GUCI Camp Tikkun Olam Program: "Keep Indianapolis Beautiful"

GUCI campers worked throughout the summer in a Tikkun Olam project facilitated by Keep Indianapolis beautiful. They helped create parks, staffed the Boys and Girls Club, and fixed up neighborhood gardens.

URJ Myron S. Goldman Union Camp-Institute (GUCI)
9349 Moore Road
Zionsville, IN 46077
(317) 873-3361
http://guci.urjcamps.org

Target Groups: Camp, High School, Middle School, and Elementary School


The Goldman Union Camp Institute (G.U.C.I.) family put into action many of our Jewish teachings by creating a new summer-long Tikkun Olam program. This new program sprang from the creative minds of two long-time G.U.C.I. staff members, Jacob Pactor, Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, and Alan Goodis, Har Zion Congregation, Toronto. Together with Camp Director Rabbi Ron Klotz, they implemented an eight week program of “Repairing our world,” with the campers, staff, and faculty of the regional camp.

Campers worked at three different locations facilitated by Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. Campers, ages 8 to 15, filled over 400 trash bags cleaning 20 city blocks and seven vacant lots in a mostly African-American, elderly, and impoverished neighborhood. Other campers, ages 10 to 14, weeded three neighborhood gardens, fixed a softball diamond, made and decorated two trash cans, and worked at an understaffed Boys & Girls Club.

All of the second session campers worked to build a park for the Town of Clermont, Indiana. They cleared trails, spread mulch, moved rocks, built a bridge and benches, created a creek path, created a 70-foot wide rock wall, and more. What a sense of accomplishment they felt! As one 9 year old camper said, “The mitzvah we did was pulling out weeds and pushing rocks up a hill. The whole cabin had to work together. Even though it seems like we might have done a small thing for this park, it still is an important part of the whole.”

The program was met with overwhelming success and enthusiasm. Campers learned a great deal and shared a Jewish pride in helping others. “I can’t explain how I felt,” said a 14 year old camper, “but everyone should experience what we did today.”