Lizard in the house, good luck in the hospital

Over the past two weeks, two groups of Israeli and American teens came to the roundabout at the entrance to the HYMC pediatric emergency room. They came to help build a special lizard-shaped environmental sculpture as part of the gift from Partnership 2Gether, a partnership between Hadera-Eron on behalf of the Jewish Agency. As part of this activity, American teens from Nashville, Charlotte and Jacksonville together with teens from partnership towns in the Hadera-Eiron region, educator Yaniv Schreiber and the HYMC groundskeeping staff headed by Hussam Aboulafia, built the sculpture from scratch. It now serves as an especially charming gateway for anybody coming the to medical center's pediatric emergency room. 

"Some people believe that having a lizard at the hospital is good luck," said Mr. Schreiber. "After we saw that there already was one lizard in the current design of the Pediatric Department that greets children and their parents, we decided that the sculpture, which is directly across the door to the pediatric emergency room, should reflect the design in the department."  

There was just a week between the visits of the two groups, all teens between the ages of 15-17, and they took on various stages of the project. The first group included teens from Nashville, who came as part of the Get Connected program. They built the 5-meter body of the sculpture (built from recycled materials). The second group, from Charlotte and Jacksonville, came as part of the Tikun Olam program. They helped plant 800 flower plants in the roundabout. As previously stated, all of the activity was done in conjunction with the Hadera-Eron Partnership and the HYMC groundskeeping crew.  

Mr. Aviad Sela - Chairman of the Hadera-Eron Partnership, Ms. Judy Yuda - Partnership Manager and Ms. Maya Shoham - Partnership Reciprocity Coordinator who were at the two meetings noted that they view this activity as a beginning. "Hillel Yaffe Medical Center is a very important pillar in the region, and there is no doubt that the wonderful relationship established will lead to joint projects in the future between the hospital and the communities in the US."

The teens building the lizard along with hospital staff

The teens planting flowers around the sculpture

The final result: the lizard across from the Pediatric Emergency Room