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December 20, 2002/Tevet 15 5763, Vol. 55, No. 17
Taking time to helpMore than 800 volunteer on Mitzvah Day
LEISAH NAMM
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 Several volunteers planted flowers and trees and helped with landscaping at Kivel Campus of Care in Phoenix. Planting trees, from left, are father-son teams Adam Clare, Steven Schwarz, Max Schwarz and Michael Clare. Photo courtesy of Hank Arens |
The force behind this wrapping and sandwich-making action was more than 800 volunteers who participated in the sixth annual Mitzvah Day of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.
Nineteen agencies benefited from the volunteers' services and 32 Jewish organizations participated in the planning, volunteer recruitment and solicitation of gifts for children, says Cathy Wolf, JCRC director.
Nearly each project was fully booked, and the JCRC had to add some sites and expand activities at other sites to accommodate the volunteers, Wolf says. "It was a great response."
Besides the activities documented in the photos on these pages, volunteers also created personal health care boxes for students and families of Tomahawk Elementary School in southeast Phoenix and did general maintenance, landscaping and cooking at the Ronald McDonald House in Phoenix. Other volunteers spent time with adults with special needs at the Council for Jews with Special Needs' Shalom House, worked on an arts and crafts project with children living at the Chrysalis Shelter for victims of domestic violence and visited veterans at the Veterans Hospital.