As
I said previously I plan on writing a blog post after each four weeks of my 52
Weeks=52 Actions year to report on what I have done so here is Week 1, 2, 3 and 4. In addition I am going to
give the website and contact information either for where I volunteer or where
I might volunteer in the future.
Week 1/January 23,
2013
Research
My
first week and my first action. I am a big believer in preparation so I figured
this should be a research and planning week. I took all the information
sheets collected at the synagogue
talk, spread them out on the floor, read through them and looked for email
addresses. At the web sites I clicked on the “volunteer” tab to see what kind
of help was requested. Different amounts of time are required for volunteering
depending on the task. For some you have to commit to only one time while other
volunteer tasks may require a multiple week commitment. Due to my schedule I am
looking for volunteer opportunities requiring only a single commitment so I
eliminated mentoring or teaching children after school which asked for a
multiple weeks.
Community Council for
the Homeless at Friendship Place
4713 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20016
(202)-364-1419 www.cchfp.org
Week 2/January 30,
2013
Hands On
This
second week I spent several hours making and baking spinach lasagnas along with
two of my favorite children, Talia and Nathan, and their nanny. A mutual
friend’s child was diagnosed with cancer and the community has pulled together
to make dinners for the family. Talia and Nathan’s mother, Pam, asked if I
might want to cook some dinners with her kids and of course I said yes. Pam
bought the supplies for the lasagnas including tomato sauce, cheeses, eggs,
spinach and pans. Then after Talia and Nathan got out of school their nanny
brought them to my school. Together we mixed eggs with ricotta and cottage
cheese, poured spaghetti sauce into a large bowl and rinsed spinach leaves. In
baking pans we layered sauce, noodles, cheese mixture and spinach making four
lasagnas. The very last layer was shredded mozzarella cheese. Pam came and
picked up the children while I waited for the lasagnas to bake. Several days earlier the father of another friend died and I was going that
same evening to his house for shiva so I took one of the lasagnas for the
family to have for Shabbat.
S.O.M.E. So Others Might
Eat
71 O Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
(202)-787-8806 www.some.org
Week 3/February 6,
2013
Advocacy
In addition to just increasing my social actions I am determined to get out of my
comfort box for the 52 weeks and one of the things I tend to avoid is going to
meetings and advocacy work. One reason I don’t do this is that I am shy and uncomfortable
networking in groups of people I don’t know. So this week I picked to go to the
Jews United for Justice Community Meeting. The email notice I received said the
night would be filled with campaign and program updates, vegan fried chicken, a
wonderful host Mitch Crispell and discussion on where participants would like
to see JUFJ in the future. I went and there were lots of people mostly younger
than myself but no one I knew. There were ice breakers so people would get to
know each other and then some presentations on what had been accomplished in
the past year, what the costs are for the organization and what special cause
was being focused on right now. I really enjoyed learning about where the
donations are spent and how much is needed to get things done. I also was
interesting in learning about getting paid sick leave for everyone especially
for restaurant workers who mostly don’t have it. I left when the time came for
us to break up into small groups to talk about what we wanted JUFJ to focus on.
I debated about staying but just wasn’t ready or comfortable to do so. Maybe
next time.
Jews United for
Justice
1633
Connecticut Ave NW, 3rd Floor, Washington, DC 20009
(202)-408-1423 http://www.jufj.org/
Week 4/February
13, 2013
Monetary Contributions
This week many
friends got ready to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I decided I would look at the
requests I had received for monetary help, open my heart and contribute to two.
I don’t know about you but daily I have organizations asking for money. Some
are for local causes, some are for causes in Israel and some are more global.
Usually I try to give half of my contributions to local organizations and the
other half to some place that extends outside of local. The first cause that
caught my eye was JWI (Jewish Women International) ‘s National Library Initiative (NLI). For
every $7 donated in February JWI will send a new book to a child in one of
JWI’s 43 libraries at domestic abuse shelters across the country. It takes two,
one to give and one to receive, in a Valentine’s expression so I decided to
give $14 and give 2 books. The second cause was mentioned to me by two
friends concerning an acquaintance, Adina Shapiro, who has been struggling with
an undiagnosed illness that has left her exhausted and unable to work. To make
it easier for friends to help Adina a third friend created a weekly goggle list
with specific tasks friends could sign up to do such as shopping as well as a
site where you could contribute money to give Adina financial assistance for
medical or other bills. Using the same “it takes two” approach I gave the
Jewish double chai amount of $36. I am hoping that in the future I can take on
a task for Adina.
JWI (Jewish Women International)
1129 20th
Street, NW Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036
(800)-343-2823 (202)-857-1300 www.jwi.org
Helping Adina Shapiro
www.gofundme.com
48
Weeks left.
