Helping Grow and Succeed
The Orbach family has set up the Gil Orbach Joy Scholarship Fund in support of Youth Assisting Youth, an organization that Gil volunteered with for several years to mentor youth and help them grow and succeed.
The Scholarship Fund commemorates, represents and continues the passionate volunteer work of Gil Orbach, a dedicated volunteer in every community she lived in, who tragically passed away in 2017.
The fund has awarded 13 post-secondary scholarships of $1800 each to volunteer Youth Assisting Youth mentors in 2019-2023. To ensure there’s always funding for young scholars, we are asking for donations to keep the scholarship fund going. Our goal is to raise $120,000 in order to be able to give two scholarships each year in perpetuity. As of June 2023, generous donations have enabled the Gil Orbach Joy Scholarship Fund to reach about 65% of this target.
We encourage applicants to view the scholarship requirements and for those who are able to donate, to please make a contribution.
Gil’s Involvement in Volunteering
Giving to others, both friends and strangers was a huge part of Gil’s life. To name a few of Gil’s volunteer pursuits, she:
- Mentored a first-grade pupil at her primary school in Israel
- Assisted teachers and worked with kids at the Oraynu Children’s School in Toronto
- Acted as a mentor and “older sister” to a younger girl, as part of Youth Assisting Youth in Toronto
- Worked on a hotline, responding to calls from distressed people in Kingston, while she studied at Queens University
- Conducted workshops with school children in Hong Kong with a group of international students, to help teach them about diversity and different cultures.
We hope Gil’s volunteering pursuits encourage other students to continue giving back to their communities and become active in YAY programs and other programs in their communities.
Learn more about
Youth Assisting Youth
For more information about Youth Assisting Youth, please visit the YAY website.
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