Sydney

As you should know, there is a place called Dignity U Wear. Dignity U wear is an orgainization run by volunteers, and our school goes there to help with sorting the clothing. Eventually, the clothing is given to people who don’t have any of their own. When we got there, we had to first sign in. On the sign in sheet, we had to put our first names, and the date which was March 1, 2013. Then we separated into two different tables. Half of the class went to table one, while the other half of the class went to table two. I was at table one. The man that was our “Guide” threw  Bob Marley t-shirts onto our tables. We had to separate the shirts into two piles; the good pile and the bad pile. If you had a shirt with a small coffee stain on it, or a rip, etc. it would automatically would go into the bad pile. The guy who was helping us showed us a special way to fold our t-shirts, as well. First, we had to lay it on the table. Then, we folded it from the left sleeve to the right sleeve. Next, we had to put the sleeves in the middle and fold the shirt twice. Once we had finished the first groups of t-shirts, we had 10 more to get done. We worked for about two and a half hours.

Every morning, we Jews say this prayer בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, מַלְבִּישׁ עֲרֻמִּים. Blessed are you, O Lord our God who clothes the naked. We did this prayer, by folding all of these shirts, which have been sent to people who need new clothes. I think that what we did is a wonderful Mitzvah. People who don’t have clothing can now get them. Something else I realized during most of the year, is that you do not have to be Jewish to do a mitzvah. It is your choice to do it or not.

I drew my own dignity U wear t-shirt

I drew this picture to try and explain what we did to fold the shirts.

Everyone knows what it is, it is bullying. The definition of bullying is to pick on somebody that is smaller, or weaker than you. Everyone has seen it happen, everyone has been a victim or the bully. Well, like I said, we have all seen it happen. I have an example, or a short story of how I have seen bullying happen to someone, but I didn’t stand up for them.

I was in the sixth grade like I am now, I was at this buddy walk for a friend of mine that has Down Syndrome. There is this girl, who is not very nice. She was playing with her friends, and didn’t include some other people. The people that weren’t including her, were sitting by themselves, just lonely. I was going to walk toward her to tell her that she needs to be inclusive. But, I didn’t.

I am now very upset with myself for doing that. I should have stood up for those kids who weren’t being included, and were being talked about behind their backs. The next time you see bullying occur, don’t just stand there and let it happen, go into it and stand up for the person, because what comes around goes around. Meaning if you stand up for someone, someone will stand up for you.

This past week was Tu B’Shvat. Tu B’Shvat is a holiday for Jewish people to eat a lot of fruit, because there are not fruits in every season. So, this past week our middle school went by car to this little planting shop called Trad’s. When we went to Trad’s, we had to pick between three kinds of flower plants. After he showed us the plants, we had to choose one out of the three. I chose a beautiful pink floral plant. Then, we walked outside and my friend Shelby’s dad drove his car, and we all put our plants in his trunk. After picking the plants, we drove downtown to a school called Malevi Washington. Once we got there, we put on our gloves, got our shovels and picked any random plant. We walked onto the school campus, and got assigned areas to begin planting. I planted near a very plain wall. Once we finished planting, we had to go back to the cars and drive back to school.

On Friday, I felt like I did something amazingly well. I feel like, now, when people are passing by this school, they are going to realize how beautiful this school is. It will give these children something pretty to see as they are walking on campus each day. I hope they like the plants.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/4847007446/

As many of you know, the United States is a country of freedom. But, not necessarily. On Friday, I found out that sadly, slavery in the United States still does exist. In Florida, some farmers have no choice, but to go into their fields and pick every single tomato they see until their bucket gets full. They have tried for so many years to get out of slavery. But, their bosses will not let them. The worst part, is that they get paid fifty cents for    every bucket they fill. In Florida, the sun is shining so bright, it is almost blinding, burning, and unfair for the poor slaves who have to work a twenty four hour day, just to get a bucket filled of tomatoes. Just imagine for a minute what it would feel like to be them, having to work twenty four seven, having to be dehydrated all day, to only get paid fifty cents. That is what they are going through.

Also, we would learn this on Tu B’Shvat because this is the time of Spring in Israel. This is the only time of the year in Israel that we can have this delicious food. It is seasoned just like tomatoes are. If the wonderful food is seasoned and so are tomatoes, then what other perfect time to mention it to sixth and seventh graders.

The last thing I must say, is what you as a person can do to help. You could search on the internet about the slavery, and tell your peers, teachers, parents, and family about the slavery. It would make a difference in a farmers life to get a raise.