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DETROIT BABY DRIVE:
FROM GRASSROOTS TO
A GROWING NONPROFIT
A gemach can start out with donations left
in a laundry basket outside on the porch.
It can start with a hope and a prayer.
14 April 14 • 2016
– Rachel Krakauer, Feiga Pia Gown gemach
When Lainie Roth moved with her hus-
band and children from New Jersey, she
started her own friendly neighborhood
baby gemach in Southfield by collecting
surplus baby supplies — everything from
diapers, wipes and formula to strollers,
car seats, boosters, bouncers and toys —
all as giveaway items for Jewish families
in need.
As an additional service to the commu-
nity, the gemach offers baby items avail-
able on short-term loan at no cost. Often
referred to as “Bubbie Basics Bundles,”
items include cribs, high chairs and car
seats for families needing temporary
accommodation for children visiting from
out of town.
The third and most recent arm of the
organization is a fundraising drive to
support the purchase and distribution of
new infant car seats to donate to families
with specific financial needs. “Used car
seats can be difficult to donate,” Roth says.
“They expire or are recalled or are inap-
propriate for newborns.”
To start up and promote the gemach,
Roth applied and won grants from
Federation’s Jewish Women’s Foundation
and the Filmer Trust. “Because of the
community support, we have been able
John Hardwick
THE BRIDAL CANOPY:
DETROIT’S ‘NORDSTROM
OF GEMACHS’
Just when you think you’ve seen every-
thing a bridal party could want, here
comes the Bridal Canopy, a marvel of
a place Leah Tolwin maintains in her
home. A clinical social worker by profes-
sion, married to Rabbi Alon Tolwin, Leah
started her gemach out of a spiritual need
12 years ago.
“So often, we think if only we can help
others, there will be a spiritual energy that
will help us. The year my stepdaughter
wanted to get married, I decided that if
I started a gemach, somehow that could
help her, too. Magical thinking or not, it
worked. She got married within the year
and wore the very first headpiece that I
purchased for the gemach.
“It all started really when I came to
Michigan with a dress to donate and had
nowhere to give it. The bridal gemach
here had been in a flood,” she says, “so
I started going to stores, getting dona-
tions and ended up with hundreds of
dresses that looked like a rainbow in our
basement. So now we’re all about brides:
gowns, veils, headpieces, jewelry, shoes,
everything.”
With more than 250 bridal gowns and
hundreds of accessories donated from
designer salons the likes of Kleinfeld
Bridal in New York (of the TLC TV show,
Say Yes to the Dress), Tolwin’s inventory is
extraordinary. Since opening her gemach,
she has provided head-to-toe service to
more than 700 brides within and outside
of the Jewish Orthodox community.
Her gemach is supported by volunteers,
funded by donations and inspired by her
own acts of kindness, large and small.
“I’m a perfectionist. I want every bride
who walks into our home to have every-
thing she ever imagined and more. That’s
what dreams are for.”
For information on the Bridal Canopy:
By appointment, (248) 845-VEIL.
“Our community is growing,
and we have a lot of weddings
to celebrate.”
The Costume Gemach is for lady bugs, Thomas the Tank Trains and little princesses like
Rochel, age 7.
Vivian Henoch
the support of three wonderful volunteers
— Ettie Neustadt, (who previously ran a
bridal gemach in Cleveland), Shani Singal
and Estee Feurestein.
“They give to us with smiles and send
us out smiling. It’s a blessing they are
here,” says Milaine Grossbard, leaving
FPG with dresses in prep for two wed-
dings coming up in April. Donations?
“The ones who can, give back”
Krakauer says.
For information on FPG: By appoint-
ment: (248) 491-8188.
Vivian Henoch
continued from page 12
to build rapidly, from a small grassroots
effort in my basement to a well-estab-
lished and granted 501 (c)(3). Our house
isn’t beautiful. What’s beautiful in our
home is what people have contributed.”
For more information, visit
detroitbabydrive.com.
THE MORE, THE MERRIER:
A COSTUME AND PARTY
GEMACH TO CELEBRATE
People start calling Shula Kantrowitz
right after Chanukah asking if it were too
early to reserve costumes for Purim. For
the love of costumes for her seven kids
— and giving back to the community —
Kantrowitz started her Costume Gemach
12 years ago.
“The kids were close in age. I liked to
dress them up for Purim in themes — one
year it was crayons, another time the girls
were flowers and my son was a watering
can.
“On the one hand, I liked doing it;
on the other, I thought it was a waste to
spend money on these costumes, so I
decided to start a collection that I could
share with other people to enjoy. People
now come to me — either with costumes
to donate or for costumes to borrow for
parties, school plays, any occasion to dress
in costumes. The only thing I ask is that
they treat them as their own and return
them in the condition they were given.”
For information on the Costume
Gemach: call (248) 968-3171, (216) 702-
4283 or email david@katrowitz.com.
DECOR FOR PARTIES
An interior designer, specializing in win-
dow treatments, Chanie Bodenstein has
always enjoyed beautiful parties. “I grew
up in New York, where parties are mag-
nificent. And I saw when I moved here 10
years ago that there was little opportunity
unless you spent a lot of money to make a
party beautiful.”
Bodenstein’s gemach grew out of her
inventory of centerpieces and serving
dishes, as well as her wide array of decor
items. “Now when I see something that
I think will be useful or a hot item, I
purchase it at my own expense and put
it into the gemach. I don’t take money or
donated items. People come in and I’m
happy to help coordinate what they need.
The service is mine to give.”
Decorbychanie.com, 18870 W. 10 Mile
Road, suite 110, Southfield; (248) 996-
8175.
*
Vivian Henoch is editor of myjewishdetroit.org, where
this story was first published.
For more information on Detroit
gemachs, visit the Jewish Directory at
www.detroitjewishdirectory.com/
jewish-life/gemachim-jewish-life.
Detroit Baby Drive, the brain child of Lainie Roth