At the start of the recent school year, an NYHS student founded a new club to encourage charity and volunteering. 

Jenna Kaufthal, a junior at NYHS, was inspired to form the Chesed Club from different volunteering and food/clothing drive opportunities she has held at school in the past. “I have always been very passionate about volunteering,” Kaufthal said. “I helped a bit by having a clothing drive freshman year. And then sophomore year, we had a hygiene drive that I helped with.” 

Kaufthal is excited about the number of people and volunteering plans they have for this year. She believes that when people have experiences such as involving themselves in the Chesed Club, it will further their volunteer and charity work for the future. Kaufthal says it makes her feel happy when people in the Chesed Club bring in more ideas for different charity opportunities they could do inside or outside of school. 

Although the club was only formed this year, Kaufthal has already held a volunteering opportunity during school hours for the women at NYHS. On October 6, Amanda Webber, a volunteer for T2P2, came to school and worked with the female students to package feminine hygiene products for teens and adults who are in need. “I originally contacted her to speak to us and she said that they needed those feminine packs built. I told her I feel like that would be a great activity for us,” Kaufthal said.

Kaufthal has also had support from the chesed club advisers, Hannah Hason and Marcy Park. Hason believes that chesed and charity are important for the Jewish community. She felt passionate about the Chesed Club after seeing how motivated Kaufthal was to create the club. “When I saw how passionate Jenna was… I felt like I wanted to be part of it and I want to support her and support such a good thing,” Hason said. In the short time that Hason has been at NYHS, she has helped by giving more volunteer opportunities for students to do and assisted Kaufthal with setting up packaging feminine products as well. Hason feels that chesed adds to school culture and furthers what should already be happening. 

For the future, Kaufthal said that she wants to have more charity drives and volunteering opportunities. She specifically wants to have a whole school volunteering program with different organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity. Kaufthal also expressed how she would like to do an event for homelessness and environmental issues. “I would like to do more events that can get people involved and interested,” Kaufthal said. “I feel more connected when I have an experience like that.”