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RUG CLEANING

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IN-HOME CLEANING

Whether you have 2, 4, 6 or

Annabel Singer and Sierra Stone

even 20 rugs, bring them to us

& we'll clean every other one

FREE!

NCJW teen group uses community
service to build relationships.

Marielle Temkin

JN Intern

I

nstead of seeing the absence of a
group for Jewish teenage girls as a
glass half-empty, Annabel Singer
and Sierra Stone, 15 and 16, saw it as
the perfect opportunity to create their
own group and do exactly what they
wanted with it.
The girls, both of West Bloomfield,
started GROW— Girls Reaching
OutWard, a division of the National
Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) —
about a year ago.
"We first had the idea around two
years ago," Singer said, "and we met
with the NCJW to discuss our idea
sometime after that."
Stone explained, "We don't really
know how others have started groups
like these, so it's been a learning experi-
ence for sure. It's taken more time than
we thought it would to get it off the
ground, but what we've done so far has
worked, and we're excited to expand
even more."
GROW is designed to bring Jewish
girls from bat mitzvah age through 12th
grade together and participate in com-
munity service projects.
"We wanted to take community ser-
vice to the next level:' Singer said. "For
example, the NCJW always does a back-
pack stuffing event, but after we do the
backpacks, we never had any more con-
tact with the kids we donated them to.
"We're still doing the backpack event,
but we're actually bringing the packs
to the kids at their school in Oakland
County so we can create a relationship
with the kids and the school and hope-
fully do more projects with them over
the years."
Stone said, "Something that's so won-
derful about volunteering is that you're
helping others, but you also feel so good
when you see how grateful the people
are for your help.
"We made blankets for displaced
kids in May through NCJW's Wrapped
in Love project, and we were reading
thank-you notes from the kids, and
they were so appreciative for something
so simple. It really makes you realize

how lucky we are to lead the lives we do
and that not everyone is as lucky."
The girls' goal for GROW is to help
create relationships between teenage
girls through working on common
projects, which they know is possible
because it's how they met each other.
"We've been close friends for years —
we basically do everything together —
and we met through volunteering at the
Friendship Circle," Singer said.
A major source of funding for GROW
was a fundraiser from the clothing store
Eileen Fisher. During a weekend in
March, it gave its Troy location custom-
ers the option to donate 10 percent of
their purchase to GROW. The girls were
stunned to learn that the store gave
them more than $11,000.
"It was absolutely unbelievable,"
Singer said. "We were in shock by how
much they gave us."
They used some of the money to pur-
chase supplies for their backpack event;
Bank of America employees also pro-
vided a portion of the school supplies.
The girls will use the rest of the money
for upcoming events.
In addition to packing 300 backpacks
on Aug. 31, GROW will be hosting a
community clothing drive to benefit
NCJW's resale shop in Royal Oak. "After
we get all the clothes, we're going to
organize a teen section in the store,"
explained Stone.
Susan Gertner, executive director of
NCJW's Detroit section, said, "I thought
GROW was a great way to introduce
young women into NCJW and learn to
be advocates, to empower themselves
and to provide community service proj-
ects. We are very excited to see the next
generation of NCJW leaders."
Singer said, "We don't want anyone
to be nervous to bring up their ideas
because we love new ideas and new
people, and definitely don't be nervous
to come to an event if you haven't come
to one before."
Stone added, "GROW is so new that
it can be anything we want it to be." P

For information, visit www.ncjwgds.org/

member. To contact Annabel and Sierra,

email GROWdetroit@gmail.com .

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September 6 • 2012

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