Each year, we work with partners to create some special experiences at RIF Everybody Wins! This year, mentors at each of our in-person schools collaborated with us to put on some unforgettable mentoring sessions that sparked interest in books about various topics for our mentees. Below, you can find out more about these memorable moments from the 2025-2026 school year!
JCC Maccabi Campus Games: In August of 2025, the JCC Maccabi Campus games brought teen athletes from across the world to the University of Pittsburgh to compete. As part of the games, organizers at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh (JCCPGH) partnered with us to create a service project for athletes that involved athletes donating books to RIF Pittsburgh, learning about our work, decorating bookmarks, and writing letters to the students who would later select the donated books. Two of our mentors, Linda and Cindy, helped organize the JCC Maccabi Campus games and spoke at our sessions at Pittsburgh Weil this fall. They shared about the games and brought Maccabi-games themed water bottles and terrible towels! Students then selected books that were donated through the games and some read books about sports with their mentors.
Robots: One of our mentors at Pittsburgh Faison, Bambi, also is a STEM educator who works throughout the community teaching about robotics and coding. This winter, we were lucky to have Bambi and her colleague bring a set of “Finch” robots from Birdbrain Technologies to RIF Everybody Wins! Students worked with their mentors to program instructions for their robots on tablets and experimented with their robots along test-drive tracks. Afterwards, mentees read robot-related books curated by the RIF team and completed brain-boosting activities themed around robotics!
Therapy Dog: Larry, a reading metnor at Pittsburgh King, is the owner of a trained therapy dog, Onyx. While Onyx usually spends his days providing comfort at local hospitals and taking long walks through Allegheny Commons, he came to mentoring one day this spring for a special session focused on “helpers in the community.” All students got to meet and train Onyx, having him sit for a treat on command. For some, it was their first time interacting with a dog. Other students enjoyed reading books aloud to Onyx, who is a great listener. Students also read books about dogs and completed activities about all the community members they can turn to when in need, in line with the famous quote from Mister Rogers to “…look for the helpers. There are always people helping.”
We are incredibly grateful to these mentors for partnering with us to create memorable experiences for our mentees that also encouraged them to read and learn more!
