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January 14, 2009

Gifts of Light

Oops! We almost forgot to share this little holiday story with all of you. Last month we had a chance to speak with PK Beville, founder of Second Wind Dreams (Tzedakah Diary, April 28, 2008, http://www.secondwind.org/), a special organization which makes dreams come true for elders living in closed-care institutions. When you live in a nursing home, the holidays can be particularly difficult. So many of the elders that Second Wind works with are not only isolated because of their confinement to a nursing facility, but many do not even have family who can bring some holiday joy into their lives.

For many years, PK and her volunteers have organized Gifts of Light…a gift extravaganza delivered to elders who might otherwise have a very quiet and sad holiday celebration. This year, the Gifts of Light program was in peril as the economy plummeted and donations dwindled. Could we help? PK was thrilled. With the Good People Fund donation, her volunteer elves hit the stores. Here is what they came up with! A wise investment on our part….

January 9, 2009

A True Birthday ANGEL

It is only 6:52AM as I write this and my day has already been "made"! With Israel seven hours ahead on the clock there are always early emails waiting in the dark, cold morning of winter in New Jersey.

This morning’s email actually brought two "gifts" but we will save the story of the second one for another day. The message I received that truly made my day was from Ruthie Sobel Luttenberg, the creative founder of Birthday Angels who we have written about before. (Tzedakah Diary, April 29, 2008 and December 10, 2008) Earlier this week, Ruthie shared that she was going to help some of the kids from the south of Israel cope with the trauma of living in a place where rockets fall indiscriminately from the sky. This was nothing new for Ruthie. In the summer of 2006 she could be found in the shelters in the North of Israel trying to distract and cheer those kids who spent so many hours each day confined to the shelter.

With her usual warm and caring personality, it was no surprise to find the following story on my screen. Click through this link and see how one person is making life better for kids who could use some joy in their lives right now. You won’t be disappointed. http://www.birthday-angels.org/site/detail/detail/detailDetail.asp?detail_id=1210387&depart_id=70698

January 8, 2009

How One Person Feeds Hungry People

Just as we were "closing down" for the day, an email popped up from our friend, Peter Freimark, a mitzvah maker extraordinaire (and board member). On May 26, 2008 we shared the story of how Peter arranged for a donation of 22 tons of frozen chicken to Cleveland-area food programs. Peter was also instrumental in getting us food for the workers in Postville, Iowa.

There are two things that particularly bother Peter – first, he doesn’t like to see people go hungry, and second, he cannot abide good food going to waste. With those two principles guiding him, it was no surprise to learn that he had arranged the delivery of a truckload of food to several Cleveland-area shelters and pantries. Here is his short email describing what he had done over the past two days:

Through the good work of Joe Lordi in Youngstown we had a 53 foot truckload of beautiful food-there were skids of fresh salads in bags, milk of all types, IBC Root Beer, chocolate, Gatorade, strawberry applesauce and much, much more. Total cost for food, labor, warehouse space, vehicles, fuel and freight was $400! Now that’s leverage!

We could not agree more! Kol Hakavod, Peter!

We should add one more thing here. When the economy started to plummet Peter took on some additional work which we encourage others to investigate. After visiting several local food establishments (like the local Panera’s) he arranged to make pick-ups several nights each week to rescue the leftovers and deliver them to local pantries and shelters who feed hungry people. How many of us could do the same thing in our own communities? We would bet that many stores/restaurants are throwing away perfectly good food each day because there is no one who has arranged to make the pickup and get it to where it can do some good. What a great project for a few good friends to start-it could really make a difference.

January 6, 2009

A Homerun

We had a visit last week from a young man who is about to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. Lev Schechter and his Mom, Cantor Riki Lippitz came to discuss what Lev might do for his mitzvah project – how could he make a difference? I always enjoy these conversations…I learn a great deal about the young people I speak with and after a few questions I can usually point them in the right direction. Nothing quite prepared me for the speed in which this Bar Mitzvah found his "calling". No sooner did we get through some pleasantries about school and the Bar Mitzvah and that all-important question "what do you really enjoy?", than we hit pay dirt! When Lev said he enjoyed sports, I immediately thought of a new program that we recently discovered. Very tentatively, I asked, "baseball?" Lev’s eyes lit up! Baseball was indeed one of his favorites. I knew right then that we had hit a homerun and I shared the story of Brett Kalikow and Homerun Hopefuls.

In 2002 when Brett (now a senior at Harvard) was a teenager vacationing with his family in the Dominican Republic he left the resort in search of a local baseball game. Nothing quite prepared him for what he discovered. Baseball, we know, is a very popular sport in the Dominican but sadly the way it is played is not always what we may recognize here. When Brett came upon a game, he saw kids using milk or juice cartons for mitts, rocks for balls and sticks for bats. The first thing Brett thought of was how much equipment he and his friends back in New York had lying around. Shoes, bats, balls, mitts, jerseys, t-shirts…who didn’t have tons of this in the basement, the attic, or stuck in the back of a closet? The answer was simple.

