Jewish students at more than 80 Hillels around the world came together to celebrate , an international day of volunteering on April 3. Good Deeds Day, which started in Israel in 2007, has become an annual tradition for Hillels. Here are highlights from some of their volunteer projects:

Good Gardening

Gloves, shovels, rakes — check. More than 80 Baltimoreans weeded beds and planted seeds in the Urban Farm, a communal vegetable garden at Towson University. Among the attendees were students from Towson Hillel, Goucher College Hillel, and University of Maryland Hillel.

Many Mitzvot

Over 100 students participated in a series of volunteer events organized by University of Michigan Hillel. Among the events were a river clean-up and gardening on the 350-acre campus farm. Students also volunteered at Maize & Blue Cupboard, which helps Michigan students experiencing food insecurity.

Beautiful Blankets

University of Connecticut Hillel students packed hygiene kits for those in need, wrote letters to sick patients, engaged in a textbook swap, and swabbed their cheeks to be registered as bone marrow donors for blood cancer patients. The volunteer events were co-hosted with Dignity Grows, Gift of Life, and Campus Wide Initiative.

New Friends

Franklin and Marshall College Hillel organized a Shabbat dinner welcoming Afghan refugees to Lancaster, PA, where the college is based. Students brought travel-sized toiletries for a donation drive to help refugees. This is part of a larger project to support Afghan refugees. Earlier activities included letter writing and making welcome packages with the Jewish Family Services of Lancaster.��

Helping Challah

����vlog 80 students from Tel Hai College Hillel, located in northern Israel, baked challah for Ukrainian refugees, students, and elders for Shabbat.

Breaking Bread

����vlogl professionals volunteered at Bread for the City, a nonprofit that helps low-income residents in Washington, D.C. Each week, Bread for the City delivers more than 5,000 bags of food and provides free legal services and medical support. The Hillel professionals spent an afternoon packing more than 500 bags of nutritious food for families in need.��

Plentiful Projects

, which serves Jewish students and young adults in Ukraine, Crimea, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova, and Azerbaijan, hosted over 100 programs and projects in honor of Good Deeds Day. To support Ukraine amid the ongoing crisis, Hillel CASE has assembled food and hygiene packages, housed refugees, held online Shabbatot, and helped in evacuation efforts.

Dynamic Duo��

Brandeis University Hillel partnered with other campus organizations to engage students for Good Deeds Day. More than 50 Jewish students came together to paint puzzles for children and write letters to cancer survivors and senior citizens.��

Oona Wood, 21, served as the Hillel student coordinator for Good Deeds Day. “Good Deeds Day is an active display of Tikkun Olam,” said Wood, who is studying politics and Judaic studies.��

Emma Lichtenstein is a senior at Brandeis University.

“I was a cadet in a Naval Junior ROTC program in high school. That’s where I developed a strong passion for the military. My time as a cadet ended when I began studying cybersecurity at Towson University, but I wanted to find a way to continue my support of our military. And Towson Hillel gave me an opportunity to do that. They knew that I was passionate about our troops, so they let me organize an event for students to create handmade cards for American soldiers serving overseas.

“I also began volunteering at the����lounge at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, roughly 30 minutes away from campus. I volunteer about two times a week for roughly four hours. Sometimes I’m awake by 4 a.m. for shifts, and other times I’m wrapping up a shift at 2 a.m.

“Many of the military members I interact with in the lounge are either about to be deployed overseas, or they just returned from deployment. A few days ago, I spotted a man in uniform wearing a kippah. He was in the Air Force getting ready to deploy overseas after an overnight in Baltimore. We spoke about Jewish life in the military as well as the challenges the military lifestyle may bring to keeping kosher. That conversation made me feel proud and inspired. For me, my volunteer experience related to the military, whether it be on or off campus, reflects my Jewish values. It’s about connecting with people from different backgrounds and being there for them in a small but meaningful way.” — Daniel Elice, Towson University

Noam’s��first experience at Hillel was at the University of Florida, where he served��as the Jewish Agency Israel Fellow��on campus more than��a decade ago.��“That experience that changed my life forever,” he said,��set him��on a trajectory that has led him to become the��executive��director at Towson Hillel.��“It was through Hillel that I gained an appreciation for the idea of the Jewish peoplehood. I also learned the value of a Jewish community and saw what satisfaction one can get from supporting and building such a community.”

As executive director, Noam said, “It is my mission now to build, together with my staff, students, and lay board, a strong community that will create opportunities for students to connect to Jewish life, celebrate their��identities, learn and build thriving Jewish lives well beyond their college years.”