Being a Jewish Professional, or having one in your family for that matter, gives an interesting perspective to the yearly calendar. We are keenly aware of the fact that our professional lives will be attuned to busy times during the major Jewish holidays. Two of the busiest times for us tend to be in the fall (High Holiday season) and in the spring (Purim and Pesach). I personally love the fact that these two holiday seasons bookend the school year. This gives me a clear feeling of beginning and end and gives me time for reflection after Pesach before we start working on the High Holidays again.
Why am I bringing this up on a snowy January week? Believe it or not, our spring holidays will be here before you know it! With that in mind, we have just kicked off one of our favorite holiday traditions at HEA,our annual Kevin Bitz (z"l) Memorial Purim Mishloach Manot campaign. As you might know, this annual fundraiser is a huge undertaking. Each year we call on nearly 100 volunteers to help us assemble and then deliver our wonderful Mishloach Manot bags to each and every HEA member family. Shout out to all of the amazing folks that show up to help every year!
This tradition is not only a labor of love, but it also is something that simply makes our community feel connected and just plain happy. Who doesn’t like a bag of goodies delivered to their door? Yearly, we choose a theme to focus on for our special deliveries. This year, we are excited to highlight our HEA youth. A portion of the donations made to our campaign will go directly to help provide our youth groups with resources to make our new USY and Kadima chapters even more fun.
Now that you know what the HEA staff will be up to the next six weeks, you might be asking yourself, what can I do to help? This is a great question! First of all, please sign up to send Mishloach Manot to your HEA friends and family. This is very easy to do online, and you can even see who you sent to last year.
The second way to participate this year is to give a few hours of your time. We will need help with bag assembly and delivery. This is such an easy way to get involved and have a little fun while you are at it. Ever since my now teenagers were little, we always had the best afternoon driving around and meeting other HEA members and giving them gifts. I hear every year from volunteers how fun it is meeting members they have never met before and exploring their own neighborhoods.
If you have never participated in the Mishloach Manot campaign previously, I hope you choose to this year. For those of you that participate every year, sign up today and be part of this wonderful annual tradition.
