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March 27, 2009
Teaching kids to give
Mitzvah day was a family tzedakah opportunity.
DEENA LEVENSTEIN
Jodi Cristall, the new co-chair of Ben Gurion Society (BGS), was fed up with always leaving her kids at home with a babysitter when going out to community events and wanted to find a way to include them.
Seeing an opportunity, she brainstormed with co-chair Leana Gaerber and Diana Stein, campaign associate at the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, to create the BGS Mitzvah Day, held March 15.
On Mitzvah Day, approximately 50-60 parents and children from BGS took part in different chesed (acts of kindness) around the city. In all, 23 parents and children were registered to learn about and work in the Jewish Family Services Agency's (JFSA's) community garden in Kerrisdale. Regular garden volunteer Gaetana Korbin gave the group a tour of the garden, explaining how the vegetable patch was a special community project that sends the fresh produce to the Jewish food bank. Poor weather conditions prevented the children from working directly in the garden so the group went to the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture instead, planting fruit and vegetable seeds in biodegradable cups that would later be placed in the garden.
According to Korbin, the kids were very enthusiastic. "They had tons of questions. They were wondering when they could come back and plant," she said.
The March 15 event was the first BGS Mitzvah Day. BGS is a recognition program for donors to Federation who are 45 years old or under and give $1,000 or more to the annual campaign. When Gaerber and Cristall started discussing the Mitzvah Day idea, Gaerber thought, "Let's bring our kids out and show them and teach them why we're doing this [community work]." Gaerber continued, "It's a really good opportunity for the kids to get out there and learn about giving back to the community."
Four families volunteered to visit seniors or deliver welcome baskets to new immigrants. Jane Stoller went with her two children to bring a basket to a new immigrant family. She said her children "were very interested and happy to participate."
This year, Mitzvah Day was open to BGS members only. "Our intention with this event wasn't certainly to restrict a mitzvah day to a specific giving level or group of people based on that or their age," said Stein about that decision. She explained that considering the logistics of setting up different activities around town, they decided that BGS was "the perfect group to start with and I'd love to see it expand in the coming years," said Stein.
Elsewhere in the city, 11 people helped prepare and serve food at a soup kitchen in the Downtown Eastside. Their experience was set up through Ahavat Olam's Jewish-Muslim project.
Going to the Downtown Eastside was "a real eye-opening, thought-provoking and moving experience for my family," said Natalie Rosengarten, who was at the soup kitchen with her husband, Mark, and their son, 15, and daughter, 11.
Rosengarten said she hoped that they left a feeling that some people actually do care. "I believe that the need is huge and that we should all reach out and try to give some of our time, resources and compassion in any form whatsoever," she said.
Once the groups finished volunteering, they were expected to convene at the Peretz Centre for a party sponsored by Dr. Andrew and Shawna Merkur.
Mitzvah Day organizers plan to make it an annual event. "I think a lot of people were really excited by it and next year, more people will hear about it, more people will participate," said Gaerber.
Deena Levenstein is a freelance writer from Toronto, Jerusalem and now Vancouver. See her blog at blogmidrash.wordpress.com.
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