As soon as Brett returned to New York he began to collect whatever he could find. In a very short time he had five boxes filled with perfectly good equipment. The next question was how to get it to the Dominican Republic? In time, Brett made contact with someone at the Dominican consulate and soon a shipper was found who agreed to ship the items at no cost. Brett and his family were encouraged to return to the country to distribute everything themselves and indeed, that spring they did just that. Since that first visit, Brett and his family have returned each year to distribute new collections that have been gathered by others who learned about his project. Homerun Hopefuls, Brett’s non-profit, continues its good work and has become a favorite of many Bar Mitzvah kids who love baseball.

So-within perhaps 10 minutes or less, Lev Schechter knew just what he was going to do. We put him in touch with another young man who had gathered a collection for his Bar Mitzvah and also gave him a one page "how to" sheet which should get him started on his own project very soon.

Love baseball? Check out http://www.homerunhopefuls.org/.

January 5, 2009

Life in Sderot … and More

An email this morning from our contacts in Sderot brought the following brief description of what life has been like over the past several days (as well as before):

…As for us in Sderot: Schools, kindergartens and nurseries are all closed. In addition, all businesses are closed except for the local supermarkets. Many residents have left the town because they find it very hard to be confined to their homes all day long.

To help Sderot’s residents, "Reut" Sderot (a local organization with whom we work) organizes many different activities. Six shelters are running five days a week providing several different activities, from arts and crafts, movies and sports to actual trauma therapy. They are also providing ongoing respites to get adults and children out of the city. Over the past several weeks kids have gone to amusement parks, plays, museums and other pleasurable activities to keep them occupied and away from the daily danger, if only for brief periods. In addition, just this past weekend, 30 families were sent to several different locations throughout the country with housing and transportation costs covered by the organization.

With funds sent to us by donors who want to help out during this crisis, we are going to provide for some of these programs with the hope that they will soon not be necessary.

Related to the ongoing war in that area of Israel was an email I received a few days ago from an old friend with whom we did some relief work after September 11, 2001. Richard Smith came to New York City only a few days after the bombings and it was only a short time after that that we were introduced to him as a possible contact to help with determining how we could provide whatever was needed during those dark days. Richard became our "eyes and ears" on the scene and a friendship evolved. I knew that after Richard returned home to Virginia he had made many trips to Israel, particularly to the area around the Gaza border. His email which arrived a few days ago included a link to a very powerful video on YouTube. Dana, the young woman who speaks in the video, lives near Sderot and her words and her demeanor are extraordinarily powerful. If you want to get an idea of what life was like prior to the current war, click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kroyMfkoRHA

We think the piece says a great deal on many different levels…

January 2, 2009

Knit 2, Purl 2 Mitzvahs …

Several years ago we learned about a Denver lawyer who loved to knit. Since she was home raising a young family she had even more time to indulge in her passion. When a friend adopted a child from an orphanage in the FSU and reported on the very sad conditions in which these children live, Kimberly Turnbow found a way to use her talents on behalf of others-she created Warm Woolies. Warm Woolies provides hand-knitted wool garments for children in these orphanages as well as children growing up in a few Native American communities not far from Denver. All are created by volunteers across the country who knit with skill and not a small amount of love.

Kimberly’s efforts have proven extraordinarily successful. If you visit the group’s website, http://www.warmwoolies.org/, you will see just how this small and very focused group has grown. With over 500 items knitted in their first year of operation, it looks as if Warm Woolies ended 2008 with more than 12,000 items-socks, gloves, sweaters, vests-knitted by over 1000 volunteers. This figure means that every week Warm Woolies receives about 70 packages from knitters all over the world and distributes 1000 items each month to children in cold climates who can benefit from the warmth of these beautifully crafted garments.

When we contacted Kimberly to see where we could help her work it did not take long for her to come up with just the right need for us to fill. As is the case with nearly every program we work with, monetary donations to Warm Woolies have dropped by about 40% in the past year and with that, transportation costs have risen with the increase in fuel prices in the earlier part of the year. Kimberly asked if we could help them by providing funds for the ever-important boxes they need to ship the items either nationally or internationally. The Good People Fund has agreed to underwrite part of the costs of the more than 300 cardboard boxes they use each year.

It is a pleasure to be part of Warm Woolies – they are a small but very meaningful organization that not only provides items of warmth to youngsters who would otherwise go without, but they also allow volunteers to use their own special talents on behalf of others. If you are a knitter or know someone who is, check them out!