By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — The Jewish Community Foundation seeks three young leaders who can inspire other high school students in San Diego County to regularly engage in philanthropy and volunteerism.
To find them, JCF is sponsoring a competition, with a deadline of Sept. 30 for entries, to pick suitable candidates for the Peter Chortek Leadership Awards. Last year’s winners, Nina Church of La Jolla Country Day School, Liza Gurtin of Francis Parker School, and Ethan Lew of the San Diego Jewish Academy, all are graduating high school seniors.
The winners of this year’s competition each will be awarded $3,600 in cash and another $1,800 for use in an advised fund held at the Jewish Community Foundation for donations to charitable organizations. They will be asked to speak to youth groups at synagogues and high schools, and to preach the message that there’s no feeling of fulfillment better than the “high” one receives from improving the lives of others.
Church carried on her head a water vessel weighing 40 pounds in East Africa in order to experience what many women and girls in developing nations must do on a daily basis. She has been raising awareness about the need for fresh water supplies not only in those nations but around the world. She created Nika, a bottled water company that donates 100 percent of its profits for water development projects around the world. In the Zulu language, “Nika” means “giving.”
Meanwhile, here in San Diego, Gurtin, has been an organizer and fundraiser for the San Diego Walk for Water, in which people simulate the shlepping that women in developing nations must do in order to bring home the water for their families. In addition, she has been helping to raise awareness of water conservation techniques that can be utilized here in San Diego.
Lew, in another outreach project, has been helping to acquire and assemble playground equipment for children living in Tijuana orphanages.
Darren Schwartz, a JCF philanthropy officer, said that in evaluating students who enter the competition, the JCF will be looking for continuity of purpose –“not just a one-off bar mitzvah project but someone who has devoted several years to a specific project to benefit the less fortunate,” he said.
The project is named for the late Peter Chortek, a San Diego philanthropist whose passions included building Jewish identity and propagating a spirit of philanthropy among his own children, grandchildren and other youth.
The winners of the contest, said his daughter Susan Chortek, will be “menschy” teens who are able to motivate other students.
Here is JCF video about last year’s winners.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com