Little Girl With A
Big Idea
How one 8-year-old raised a lot of money
for the Jewish National Fund.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor
E
lizabeth Kirshner, 8, is about to
teach you a very important busi-
ness concept: how one plus one
can equal $44.88.
One is an idea, an idea about something
she wanted to do. She wanted to help. The
other one was what might people want?
What they needed, she knew, was "stuff."
So Elizabeth decided to hold a yard sale,
and she raised $44.88 for the Jewish
National Fund.
Here's how the project found its roots. .
"I was thinking of what is going on in
Israel, and what I could do to at least bring
a little more happiness," said Elizabeth, who
lives in Oak Park. "I was thinking, 'What
should I do to make that happen and make
it possible? What would bring happiness?'
"I thought of nature. A tree brings tons of
happiness to a lot of people, so I thought
that would be a good idea to raise money for
JNF."
Elizabeth first heard of JNF at a Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
program, where families received a blue
tzedakah box for placing contributions to
the Jewish National Fund.
"I wanted to know what Jewish National
Fund did," Elizabeth said. "I thought I knew
Elizabeth Kirshner, 8, of Oak Park, shown with
it was a good thing, but I wanted to
Alexandra Hirschkind of Cleveland, representing the
know what they did that was so good
Jewish National Fund.
specifically. Mom told me they plant
trees in Israel, and I thought that was
such a good idea."
Elizabeth began preparing for the two-
day yard sale by making her own multi-
colored fliers. She distributed these in
mailboxes throughout the neighborhood.
Friends also offered suggestions, items
to sell and volunteered to help during the
:4tzsek
sale.
wft
When the big day at last arrived, "we
put a small table on the lawn and made a
small sign that I taped on the tree in
front of our yard," said Elizabeth, a
third-grader at Yeshivat Akiva in
Southfield. "The sign said: 'Please come
to Elizabeth's Yard Sale. All proceeds go
to JNF planting trees in Israel. Thank
you. Please come.'"
Among the treasures for sale, Elizabeth
said, were "lemonade, cookies, pretzels,
little toys, chalk, pencils and erasers,
books, key chains that I made.
"At first, we made the cookies, and
they were such a big hit that we ran out
the first day. So the next day, we sold
Famous Amos cookies.
"Everything was nice and cheap," she
said. "Do you know why stores have
sales?" she asked. "That's because it
means a lot of little money; it all adds
up.
The sale originally was scheduled to
last half an hour, "but I kept going
because it was so much fun, I didn't want
•'
•MS
LITTLE GIRL/BIG IDEA on page 64
8/ 2
2002
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