[COG email blast] Rochester Presbyterian youth to be on CBS tv - Sept. 26

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Rochester Presbyterian youth featured on CBS special Sept. 26 television
program highlights ‘young people making a difference’

September 9, 2010

Presbyterian News Service

by Jerry L. Van Marter

Youth from Gates Presbyterian Church in Rochester, N.Y., are featured in a
religion special that will be telecast Sept. 26 on CBS.

The program is entitled "Faith in Action: Young People Making a
Difference." A CBS press release states, "Young people are often at the
forefront of social change so this program takes a look at how they are
creating change today in a world of conflict, poverty and social
inequality."

John P. Blessington is the executive producer and Liz Kineke is the
producer of the special, which was made with the cooperation of the
National Council of Churches, the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, the Islamic Society of North America, the Union for Reform
Judaism and the New York Board of Rabbis.

One segment follows students from Gates Church as they spend a week in New
York City volunteering for the Youth Services Opportunities Project (YSOP)
alongside Lisa Gesson, director for this decades-old, service-oriented
program inspired by Quakers.

YSOP is a 25-year-old non-profit organization that offers students from
across the United States a chance to volunteer in projects that help
alleviate poverty and hunger.  In the segment featuring the Gates youth,
the young Presbyterians work at the B'nai Jeshrun lunch program on the
Upper West Side of Manhattan and then return to YSOP headquarters to
reflect on their experiences.

While some young people like those in YSOP choose to work closer to home,
American Jewish World Service provides the opportunity for others ages
16-24 to volunteer for summer projects in impoverished areas abroad.
Viewers will meet a volunteer who recently returned from working in Ghana.

The special also visits Artsbridge, a conflict resolution leadership
program that brings Israeli and Palestinian high school students to Boston
each July to collaborate on an art project. Part of the collaboration is
meant to encourage new ways of communicating with one another.

The program's founder, Debbie Nathan, is a mental health counselor and art
therapist who wanted to start a program that would help young people
living in conflict. She says, "What I want the students to get out of
working together through art is how to take a challenging situation where
you may not agree
but still come together and work constructively to solve
challenges and build something."

A third segment of the special follows Nadia, a young Muslim woman, as she
fulfills her faith obligations during the holy month of Ramadan (a time
when Muslims fast, pray and perform acts of community service). The
special also highlights the efforts of a non-profit organization, "Muslims
Against Hunger," through an interview with its founder, Zamir Hassan, a
Pakistani American from New Jersey. The group provides volunteers — of all
faiths — to work in underserved communities in 20 different cities across
the United States, serving hot lunches and dinners to the homeless and
working poor.

Information for this story furnished by Jeremy Murphy, CBS Television.