Kaela Goldstein, 16, has been making a difference in her community. As a sophomore at Cooper City High School and member of the Cowboys varsity basketball team, she recently put together a peace, love and unity assembly for her entire school.
“I would say that it runs in the family and I have a very supportive group of friends associated with good things, and that is sort of what got me started,” she said. “A lot of my friends are active in the community and that inspired me as well.”
After the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and the synagogue in Pittsburgh, she became dedicated to the idea of an assembly at her school to promote peace and to stand up against violence and hate. Goldstein approached her school principal, Wendy Doll, and received permission to plan a school-wide, two-day assembly.
Goldstein recruited staff and clubs within the school to assist in planning, held auditions, made announcements, put together a video, speech and program and worked tirelessly to make the event happen.
It was a deeply moving tribute to the Parkland victims and survivors as well as everyone who has been subjected to hate and violence.
“It went really well,” she said. “The student body reacted very well to it. It was awesome. Every grade had its own assembly, but we did the same one every time.
“I found a very impactful video online and it shows parts of the world that we don’t see here because we are like in a bubble kind of,” Goldstein said. “We showed another video and then someone at my school wrote a unity poem and got six people from all different colors and creeds to say something in their language. That was really cool.”
Goldstein said it took months to prepare the assembly and her goal was to unify and include students from all backgrounds. Goldstein and her friend Mohammed Elhalabi, a junior at the school, then interviewed their peers about unity and what they do in their everyday lives to make themselves a better person. They also had performances, including songs and dances.
“We all know that there are a lot of shootings in America and around the world right now,” Goldstein said. “I had friends that go to the synagogue in Pittsburgh and I thought we have to do something to recognize them. It is something that hits close to home and something the students can relate to.”
Goldstein also became an ambassador for Feeding South Florida, a food bank serving Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, and then created a school-wide food drive by herself, including transporting the food to the center.
She is a board member for BBYO (a movement aspiring to involve Jewish teens in Jewish experiences) and also single-handedly organized an event earlier this year that brought several hundred children and adults to the Jewish Community Center to hear Holocaust survivor Leon Schagrin speak. Goldstein visits Schagrin, a 93-year-old Sunrise resident, on a regular basis and has developed a relationship with him as a volunteer through Goodman Jewish Family Services of Broward County.
“It is hard to balance everything,” said Goldstein, who also volunteers, obtains straight As and attends BBYO events around the country. After the shooting in Parkland, she also became active in gun reform. “I am passionate about what I do, so you make the time. You schedule things to make it work.”
When she is on the basketball court, she is trying to help her team win a game, while off the court she has a different goal in mind.
“Ultimately, I want world peace,” said Goldstein, a member of her school’s student government and National Honor Society. “I know that is way harder to get to, so I wanted to start in my community, one person at a time. Changing one person is like changing the world. I can’t do it by myself. We will start here and go globally. I am just going to keep giving back.”
