52 Weeks=52 Actions: Week 1, 2, 3 & 4

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 20^th 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.