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I have attended many community events in the past at non jewish entertainment places hosted by a jewish organization where the entire community was invited from children to adults both male & female. These community events include the entertainment that is at the place plus free food & drinks etc…. Recently i attended one of these events but instead of being a guest i was a volunteer worker that was also working with approximately 15 non jewish workers of the entertainment center. I worked together with them for many hours & all the workers were shocked at what a mess the ENTIRE place was-in just a matter of minutes from when the event started-the ENTIRE entertainment place was filled with garbage all over the floors & tables etc…. it was a major chillul Hashem.
At the end of the event as being a volunteer worker there & spending many hours with these non jewish workers who manage the place the entire year & deal with many different crowds of people. i tried to remove the chillul Hashem by explaining to the CEO of the place that-sadly-this is a normal thing that happens at events like these. Let me explain what i mean, when we pay $25 to attend a ladies chinese auctions or a chol hamoed trip etc… we feel we can do whatever we want & grab any food there & leave our garbage anywhere we want so we can get our $25 money’s worth that we paid to come to the event. However this is a major misunderstanding & totally going over the border of whats included in being part of the event & causes a major chillul Hashem each time it happens. There were garbage cans all over the entertainment center to walk 5 seconds to reach it & not instead to throw it all over the floors.
To end off, our next public community events i can think of, is chol Hamoed events in different communities where the entire community is invited & it comes with free food & rides & even prizes to take home. Although there might not be goyim working there if it is not in a entertainment center & instead in a community park. PLEASE do not make a chillul Hashem & throw all your emply drinks & snacks all over the park for the goyim doing the final cleanup after the event is over, & instead be mechanech your children to look for a garbage can to drop it in (& if they already dropped it on the floor to pick it up & throw it out) we all have the mitzva of being mechanech our children from the minute they are born.
Sincerely
a Chessed volunteer in your communityforget about public events. Every Shabbos between Mincha and Maariv, bochurs in my shul bring food from the shalos seudos to the Beis Medrash to eat while they learn. How do I know? When I come in Sunday morning for minyan, the sforim are not put away, and there are dirty plates and cups in the tables and the floor, as well as food on the floor.
Children are messy by nature, and the typical child adult ratio in an Orthodox Jewish crowd, particularly at events you describe, is likely much higher than other groups visiting the establishment. That’s one possible reason. Another reason: Packaged food brought in from the outside tends to generate much more garbage than food bought on premises, so even if the in-the-can vs. on-the-floor garbage ratio is the same between Jewish and non-Jewish crowds, the sheer volume of waste may just be higher. Perhaps these factors could explain why the “entertainment center” became messier than usual during the chol hamoed event. That said, cleanliness is stressed by the Torah, and parents must teach their children to be conscientious and to clean up after themselves.
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