it makes them more aware and appreciative of what they do have.”
The students were asked to bring new and unused winter items to wrap at the event along with what was donated.
Sophia Abramovich, a ninth-grader, has been involved with CTeen since the beginning of the school year.
“I think it’s very important to spread joy and spread light through such dark times and I think it’s important to spread religion and show your love for Judaism,” Abramovich said. “I think it’s very important to come celebrate even though there’s such sad and terrible events happening, I’m very honored to be here right now.”
For Abramovich, this act of community service meant more than required service hours for school, she said.
“It means a lot to me, as I know my family who were immigrants didn’t have a lot when they came here,” Abramovich added. “It’s very special and holds a very special place in my heart to know people are benefitting from the things that I give.”
Coby Agamie, a junior, has been involved with CTeen for five years.
“I came to this event to support the Jewish community,” Agamie said. “I woke up this morning excited to go to CTeen. It means a lot, it gives me a lot of pride to give back for the women and children.”
Tova Motovich, an 11th-grader, came out to the event to support the community and help women and children in need, she said.
“It feels really nice,” Motovich said. “I really enjoy helping people and it’s nice to encourage other people to come and do it too.”
She has been involved with CTeen for two years and first joined after seeing a post on Instagram about an upcoming event.
“I feel like CTeen has made me into a better person because now I’m more involved in community service and I’m able to help people out more,” Motovich said. “It’s really nice that people are coming and I feel like it’s more than when I first started coming.”
Ninth-grader, Jacob Tenenbaum, was immediately drawn to this event because of the bowling. He is on the HHS bowling team and wanted to get some practice in, while also giving back.
“I had a lot of stuff lying around that I wanted to give out to charity,” Tenenbaum said. “I feel good to help out the people that are in need. It feels pretty good knowing that I can make a difference for people that are less fortunate.”
