PITTSBURGH – This week across the country and our local area, children learned all about kindness during National Camp Kindness Day on July 20th.
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh has partnered with two other organizations to bring friendliness to the next generation. One way to do this is to start with our youngest generation, the 3- and 4-year-old preschoolers who make us proud to be from Pittsburgh.
Painting is a favorite pastime for 4-year-old Zev and Maya. That spring, the pair, along with fellow JCC Early Childhood Development Center classmates, sent letters to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. In each letter, each child wrote a message about kindness and what to expect from our leaders.
Aly asked Biden not to leave any trash and Alex asked Harris to take care of the world. Maya wished Harris would take care of the sunshine, not the playgrounds.
“Because it’s healthy for the earth,” said Maya.
“What do you do to be nice to Earth?” Asked a WPXI producer.
“Don’t throw trash everywhere,” said Maya.
Little did these young people know that they would get a letter back from the White House signed by the President. The letter says, “At your young age you have the power to influence the future for the coming generation” and “be kind”.
Rachael Speck, director of the JCC day camp, said it was very exciting for staff, children and parents.
“What we are really trying to convey here, only to the children, so that they can grow up and be good people, and so that they receive this confirmation from a person in such an important leadership position in our country, is very important to them in my opinion,” said Bacon.
At this Monroeville day camp, Maya and Zev practice kindness by coloring reusable grocery bags that are distributed in various pantries and programs. Rabbi Ron Symons, director of the JCC Center For Loving Kindness, says the hope is that everyone in town will be more kind.
“Anyone who just needs a little more friendliness, a little more to say that it’s not just about what you wear or how you wear it; But it’s when someone cares enough to give you something beautiful and something that has moral value that says we really care about each other, ”Symons said.
The JCC preschool class and day camps make us proud to be from Pittsburgh.
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