The impact of Eimatai was colossal on the students of Westchester Hebrew High School. The students that attended the program from WHHS put to use all the skills they learned from the program. The students Nili Yaari, Robbie Schrag, Dani Haramati Daniel Revkin, Hannah Lubart, and Lexi Milstien managed to put together a school-wide recycling program. With the help of their Eimatai advisor Caren Abitbol, they utilized all their leadership traits developed on the program, to inspire other students in their school to be more aware of the environment. The teens got their high school to dedicate one week to environmental awareness and ran programs that included a speaker from the NY Times, an environmental debate, and a recycling program.
A truly heated debate over environmental issues hastily engulfed the school during environmental awareness week. The school got an expert speaker working for the NY Times to come and discuss his views on the topic. “Once the debate got going it seemed like a perpetual stream of views were being discussed” said Nili Yarari, “I didn’t realize how many people were truly interested in this issue”. The debate portrayed countless opinions on the topic and gave several solutions for the issues being discussed. Teachers and students worked together to try and propose possible ways in which the students could help solve some of the issues. One major solution proposed was a school recycling program.
The WHHS recycling program is indubitably unique. It is an unprecedented effort at WHHS to try and help reduce wastes in the environment. The school set up boxes around the building each with a grade number on it. The goal of it was to see which grade could recycle the most and the winner would receive a luxurious pizza party. The program rapidly took off and the competition was on. The program not only did an outstanding effort in reducing garbage but also helped to unite each grade slightly more. The grades had to work together to make sure everyone was recycling, because otherwise they would stand no chance in winning. “It was so cool” said Dani Haramati, “my whole grade joined together with one set goal. I know it sounds cheesy but I really felt like we were a family”. In the end, while the juniors won, the atmosphere in the school hinted at a school-wide victory.
Eimatai truly had a profound effect on the students of WHHS. Even those whom did not attend the program were still able to feel a part of it because of the environmental awareness week. The program set a recycling precedent in WHHS that will surely not fade any time soon. All in all the goals set on that fateful weekend in Baltimore of achieving a cleaner school in WHHS have without question been achieved. It just goes to show you that a little leadership goes along way.
Posted by eimatai 
