Two Boiling Points of View: For Poland-Israel fundraising, juniors should wait their turn
December 31, 2010
Imagine a year when the senior class stays at home to watch television instead of going on the annual class trip to Poland and Israel. Because of fundraising by juniors, this could actually happen.
The trip—which takes students through the concentration camps in Poland and then flies them to more cheerful Israel—is an annual venture for the Shalhevet senior class. However, it requires superhuman—and most of the time, not superhuman enough– fundraising efforts in order to make it affordable for everyone who wants to go.
To avoid this fate, this year’s junior class decided to get a head start on fundraising to avoid the stress of having to raise a large amount of money in a short amount of time. However, by starting so early, they are unintentionally hindering the fundraising efforts of the seniors.
There are certain fundraising activities seniors do every year—namely the Chinese auction, selling donuts and occasionally a car wash. Each fundraising event raises a certain amount of money and if enough is raised to give scholarships to students who cannot afford the $4,395 cost, everyone in the senior class can go.
In order to go at all, the senior class must meet certain goals or criteria. At least 28 seniors have to commit to going even if they don’t receive a scholarship. So far, only 26 have committed.
Right now, the senior class (my class) doesn’t need any competition from the juniors. If seniors are selling donuts for a dollar, they shouldn’t have to worry that a junior down the hall is selling donuts for 75 cents. The seniors need to get as much fundraising in as possible as soon as possible in order to go on the trip.
As it is, it is very unlikely that everyone will be able to afford the trip. For every year that the trip has taken place—except for the class of ‘08, which was remarkably tiny–some seniors didn’t go on the trip because fundraising didn’t cover them. Adding competition between the two grades makes this even more likely.
Moreover, such competition could also cause unnecessary discord between the juniors and seniors during the rest of this year. Seniors are bound to resent the juniors if they get more customers, and the juniors will get angry with the seniors for stopping their fundraising efforts. In such a small community, any sort of unfriendly feelings between grades can have big and negative impacts.
Instead, the junior class should start organizing and planning how they are going to raise their money next year. A successful fundraiser requires intense planning, not necessarily a lot of time.
If they are to learn a lesson from the mistakes of the seniors—which is what they’re trying to do by starting so early—they should consider making a concrete plan right now for how they are going to raise enough money to cover their class, and start gathering whatever materials they will need to do so.
Juniors can also use their ample time to think of creative new fundraising ideas. Maybe they could sell bouquets at this year’s graduation. Maybe they could organize a school supplies sale at the beginning of next year. They could also look at applying for grants — something that takes time and that I wish my class had done.
After all, there is only so much money you can make by selling junk-food to teenagers.
I am 100 percent behind the juniors being responsible. If we had only started so unbelievably early when we were juniors, we seniors probably wouldn’t be so stressed about the trip right now. I only suggest that the time be used to plan and organize, rather than to compete outright and cause unneeded problems.
If everything works out for the senior class, all of our hard work in fundraisers will pay off and I’ll see my whole class on a plane to Poland come May. And a year later, the juniors will too.
Editor’s note: Replying to comments displayed below, this version of the article changes the expression “Polish concentration camps” to “concentration camps in Poland.”
Stefan Komar • Sep 13, 2011 at 10:31 pm
After seeing your correction I would like to point out, and as people who have similar feelings
of outrage at what was done by the German Nazis to loved ones, or to anyone
for that matter, I hope you will understand that precision and clarity is of the
utmost importance in such sensitive matters:
The Auschwitz MUSEUM (of the German camps) is in present day Poland,
The (German) Auschwitz CONCENTRATION CAMP was in German occupied Poland.
We bristle at the absence of any indication that it was the Germans who
masterminded, created and administered these horrific places in which hundreds of
thousands of our ancestors perished, and millions of yours.
Malgorzata • Sep 12, 2011 at 11:20 am
I would like kindly to ask you to correct the expression “Polish concentration camps.” I believe it was a shortcut and an adjective “Polish” was used to describe current location, but nevertheless this is not correct to call the concentration camps “Polish.”
Please notice that the official name of the Auschwitz camp, that figures on the UNESCO World Heritage List is “Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945).”
There were no “Polish concentration camps” in the history. This is an offending and misleading term. The camps were set up in occupied Poland and run by Nazi Germany. It is not correct to use the word “Polish” either as the adjective (they were German camps) or as a geographical descriptor, because there was no Polish state at the time the camps existed. The territory on which the camps were located had been invaded and remained occupied by Nazi Germany throughout the entirety of the camps’ operation.
They were German camps in occupied Poland.
Polish Government and Embassies in many countries react quite strictly to the usage of this unfortunate phrase by media. I strongly believe you understand my concerns and will correct this expression on the website.
Stefan Komar • Sep 12, 2011 at 9:16 am
As the son of a member of the Polish underground whose unit “Zoska” was acknowledged by Yad Vashem for saving 350 Jews in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising I would like to emphasize the following:
The camps were “German” NOT “Polish.” Poles were murdered en masse in these camps.
The area in which the camps were located was “German occupied Poland” which is significantly different than “Poland.”
The text, as is, is misleading, offensive and insensitive, intentional or not, to the millions of Polish families of the millions of Polish citizens murdered, tortured, imprisoned, deported and enslaved by the Germans in the name of “Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles” and the creation of “Lebensraum” for Germans.
from an institution such as yours, I would expect better treatment for those who suffered.
Jim Przedzienkowski • Sep 8, 2011 at 7:12 am
I submitted my comment above and it has not been posted. Correcting errors in articles about history and perpetuation those errors is a gross mistake. Please change the article reference to the concentration camps.
Jim Przedzienkowski • Aug 29, 2011 at 10:24 am
The statement “Polish concentration camps” is incorrect. The Nazi Germans established the concentration camps on occupied Polish soil. They were not Polish as implied by the statement. Please correct the error.