By Maayan Waldman, Staff Writer

Seniors will build a house for a poor family, plan a carnival for underprivileged kids, and visit the LA Food Bank as part of their new second semester chesed program.

Through “Impact14,” named for the seniors’ graduating year, they also plan to produce a video blog of the Poland-Israel trip to present to Holocaust survivors that are too frail to make the trip themselves.

Chesed literally means lovingkindness, and is the term used for community service.  Impact 14 is the brainchild of two parents, Mrs. Flora Glouberman, mother of juniors Rachel and Jeremy Glouberman, and Mrs. Alex Miller, mother of junior Shoshi Miller.

“Chesed should be personal,” said Mrs. Glouberman, “so Alex and I created Impact14 to allow seniors to work with what they are passionate about.”

To implement this idea, Mrs. Glouberman and Mrs. Miller met with the senior class in January to discuss ideas. The seniors decided to become involved in Habitat for Humanity, Righteous Conversations and the Los Angeles Food Bank.

“What makes Shalhevet so special is that the adults don’t just tell the students what to do,” said Mrs. Miller. “The students are very creative and they actually gave us a lot of the ideas and were really excited about the projects they chose.”

Some organizations that the seniors were interested in didn’t work out in terms of timing, but Mrs. Glouberman told the Boiling Point that the seniors were very flexible and eagerly discussed their ideas for Impact14.

Although neither mother has students in the class, both have older children who are alumni and saw the need for a chesed component in the second-semester senior “minimesters” seminar program.

In December, the moms began researching senior programming in such high schools as Harvard-Westlake, Ramaz and Milken. They then presented the idea of Impact14 to the Shalhevet administration, who quickly incorporated it into the curriculum. The goal — as suggested in its name, they said — is to give seniors the opportunity to make an impact in the real world, with “14” being replaced by each new class’s graduating year.

“Our responsibility as a school is to try to make second semester of senior year meaningful by giving them as many chesed opportunities as possible,” said Ruthie Skaist, advisor of the Chesed Committee.

The first volunteering opportunity with Impact14 was an all-class trip to the LA Food Bank, which distributes food to needy people in the Los Angeles Community.

The seniors packaged food in boxes that would be distributed to kids in elementary schools, and also helped categorized various items on a conveyor belt.

The seniors returned to the LA Food Bank on Feb. 24 and plan to visit again later this month.

Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Glouberman hope that Impact14 will become a lasting tradition in the Shalhevet community and look forward to seeing unbelievable student growth through this program.

Later this month, the seniors plan to spend a day with Habitat for Humanity, an organization that brings people together to be a part of building homes for the homeless, though the seniors still don’t know where the house will be or exactly what they’ll be doing there.

The idea for incorporating video blogs into the annual Poland-Israel trip came from Righteous Conversation, an organization run by the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust that facilitates connections between teens and Holocaust survivors.

The senior class are set to meet with Holocaust survivors three times in March and April.

The carnival that the seniors are organizing is planned for Camp Max Strauss in April through Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles, an organization that assists underprivileged kids.

The seniors are working in different groups and committees to use their unique strengths to put something together as a group, planning games, arts and crafts, and music, Mrs. Miller told the Boiling Point. There will be over 100 underprivileged kids that will enjoy the seniors’ carnival.

“We want the seniors to not only become involved with chesed in high school, but to develop lifelong habits and give back to the community as they get older,” said Mrs. Glouberman.