December 10, 2004/Kislev 27 5765, Vol. 57, No.15
Making a mitzvahJewish community rallies for service day
STEPHANIE N. HENSCHEL
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 Elisa Lustig, left, and Ashlee Levine make peanut butter and fluff sandwiches - and a mess - at Temple Chai on Mitzvah Day. Photo by Mark Gluckman |
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| My first Mitzvah Day |
And heartwarming it was on Dec. 5, despite the cold, gloomy weather that threatened to break up the eighth annual Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix's Mitzvah Day.
The community service event is a day when the Jewish community gathers to help out where help is needed.
"The purpose is to engage the Jewish community in community service in the larger community," says Michelle Steinberg, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, the group that coordinated the event.
Forty-two projects were originally planned, but bad weather caused three to be cancelled.
Surprisingly, the weather really didn't put a damper on the day.
Steinberg says one group that was assigned to the Scottsdale Reserve went out in the morning to work on the trails despite the rain - though the second group cancelled as the weather worsened.
The Habitat for Humanity project was cancelled at the last minute and, according to Steinberg, the project captain, Gary Pollack, was so disappointed that he organized all the volunteers to return Sunday, Dec. 12, for the project.
Judy Barker volunteered her son's Boy Scout troop to help out the Arizona Jewish Historical Society by doing maintenance work and landscaping at the site of Phoenix's first synagogue. Her son Oren is the only Jewish boy in his troop, but five of his fellow scouts and his Scout Master pitched in to show support for him.
Eileen Wagner, who is the program director for Valley Leadership during the week, spent the day at one of the Mercy Housing locations, a shelter for children.
"We had sort of a carnival for the kids," Wagner says.
The agencies that benefited from the community service day were also pleased.
Steinberg says she has received several messages from agencies that participated in Mitzvah Day and they were grateful. One message, from Ronald McDonald House, was particularly exciting for her.
"The volunteers, at their own expense, prepared a meal for about 40 people staying at Ronald McDonald House," she says. Volunteers made a full spaghetti and meatball dinner, complete with dessert.
St. Vincent de Paul was also very excited about having the volunteers. Throughout the day, volunteers came to help prepare and serve food at the shelter, but what was even more exciting were the caravans that came to deliver peanut butter and fluff sandwiches.
Steinberg says about 17,000 PB&F sandwiches were made throughout the day at area synagogues, including Temple Chai, Beth El Congregation, Temple Beth Shalom, Temple Beth Israel, Temple Beth Sholom, and Temple Emanuel of Tempe.
And, according to Steinberg, there is an art to making the sandwiches.
"It seems that there is good fluff and bad fluff," she says. Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Cräme apparently is the best, she says.
And with all those sandwiches, a lot of fluff was needed. Seven hundred pounds - or 1,600 jars - of fluff was required for the amount of sandwiches made - all of which were bought at cost, thanks to Bashas'.
But, as with any large event, there were a few glitches.
"There are lessons that we learned," Steinberg says. For example, the selection of project captains - "We need to recruit and secure captains way in advance."
That problem, and other small last-minute issues that came up, will all be discussed at the wrap-up meeting in a couple of weeks, Steinberg says. Then the committee can begin preparing for next year.