Submission #22114 by Shaare Tikvah Men'S Club - Waldorf, MD (1132)
I have read the 2021 Torch Awards Program Guidelines.
Holiday Family Programming
Family and Youth Programming
Page 1
The goal of the Virtual Family Holiday Program was to engage and enjoin our quarantined families (young and old) in the joyful celebration of 3 Jewish Holidays during this time of COVID. The programming also focused on youth and adult learning for enjoying the history and traditions of Chanukah, Purim and Pesach holidays during COVID through stories, games, crafts, videos and singing. All of these were amenable to presentation and sharing using a virtual Zoom environment which brought widely dispersed families together in these holiday celebrations.
We researched, assembled and executed 3 varied two-hour holiday programs as described by the attached invitations, itinerary and schedules distributed by our Men’s Club. These creative files were generated using open-source clip art and video files which also became one of our marketing and publicity modes. We even created a new game by combining focused holiday bingo boards with holiday trivia questions. The bingo boards and trivia questions were researched from open-source internet websites like Pinterest and Jewish religious and social organizations. Many of the handouts like crafts, games, song sheets, blessings and stories were distributed to attendees before the event via email attachments and internet links or shared during the Zoom presentation like holiday specific educational and entertaining videos selected for age-appropriate audience (3 years through adult) and group interest by our team of educators and parents. We also identified and screened an excess number of story and music video candidates for length and content diversity before culling, selecting and sequencing them for viewing during each of the limited 5 or 6 program segments during the 2 hours. The segments were kept short and varied to retain the interest of the younger kids with shorter attention spans. I think the volunteers creating and running these programs had as much fun and enjoyment as those participating. The program needs a team of volunteers to execute the various tasks throughout the 2 month schedule of program phases from conceptual advanced planning and definition, material research, compilation, screening and file selection paralleled by game verification, publicity and invitation creation followed by program material distribution, Cyber expertise with the Zoom and YouTube apps, live program execution via Zoom app and lastly documentation for the next Holiday program and these Torch Awards.
Page 2
Original Program
Gold