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It's A Mitzvah

Nearly 800 Federation volunteers fill in at Christmas to aid the needy.

DIANA LIEBERMAN

Copy Editor

Call for directions,
hours & open skating
hours

12/28
2001

18

(24a) 364-4toegoG¢ 209

7

hey packed dinners, baked
cookies and rocked babies.
Those with musical talent
found toddlers or senior
citizens to entertain. Those who felt
more comfortable with a spackling
brush and roller painted a kitchen.
Nearly 800 volunteers showed up
Dec. 25 for the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit's Mitzvah Day.
Known by its organizers as "a volun-
teer extravaganza," the event takes
place every year on Christmas Day.
The idea is to add personnel at already
understaffed human service agencies,
whether Jewish, Christian or non-sec-
tarian. The need is especially great at
Christmas, when many regular
employees and volunteers take time off
to be with their families.
Sponsored this year by Federation's
Young Adult Division (YAD), along
with the Community Outreach and
Education Department and Women's
Campaign and Education

Department, Mitzvah Day began in
1996. In those years when Dec. 25 fell
on a Saturday, Federation volunteers
collected clothing, canned food and
monetary contributions in November
so they wouldn't have to travel or work
on Shabbat.
"It's a nice thing to do, a nice way to
help people," said volunteer Cindy
Schlussel of Walled Lake. As site coor-
dinator at the Salvation Army Booth
Services in Detroit, she organized the
activities of 15 volunteers. They
helped two dozen children make cook-
ies and decorations, blow up balloons,
string streamers — all the fixings for a
party — and then celebrated.
"When you see the kids' faces, you
realize you're making somebody's day
just by being here," Schlussel said.
Among the volunteers in the cookie--
baking room were Sherry Zeiger of
Oak Park and her 12-year-old son,
Josh. Volunteering at the Salvation
Army was one of Josh's mitzvah proj-
ects as he prepares for his June 15 bar
mitzvah at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek Southfield. In addition to mak-

ing cookies, Josh blew up balloons
with 3-year-old Deon Butler, who lives
at the shelter with his mother, then
played a vigorous game of balloon-toss.

Pies And Rollers

Earlier in the day, a crew of 25 drove
from the Max M. Fisher Federation
Building in Bloomfield Hills to the
Hartford Agape House, on James
Couzens near Seven Mile Road in
Detroit. Another group of volunteers,
not connected with Federation, were
already on the scene, preparing hot
Christmas dinners.
"Between everybody, they must have
had about 60 volunteers there," said
site coordinator Joanne Klain. "We
could hardly fit into the kitchen."
The Federation volunteers formed
an assembly line and packed boxes of
food into waiting trucks. About 2,500
meals went out the door, containing
everything from chicken with dressing
to fresh pecan pie. The boxes were dis-
tributed to senior citizens who had
been referred to the Agape House by

