Photo Courtesy of TEEEM Abigail Goldberg, a senior at Golda Och Academy, helped communities rebuild from Hurricane Helene.
Abigail Goldberg, a senior at Golda Och Academy, helped communities rebuild from Hurricane Helene.
WEST ORANGE — Five female students from Morris and Essex county schools, travelled to North Carolina this summer to help rebuild an area damaged by a hurricane last fall.
The service trip to Asheville, N.C. was with the nonprofit organization TEEEM – The Empathy Equality Entrepreneurship Mission. From installing drywall to trim work and painting, the five high school students spent a week helping communities rebuild from Hurricane Helene’s destruction last fall.
Abigail Goldberg, 18, a senior at Golda Och Academy, was one of the five students who volunteered alongside All Hands and Hearts, a disaster relief organization started by supermodel Petra Nemcova to help rebuild communities impacted by natural disasters.
Goldberg found out about TEEEM through social media. The trip to Asheville was a meaningful experience for her.
“It hit close to home, seeing how similar their community is to ours and how this could have happened to anyone,” she said.
Though the days were long and the work was physically intense, Goldberg saw this as a very good learning opportunity.
“I learned every power tool you can think of,” she said. “It was a unique hands-on experience. It’s an amazing experience and I definitely recommend everyone to try it, even if it’s a day trip.”
Goldberg said her family has always been big on service work and giving back.
“I feel like it’s something that has been engraved in me,” she said. “I saw the opportunity. Why wouldn’t I do it? Might as well help anyone that I can.”
Taylor D’Alessio has worked as TEEEM executive vice president since 2021. She said the trip to Asheville was great.
“The girls I was with were so eager to help,” she said. “So excited to learn new tools, learn new skills.”
What made D’Alessio proudest of the girls was the level of empathy they had. She said, “Sometimes it’s difficult to get teenagers to care about people other than themselves and their friends,” D’Alessio said. “The work ethic they put forth was very humbling. We were very proud of the way they approached the entire trip.”
Working directly with Goldberg, D’Alessio saw something special.
“Abigail went right into it from the beginning,” she said. “Very little hesitancy. She volunteered to help one of the other volunteers. It was a difficult task. She had fun with the volunteering. One woman in particular loved working with Abigail. She was very driven to get the job done well. For her to be able to celebrate it being finished, you can see it was a rewarding experience.”
Some of the girls never used power tools before, and D’Alessio saw that as a challenge.
“Your natural nerves are coming in,” D’Alessio said. “These are real power tools. Helping them grapple with something they haven’t done before was a good challenge.”
Nevertheless, D’Alessio said they all did a great job.
“These girls chose to spend the week during the summer to help people they never met,” she said. “That’s really special. It’s just really positive to see. There’s a lot of kids who just want to make the world better.”
TEEEM is a nonprofit providing K-12 schools and universities with free resources to equip students with real skills to make a real impact through its Social Entrepreneurship and Empathy Programs. To learn more about TEEEM, visit: https://www.teeem.org/.
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