As summer draws to a close and we edge closer to the new school year, we are saying our final farewells to the dedicated youth who spent the past 12 months befriending, caring for and loving the residents and students of ADI – our wonderful and devoted National Service and pre-military service volunteers.
The dedication, initiative, resourcefulness and creativity of the more than 60 National Service volunteers who served in all ADI facilities ensured that their presence was strongly felt in every area of life at ADI – in the classroom, in therapy sessions, in residential homes and in all recreational activities.
ADI Jerusalem marked the end of the volunteers’ year of service with an outdoor party on the center’s impressive rooftop patio. Parents of volunteers joined in the celebration, enjoying the opportunity to meet the residents who had captured the hearts of their children.
Volunteers at ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran – the first group to inhabit the new apartments at the village’s recently completed volunteer neighborhood – were pleased to receive ADI totes filled with memorabilia and gifts, presented to them during a celebratory picnic dinner.
Two village volunteers, Arbel and Moriya, had the distinction of being the first ever National Service volunteers to serve in the village’s high dependency wing. When the new Kaylie Rehabilitation Medical Center opened at ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran in June, Arbel and Moriya joined patients and other high dependency staff in moving to the new hospital.
At a special staff gathering marking the conclusion of Arbel and Moriya’s service, Dr. Itzhak Siev-Ner, director of the Kaylie Rehabilitation Medical Center remarked that, “When the National Service volunteers arrived to our department, it was somewhat of a mystery for everyone. They didn’t know what to expect and we didn’t know them, but a relationship developed. It can be very difficult in the beginning, but our multi-professional staff took them in. In the end, it was a win-win situation for all.”
Thank you to all of our dear volunteers. We are saying farewell, not goodbye. We miss you already and look forward to seeing you back again.
