When Your Students Are Super(heroes)

Hannah was my 4th grader, then 5th grader, 7th, 11th . . . 12th . . . and today she’s a social worker at Children’s Hospital. Hannah has a tremendous heart, she’s wonderful with children, and I am so thankful that she’s there at night - overnight - for so many kids.

When she visited my 4th grade classzoom last year the students asked her how she helps kids who are lonely and scared when they come to the hospital. She admitted to them that she’d love to be able to give them a stuffed animal to help them feel safer, but that donations were down. Way down. And she didn’t have any to give.

Before she could say another word, my students started organizing.

“I have some stuffed animals I could give.”
”Me, too.”
”And I bet my parents would buy some to give you to give.”
”I could ask my grandma to help.”
”Yeah. I wonder if people would give money.”
”This is like visiting the sick, right? We’re supposed to do that.”
”Yeah. The Torah says so.”

And, just like that, our Counting the Omer Stuffed Luvvie Drive 5781 was born.
We made videos.
We posted on social media.
We asked grown-ups for help.
By Shavuot we’d collected well over 600 stuffed animals. Some were new. Some were like new. And some were very loved. Torn. Stained. The very, very loved ones went to Feline Animal Rescue.

This year Hannah visited again - a new set of 4th graders.
These students aren’t so into stuffed animals, though. They are much more about books.
”What do kids DO in the hospital when they have to stay there overnight?”
”Yeah. So BOOOORING.”
”And maybe scary.”
”A book is a great way to escape for a while.”
”We should give them some books.”
”Rabbi Ariel, we are the best people for this job. We know a lot of great books for kids.”
”And we are good at solving problems together.”
”Can we do it? Can we collect books for those kids?”

Welcome to the Counting the Omer BOOK Drive 5782.

When the 5th graders heard about that, though, they worried.
”Has she given away all of the stuffed luvvies from last year already?”
(I mean, months ago. Yes.)
”What about the kids who want to hug a luvvie while they read?”
”What about the kids who are too sad or scared to read?”
”We just have to do another drive!”
”Yeah. We do. We definitely do.”

And so we also had the Counting the Omer Stuffed Luvvie Drive 5782.

Because who am I to get in the way of my students?
Life is an improv game, after all. I’m going to say “yes” to my students whenever I can - especially when they want to pour their great big, gigantic love out into the world.

We didn’t have until Shavuot, though. Religious school ended this year just after Lag B’Omer, the 33rd of 49 days of the Omer. 17 fewer days than we had last year. We did okay, though. We made a video - a 4th and 5th grade collaboration. We made another one counting the omer for the entire synagogue community - that also was a little PSA for our drives. In the end we collected over 300 stuffed luvvies and over 250 books.

We learned a lot about mitzvot this year.
We learned the most when we just did them.