(L-r: Schiff, Pitcher-Hoffman, Merritt)

Eighth graders Ayva Schiff and Ruby Merritt received a special delivery yesterday: their award certificates honoring them as regional winners of the IWitness Video Challenge.

Kori Street, USC Shoah Foundation director of education, visited Schiff and Merritt’s history class at Berkshire Country Day School in Massachusetts yesterday, which teacher Sarah Pitcher-Hoffman had assigned to complete the IWitness Video Challenge last fall. Street delivered their certificates and spoke to the class about their experience doing the challenge.

For the 2013 IWitness Video Challenge, the USC Shoah Foundation invited students from all over North America to be inspired by testimonies in IWitness and to use their innovation and creativity to create positive value in their communities by doing something ordinary (or extraordinary) and then build a video telling the story about how they contributed to making their communities a better place.

Merritt and Schiff’s video, Hugs and Gloves, documents their time at The Christian Center in Pittsfield, Mass., which provides services and support for the needy. They donated winter gloves and shared cookies and cider with patrons while facilitating a discussion to help them share their stories and feel empowered.

Schiff said she realized that people today still face many of the struggles of the Holocaust survivors whose testimonies she watched in IWitness, like feeling that no one cared about them, or that their voices weren’t heard.

“Like the Holocaust survivors, they were just people who were forced to do things they didn’t want to do, or who were struggling in their lives,” she said.

Besides donating gloves for winter, Schiff and Merritt wanted to help the people at The Christian Center feel better about themselves by listening to their stories and experiences.

“The goal was to help the participants in the video feel empowered and important by allowing their voices to be heard,” Merritt said. “In telling their stories, they felt like people cared about them which, hopefully, helped their self-esteem and confidence. We really became connected with the people and ended up sharing respect for one another.”

Schiff said she was nervous about visiting The Christian Center, but after meeting the people there she realized they were just normal people who were struggling.

“After I started to talk with them, I felt like we made a connection,” she said. “I hope that talking about their lives made them feel better about themselves; I know it was an eye opening experience for me.”

Merritt and Schiff said after completing the IWitness Video Challenge they appreciated the personal experience they were able to have with the people at The Christian Center and they hoped their video would help educate a wider audience.