What do you get when you combine community forces with the JCC?  A TEDxABQ Adventure raising 1,000+ books to be donated!

TEDxABQ and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque (JCC) donated over 1,000 books to The Children’s Center at Presbyterian Hospital. “This donation is so meaningful to our families; thank you TEDxABQ and JCC,” said Rebecca Armstrong, MA, Child Life Program Manager of Presbyterian Hospital The Children’s Center.

The book donation is the result of a hugely successful TEDxABQ Adventure.  Adventures are exclusive opportunities for community members to interact with TEDxABQ speakers off the stage. This particular Adventure was a partnership between TEDxABQ and JCC that built upon a talk by Jessika Brown (her TEDx Talk is below), a TEDxABQ 2015 Main Event speaker who is a fitness instructor at Sandia National Laboratories. “This TEDxABQ Adventure was a powerful combination of learning and community impact,” said Beth Haley, Programming and Operations Director for TEDxABQ.

The “TEDxABQ FitBit Adventure” was a month-long fitness challenge from April 15 to May 15.  Ten participants each received a FitBit bracelet and tracked their daily/weekly steps toward an activity goal.  For each step goal met, the team “earned” a book to donate to The Children’s Center.  Over the course of the month-long Adventure, the step goals got harder to accomplish, but that didn’t stop this team; the team logged over 2,000,000 steps. JCC was an instrumental partner in the FitBit Adventure challenge, providing each participant with a free pass to the JCC fitness center to help the team accomplish step goals.  JCC was also a took donation site; JCC members donated books all month long, which resulted in the large amount of books collected for Presbyterian. “JCC was proud to partner on this great project,” said Dave Simon, Executive Director of JCC. “Everything JCC does, including fitness, we do with community service in mind.”

Adventure participants show off their hard earned books!

The JCC of Greater Albuquerque, founded in 2000, is a non-profit organization, open to all regardless of age or religious affiliation.  The JCC mission is to enrich our community by practicing the values of Jewish life.  The JCC has modern fitness and athletic facilities, outdoor aquatics center, early childhood education center, and camps on its 7-acre campus.  The JCC runs a wide variety of community, educational, recreational and social service programs that serve people of all ages.

To learn more about the next TEDxABQ Adventures, sign up for our newsletter at www.tedxabq.com.

Adventure Report written by Beth Hemmerich