D A Y

Staff photos by Armando Rios

Pennies
From
Heaven

Annual Penny
Harvest allows
students to learn
about giving.

Sixth-graders from
area synagogues work
to sort pennies.

N

early 350 sixth-graders and their parents gathered on Jan. 28 for the 12th annual Tzedakah Experience/Penny
Harvest at Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township.
The program is designed as a hands-on experience for students learning about tzedakah (giving charity)
(acts
of loving kindness).
mitzvot
and
Participants were introduced to services of some of the community's agencies through "Choose Your Own Adventure,"
then students "shopped" for volunteer projects at the Mitzvah Mall.
The highlight of the program is the Penny Harvest, where pennies the students collected throughout December and
January for tzedakah are sorted and counted. The students then voted on where they wanted their money to be allocated.
Corporate partner for the event is the DeRoy Testamentary Foundation and sponsors of Tzedakah Experience are
Federation's Alliance for Jewish Education, Federation's Women's Campaign and Education Department, JP Morgan
Chase Bank NA, Metro Detroit Board of Jewish Educators and Temple Beth El. I 1

4*

.

Jordan Small, 11, Elayna Levin, 12, and Josh Rosco, 11, all from

Troy, help sort pennies.

Brad Sloan, 11, of Bloomfield
Hills lugs a sack of pennies
he's saved for several months.

Yad Ezra volunteer Bob Siegal of Birmingham talks to Jacob Rzeppa,
12, and Haley Gomenick, 11, of Birmingham about the program "Feeding
the Jewish Hungry." In the middle is Haley's mom, Sheryl.

February 8 2007

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