First, congratulations to OKATY for winning the BEST OVERALL YOUTH GROUP - Small Congregation at NFTY-TOR Fall Conclave, Congregation Beth-El, Missouri City, TX! OKATY also came in 1st place (small congregations) for the amount of clothing donated thanks to TBI & OKATY participation in the “Jean Pool” over the High Holy Days. We came in 2nd place with our food drive. Evan & Sammi both won trophies for their fabulous Waldo & Wenda costumes! The theme of the weekend was “Finding the Individual in the Big Picture: Where’s Waldo?”
OKATYites spent the weekend learning about acceptance, tolerance and what we can do to make our world a better place. Saturday morning we attended the Bat Mitzvah of a woman who is visually impaired. She read Torah for the first time from a Braille Book of Torah. For our morning program we chose 2 disability awareness workshops from: autism, dyslexia, hearing impairment (CART-closed caption), hidden disabilities, seeing eye dog, sign language, technology for disabilities, and visual impairment. Each workshop had a guest speaker and all were very educational! After lunch we had several choices for an afternoon of community service. Half of our group went to locations throughout Houston to help clean up a park, play games and host an ice cream social at an assisted living facility, organize food at a local food bank, sort & stock clothes at a resale center and organize and clean up a special needs children’s’ theater. The rest of the group stayed at Beth-El to assist in a couple of different projects. We hosted a carnival for kids with autism, painted bowls to be auctioned off at the Food Bank Fundraiser and created a Fallen Heroes collage that traveled all over Houston for Veterans Day Celebrations. BEFTY hosted an educational and fun conclave! We really had a great time!
Our next NFTY-TOR event is at Greene Family Camp for Na’aseh V’Nishmah. This is a Social Action & Study Kallah weekend for youth group board members.
Thank you to all the TBI Congregants who assisted OKATY in our annual Project Isaiah! We donated 2,243 pounds of food, the equivalent to about 1,750 meals for hungry Oklahomans. This is the 2nd most food donated by OKATY & TBI in the past 5 years!
JR OKATY is a small and energetic group! Our October event was “Lunch and Games” in the Sukkah and JR OKATYites showed their skills at Banana Grams & Toppled! It was a beautiful fall afternoon with lots of laughs! Stay tuned for details on our bowling with OKATY and snow tubing over winter break!
Thinking about a donation to honor your family during the holiday season? Consider contributing to the Barbara Wernick Scholarship Fund which helps OKATYites get to NFTY National Convention every other year; the Shaffer Memorial Scholarship Fund which helps OKATYites get to NFTY-TOR Summer Kallah, or the Youth Group Fund which offers additional funding for youth programming.
SAVE THE DATE: February 26th 6:00pm, Israel Pilgrimage Dinner Fundraiser & Family Fun Night
Barbie Greer, Advisor
When you register and pay for the Israel Pilgrimage Fundraiser, you will be served appetizers at the beginning of the evening, enjoy a delicious Italian dinner, have the opportunity to participate in a silent and a live auction, play bingo and get to participate in a lively song session.
