Todah Rabah Tochnit Avodah for helping camp to run so smoothly

Do you know who runs the guest house, makolet (canteen), in-camp bakery?  Do you know who helps clean the chadar ochel, helps with omanut, delivers the mail, takes care of staff children, and helps organize cleaning supplies? The answer is Tochnit Avodah (Voc Ed) and Ma’avar (our transition program).

Every morning at 9:30, members of Tochnit Avodah and Ma’avar have a staff meeting with their advisors to discuss the daily schedule.  Then from 10:00-1:00 every day they spread out around all around Machane Ramah doing important jobs to keep the camp running. While they do chanich (camper) activities in the afternoon, camp doesn’t treat this unique group of adults as chanichim. They receive tzevet (staff) t-shirts instead of the chanich t-shirts and tzevet bracelets.  Instead of Yom Miyuchad on specialist days off, they also take a day off to do an interesting trip or activity.

Here is a brief overview of each job site:

Makolet: On the days that chanichim order makolet, the workers assigned to do this job have to package the orders for each tzrif (bunk). Fridays, when there is no makolet, is the day to take inventory.

Mercaz: The workers sort the mail with the assistance of a job coach and then deliver the mail to Tzad Aleph and Tzad Bet.  They sometimes help with giving out supplies as well.

Gan: Here the worker is integrated into the tzevet (staff) and he helps out with the young chanichim as they go about their daily schedule. Here you can see that he is participating in rikud (dance).

Omanut: This worker helps all of the different omanut chuggim, to prepare for the chanichim.  During the perek, she helps chanichim with projects and helps to keep all of the areas clean and neat.

Chadar Ochel: This group of workers cleans the chadar ochel after aruchat boker (breakfast) and sets the tables for aruchat tzohorim (lunch).

Food Safety Prep: As the article written by Dr. Bonnie Schwartz explained in a previous blog post, this group is piloting a program to learn about how to prepare food safely. They are using the kitchen as their food safety laboratory.

Voc. Ed. Bakery: The Voc Ed bakery takes orders from tzevet around camp. They bake the treats and package them for their customers.

Guest House: The workers here keep the Guest House spotless. This includes cleaning the rooms and bathrooms, doing laundry, replacing sheets and tools, replenishing the extras left in the room, sweeping the entire premises.

In addition to their regular work, Tochnit Avodah is often called upon to help out with other, full camp, jobs. For example, they packaged all of the brownies given out on visiting day.