Rabbi Israel Salanter has taught that “(One) should be more concerned with spiritual than material matters, but another person’s material welfare is (one’s) spiritual concern.” Bearing this thought in mind, we recently heard on the radio that both the clothing and food banks at the Akron Salvation Army were decimated due to a water main break. The winter is particularly a time of need for many families, and we thought that if you were interested in doing a little early “spring cleaning” in the middle of winter, we might be able to help remedy this situation.
Outside the preschool office this week, from Feb. 9 through Feb, 13, we will collect your gently used and/or outgrown clothing and sort it into adult women, adult men, and children’s sizes. Perhaps your children can also help in the sorting process, deciding which items will be passed on to others. At this time, we know that they would be grateful for any items they receive from us! Additionally, we have been approached by Pregnancy Care of Summit County, an agency which provides services to mothers and is dedicated to the belief that every woman has the “right to give birth and raise her child with dignity.” Their services are free of charge to their clients and continue to help children until they reach school age. They would welcome donations of baby and children’s clothes up to size 4, crib sheets or blankets, baby towels, or maternity clothes. (We will make this donation closer to Mother’s Day, but will collect it now in conjunction with this larger size clothing drive.)
Because we believe in modeling the values we hope to instill in our children, at our last in-service as a staff, we collected money to make a donation to the food bank at the Salvation Army. Jewish tradition teaches that we are obligated not only to give to those in need, but in doing so, we must be concerned with preserving the dignity of the recipient. In biblical times, farmers left the corners of their fields for the poor so they would not be compelled to beg: “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap the whole corner of the field, and do not gather the gleaning of your harvest. And do not glean your vineyard, and do not gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; rather leave them for the poor and the stranger” (Leviticus 19: 9-10).
As part of our continuing effort to encourage children to believe that their efforts can make a positive contribution to the larger community, both within and without the school, we appreciate your support. As Helen Keller once wrote: “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much."
*And for those of you who have asked, we closed the books on our ECE Art Sale last week and thanks to the generous contributions of families and the hard work of our students, our department earned just slightly over $1,400 at our art sale. We are so appreciative of your support of our department and hope you enjoyed the Artists’ Reception Opening Night. We will be purchasing cameras for our classrooms to use to capture the wonderful learning experiences that are occurring there on a daily basis! There are many wonderful pictures from that evening on our facebook page!
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