Cohort 6- Self-Management Overnight!! By Noah Adessky

Montreal’s Diller Teen Fellows Cohort 6 successfully planned a full 19 hours by ourselves!! All of the details, from accommodations, transportation and food, down to outings, volunteering and programming, were planned by the Fellows. This self-management overnight truly showcased how we have all grown as leaders since our very first days in Diller.

We all gathered at the Quality Inn Hotel Midtown on Saturday night. After we were assigned to our rooms, we met in the hotel’s conference room to play some fun icebreakers. One of these icebreakers helped show how close we have become, which was a constant theme throughout the overnight.

After loosening up with some icebreakers, we continued into a meaningful discussion on Tikkun Olam, because after all that was one of the major parts of our overnight. The group responsible for this activity set out a series of quotes from biblical, non-biblical and non-Jewish sources that in some way or another connected to Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. Each fellow went through the quotes and picked a quote that they most connected to. They then went on to explain the connection and how it related to Tikkun Olam and volunteerism. After a nice discussion, we were separated into our Impact Project groups and were asked to formulate a six-word sentence on what we hoped to accomplish with our projects. It was a great opportunity for everyone to truly reflect on their projects and then to share their ideas with the whole group.

The next part of our overnight was the fun part! We travelled to iSaute in Laval for a night full of jumping and bouncing on their trampolines! Through the tumbles, the flips and the cheese pits, we all had an amazing time!

We then had a very meaningful Maagal Laila to end off our night. The maagal reinforced one thing, the unity of our cohort. Through our discussions, we all came to the conclusion that we are one, united, Diller family.The rest of the night was ours, to hang out together.

We woke up the next morning to take on some hands-on Tikkun Olam volunteering work at Mada. After a quick talk from some of the workers at Mada, we learnt the importance of this organization in the community and were eager to give back and help. We were split up into different groups and performed different tasks including: unloading and sorting shipments of products, packing orders for families and making calls to different families to notify them that their orders were ready. I can safely say for myself, as well as some of the other fellows, it felt good to give back to such an amazing organization!

After travelling back to the Y, we continued working on our Impact Projects. We were lucky enough to have Stu Guttman, director of Chai Lifeline and a true leader in the Montreal Jewish community, come to speak to us about making an impact in the community and some of the keys to success in our endeavours. After hearing Stu’s story about in his journey in the community, we split into our groups to work on our impact projects and focus down our ideas into feasible projects. A huge thanks to Stu for taking time out of his Sunday to speak to us!

Lastly, but certainly not least, we had the opportunity to get to meet Cohort 7, the new Diller Teen Fellows, and participate in a number of icebreakers with them, run by our own Cohort 6 fellows. It was very nice to meet them and I wish them an amazing Diller journey!

As the person responsible for the overall planning of this overnight, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped out! You all did an amazing job and I am so thankful for all of your hard work in making this overnight a success! We have all learnt valuable skills that will be used to plan our self-management community week in Israel in December!

By: Noah Adessky