“HOW WONDERFUL IT IS THAT NOBODY NEED WAIT FOR A SINGLE
MOMENT BEFORE STARTING TO IMPROVE THE WORLD.”
ANNE FRANK
In August of 2008, Shelly Ress-Weinstein began our year with the collection of school supplies for the Garden Park Apartment students. Garden Park is the affordable housing sponsored by the Contra Costa Interfaith Council. We do work with them throughout the year.
In September, we sponsored a drive for funds for the Lindsay Wildlife Museum. We had about $140 to send them towards their promise of a matching grant from the City of Walnut Creek.
The first of four times that congregants worked with Jewish Family and Children’s Services to deliver kosher meals to those in need or house bound. Meals are delivered for Rosh Hoshanna, Hannukah, and Pesach. Stan Goldman is our point person for this mitzvah.
Under the very able leadership of Dave Krug we prepared meals for the Mountain View Homeless Shelter in Martinez. This was the first week of several that Dave arranged for us to participate. As has become traditional, our members prepare the meals Monday through Thursday and our neighbors from the Unitarian church prepare the Friday night meal.
In October there were members cooking and serving lunch at Loaves and Fishes in Concord.
November was the month that the 7th grade class took over the fund raising for turkeys for the Food Bank. They raised $2,788. They stuffed envelopes, collected the money, did the accounting, and sent thank you letters to donors.
December brought the first of two blood drives organized by Beth Feldman.
We cooked and served dinner at the Mountain View shelter.
We delivered kosher meals to the homebound and needy Jews in Contra Costa County for Hannukah.
January was the first of our food drives for the Contra Costa-Solano Food Bank. We tied this into Tu B’Shevat. The committee has taken the commandment given in Torah to feed the poor. “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and stranger; I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 1:29:9-10. This commandment is repeated several more times in the Torah and the Megillah of Ruth. There will be food drives related to each of the holidays. The barrel for the Food Bank is always in the lobby of the sanctuary. You are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item whenever you visit the building. The food bank is becoming more and more in need of donations due to the present state of the economy. They need 30,000 pounds of food to give to hungry men, women and children. Many of these are the “working poor”, who cannot manage to pay the rent or mortgage and put food on the table.
February saw more cooking and serving dinners at the Mountain View Shelter and lunch at Loaves and Fishes.
March was a challenge presented by Channah Katz to fulfill a wish list from an organization called Fresh Start, which works with homeless adults in Walnut Creek. The congregation responded with all of the requested items. When was the last time any of us were excited about getting new socks and toothpaste among the many things that filled two cars on a Sunday morning.
Rabbi Fisher came up with her own way of filling the Food Bank barrel. She requested that people bring dry pasta in boxes to use as greggars for Purim.
Elbow macaroni makes the best noise. (Of course, I will want hamentaschen whenever we have macaroni and cheese.)
April
Larry Risman directed volunteers in a Habitat for Humanity project in Oakland.
Our volunteers worked at framing up walls and doors for the actual building to be done a week later.
Helen Sweet arranged to have Morgan Watkins, a member of the Board of Directors of Guide Dogs for the Blind, give the drash on Sixth Grade Shabbat. Morgan Watkins and his dog, Will attended Shabbat morning services on April 12. Mr. Watkins gave an informative and entertaining talk about how he has interacted with the world since he lost his eyesight in his early twenties. How appropriate that the parsha of the week was Metzora, about excluding from the community those who are different. These dogs have helped reverse that trend.
Loaves and FISHES; As most of you know, Loaves and Fishes left St. Michael’s Church on April 30th. The last meal was actually prepared on April 15 leaving over 200 people; men, women and children without their best meal of the day. In some cases it may have been the only meal. A couple of weeks ago we received the following announcement from Loaves and Fishes:
Concord City Council granted L & F $65,000 to remodel one of the rooms at the Homeless Shelter (2047 Arnold Industrial Way, Unit A - in Concord, and the County, who owns the facility, has agreed to rent it to them at $1/year. Work on the facility is scheduled for completion in late August/early September. No Kitchen but hot meals will be prepared at Loaves and Fishes Commercial Kitchen and delivered to the site.
May is when we began an educational piece on the needs of the Juvenile Hall young people.
June had the last of this years food drives that was tied in with Shavuot. The barrel appears to be almost full.
If your fruit trees or garden bear more than you and your family and neighbors can eat, remember the Food Bank. If you deliver it to the Food Bank, they will give you a receipt for your taxes. Two years ago Norm and I took 75 pounds of beautiful Granny Smith apples. Looking at the tree now, we will probably be able to double that by the end of August.
Please remember that if you are coming to the synagogue that you can bring non-perishable food to put in the barrel except on Shabbat.
Tutoring: Doing Good in the Secular Community
Would you like to spend an hour or so per week to help a local child? Starting in the fall Tikkun Olam will partner with Fair Oaks School in Pleasant Hill to tutor students and help with other needs that become apparent to the staff. Some students at Fair Oaks live in the adjacent Garden Park Apartments, a transitional housing facility with which we’ve also partnered. This summer Jewish Coalition for Literacy will conduct a training session to prepare us. If interested contact Helen Sweet, 283-6708. If you have had this training in the past and wish to continue or resume tutoring, also contact Helen.
Shelly Ress-Weinstein will again begin to collect school supplies for the students at the Garden Park Apartments. Check her list and donate those things and more.
I know that there are many congregants performing acts of Tikkun Olam with no recognition here. If you are, please let me know what you are doing. We are proud and thankful that you are quietly repairing the world.
The Tikkun Olam Committee will begin our plans for this next year at the end of the summer. If you have ideas of projects for us, or wish to join this committee, please email Elise Lustig.
It’s summertime and it is important to let children be children. Unfortunately, childhood, free, unstructured play time, is being replaced more and more by academics, lessons, competitive sports, television, electronic, and video entertainment. Parents often worry that their children will be at a disadvantage if they are not engaged in constant learning. David Elkind, the author of The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally, goes so far as to state: that “Play is being silenced.”
Parent peer pressure often causes parents to engage in hyperparenting, overprotection, and overprogramming. The concept of educational toys seems to help some parents resolve their issues of letting children play. If the toy is “educational” then perhaps time is not being wasted “playing.” There is a wide and dubious array of educational programs and products on the market geared for youngsters, but just how much of this is necessary for the healthy development of a child?
Many of these so called educational toys can be restrictive and cause frustration. At the age when children should be exploring their environment, children are asked to press buttons and respond to preset cues. Critical thinking skills are not developed as such toys encourage rote learning and opportunities for imaginative integration of experience are minimized.
Child development studies have shown that imaginative play goes far to prepare children for academic and social success. Creative, spontaneous play fosters healthy mental and social development and sets the stage for academic learning. Through creative spontaneous activities, children learn mutual respect and cooperation through role-playing and the negotiation of rules. This in turn encourages their development of critical thinking which prepares them for successful classroom learning.
Over the years, toys have changed, yet it is important to remember that simply playing with rocks, a child can discover properties of counting and shapes which are the foundation of math. Children can play safely without complete and constant adult organization or sitting programmed to an electronic game. A child’s instinct is to play and explore. Children should be allowed to be children. It is invaluable in developing happy, healthy children.
