Volunteering Grandma??

I just wanted to write a blog about one event that really brought my experience in Israel to a whole new level. Being a camp person, I have always thought about the idea of going full circle within an organization/experience. I know that doesn't make much sense, but let me explain. It is no shock to any one reading this blog that camp has been a meaningful and extremely life changing experience for me. When I was a camper all I wanted was to give back to camp by being a staff member. And when I finally became a staff member I worked really hard to make everyone of my campers LOVE camp the way I have always loved it. However, being staff was not enough for me, I wanted to run the Israel trip and be AdStaff (higher level staff) as well in order to really come full circle. While I have not been able to fulfill all those dreams, as a my childhood was only so long, I did get to feel as if I went full circle at camp by being a staff member and leading the Israel trip.
However why tell this story now, here in my Israel blog? Last week I was asked to spend an extra day as a  מורה ספורט (PE Coach) in order to assist the head PE Coach at a track and field meet in Tel Aviv. As I have already helped at one of these events, I figured it was the same ordeal. We would go to Tel Aviv and our 50 students would compete in all the typical track and field events (high jump, long jump, running, relay, and shot put). However, when I arrived to the bus I realized there were only 25 students (a seemingly small amount as the students get out of school for the day if they go to the competition). And when we arrived at the field in Tel Aviv, we were the first ones at the event which was even stranger as last time we were the very last school to arrive. This is where the story gets really interesting. When we got their the students were immediately escorted to the center of the field and handed orange pennies that had the word שופט on them, which means "judge". It turns out the students were not there to compete at all, they were there to help run the elementary school track and field meet. Every year DeShalit Middle school is asked to send 25 students to volunteer at an Elementary School Track and Field Meet. My students were in charge of every aspect of the meet, from organizing the elementary students and making sure they were at the right event to actually running the events and recording the scores. I was asked to help with the 'shot put' which for an elementary school student (who is unable to throw an iron ball) is actually throwing a handball as far as possible. I was so impressed by my middle school kids who normally are so wild and rowdy. While I normally cannot get them to sit and listen for 5 minutes to directions, on this day they were organized and running the meet  smoothly.

Needless to say, the day was incredible. In a weird way, I felt like a volunteering grandma. My students (who I often refer to as my kids) were volunteering with kids of their own. It was an incredible experience. Not to mention, it was such a beautiful day and I was in a tank top and shorts getting a tan in the middle of March.

While I didn't take any photos of the my 'grandma track meet', I did take photos of my first experience at the track meet where my kids competed. I want to include some of those:

The awards stand with Israeli Flags

The view of the whole field from the bleachers

The starting line of a girls running competition