UJA Westchester Volunteers Make Holidays Brighter

Over 250 UJA-Federation of New York Westchester volunteers from across the county helped brighten the holidays for families facing food insecurity and local area teens and seniors who are residential clients at three UJA nonprofit partners. The celebrations, all part of UJA's Gift of Hanukkah initiative, were held on Sunday, December 8, 2019.

Over 50 families gathered to pack 200 holiday baking kits, providing staple items not typically found at a food pantry, to be donated to the clients of UJA nonprofit partner Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. The event, chaired by Beth Altschuler (Scarsdale), Amie Eglit (Harrison), Kim Goldberg (Larchmont), Natasha Hanan (Chappaqua), Rikki Javitch (Harrison) and Alana Pero (Armonk) is part of UJA Westchester Young Families initiative which brings together like-minded, philanthropic young families who, like UJA, are devoted to helping people in need.

Residents of Kittay House, an independent senior living facility in the Bronx run by UJA nonprofit partner The New Jewish Home, enjoyed an afternoon of bingo, crafts and snacks. This event was chaired by Jill Goldfein, Audi Schub and Anya Wiebke, all residents of New Rochelle. "UJA's Gift of Hanukkah program is one way that we do tikkun olam, to make the world a better place. That's a big part of what we do." said Schub.

Teens at the Edenwald Center in Pleasantville and the Sally and Anthony Mann Center in Hawthorne, run by UJA nonprofit partners JCCA and The Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services respectively, were visited by teens from J-Teen Leadership, a program of UJA-Federation. Together the teens celebrated the holidays by painting faces and nails, applying temporary tattoos, decorating cookies and playing bingo and dreidel games. J-Teen Leadership volunteers Eli Makaron (Briarcliff Manor), Tyler Plank (Briarcliff Manor) and Jordan Rosen (Pleasantville) chaired the events.

UJA-Federation supports a network hundreds of nonprofit organizations, large and small. These nonprofits provide food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, independence for the elderly, jobs for the unemployed, as well as stimulating education programs for people in New York, in Israel, and in nearly 70 countries.

Photo captions:

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(l-r) Kim Goldberg (Larchmont), Alana Pero (Armonk), Rikki Javitch (Harrison), Amie Eglit (Harrison), Natasha Hanan (Chappaqua), Beth Altschuler (Scarsdale) chaired the UJA Westchester Young Families Gift of Hanukkah celebration.

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(l-r) Leo Shapiro (Chappaqua) and daughter, and Brad Hanan (Chappaqua) and sons pack holiday baking boxes at UJA Gift of Hanukkah celebration.

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(l-r) Stacey Mayer (Scarsdale) and daughters pack holiday baking boxes at UJA Gift of Hanukkah celebration.

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(l-r)—Sophie Schub (New Rochelle), Julia Croog (New Rochelle), and Kittay House resident doing crafts projects at UJA Gift of Hanukkah celebration.

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(l-r) Ian White (New Rochelle), Kittay House resident, Brayden White (New Rochelle) playing bingo at UJA Gift of Hanukkah celebration.

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(l-r) J-Teen Leadership volunteers Cooper Plank (Briarcliff Manor) and Ethan Hersh (Scarsdale) celebrate the holidays with the residential clients of the Edenwald Center at UJA-Federation Gift of Hanukkah celebration.

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J-Teen Leadership volunteers Lilly Kleinhandler (Rye Brook) and Lucy Rosenblut (Rye Brook) celebrate the holidays with the residential clients of the Sally and Anthony Mann Center at UJA-Federation Gift of Hanukkah celebration.