A dollar from the Rebbe, an air hockey table, a set of Likutei Sichos, a trampoline, a set of Toras Menachem, an electric scooter; these are just a few of the almost 200 prizes in the Tzivos Hashem End-of-the-Year Auction.
“The children get to use the points they have earned throughout the year to buy tickets in the auction,” says Rabbi Shimmy Weinbaum, general of the Chayolei Tzivos Hashem Brigade. But it doesn’t stop there.
Have you ever won a prize at an auction and then got back the money you used to pay for your ticket?
You can now! After the Tzivos Hashem auction winners are drawn, kids can earn back all of the points they ever earned. Any chayol who earned more than 1,200 points will be able to redeem all the points they earned since they joined Tzivos Hashem.
“My child, who is now a 4-star general and has been trucking away at his missions for 7 years, has accumulated over 30,000 points,” says proud mother Mrs. Chassi Rivkin.
“Children find it hard to lose,” explains Rabbi Yerachmiel Benjaminson, executive director of Tzivos Hashem. “Especially the younger children. When they use their points to buy tickets in the auction they expect to get the prize. The least we can do is return their points after the auction.”
This brilliant idea is the brainchild of Rabbi Shaya Smetana, director of Anash.com. “We need to train the children to understand that mitzvos don’t disappear, and therefore, neither do their points,” he says.
“I love the idea that the children need to get 1,200 points to get back their old points,” says Rabbi Mendy Shanowitz, director of MyShliach, the Tzivos Hashem online base for Yaldei Hashluchim. “It’s a great motivation for kids to keep earning points. And while the chayolim can purchase prizes with their points from our amazing prize store, the auction has the really incredible, grand prizes that kids can barely dream of.”
“The Tzivos Hashem points system is separate from the medal and rank system,” clarifies Weinbaum. “Being promoted to higher and higher ranks is by far the greatest motivational system, but it’s very long-term. The chayolim need to work for months to earn their first medal and it takes several medals to go up in rank. We added the points system, in which children can win raffles, buy prizes in their base store, and get tickets at the end-of-the-year auction, as a more short-term motivational supplement to the rank system.”
“The kids are so motivated by the prizes,” says mother Mrs. Chanie Simon. “They keep asking to log onto their account and choose which prizes they want to win. Then they change their minds, empty their carts, and start shopping again.”
“There is a beautiful mix of prizes, the best of both ruchniyus and gashmiyus,” says Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch and Tzivos Hashem partner. “What’s amazing to see is that with all the incredible prizes the children can choose from, the prizes with the most tickets are the dollar from the Rebbe and the set of Likutei Sichos.”
Click here to see a catalog of the prizes. Tonight is the last night to enter the auction. Parents can enter the auction for their children at mashpia.com/mobile.
The winners of the auction will be announced at the Shavuos rally this coming Tuesday, Rosh Chodesh Sivan.
Thanks sooo much for all that u do for our kids…they r always ahead and doing all they can to keep the kids going….in such a shaky world we are BH extremely fortunate that our Rebbe has established this system and the staff is BH so dedicated in giving our children the chayos to do what’s right!
Best prizes ever, the kids really deserve this!!