 DECEMBER 31 • 2020 | 19

neighborhoods, some very grim, 
because Pasteur students live 
all over Detroit. (The school is 
considered a good one and par-
ents can choose a school outside 
their area.) Because of COVID, 
they met to sort out gift items, 
and then each drove alone to 
deliver them, calling the families 
the day before to alert them.
“People were so appreciative. 
These are the kids we’ve gotten 
to know over the years,
” says 
Wagenheim. 
Some families had particularly 
tragic circumstances. One moth-
er was living with seven children 
in a relative’s house. There were 
eight homeless families — some 
living in shelters. A few months 
ago, a Pasteur student died of 
complications of asthma. A 
balloon release was held in her 
memory outside the school. 
Wagenheim attended, giving the 
mother $500 from the Pasteur 
Friends for funeral expenses.
“People have been extremely 
generous,
” says Feldman. They 
received donations from people 
who had just learned about 

the Pasteur Friends as well as 
longtime supporters, some 
multi-generational. Some of 
this year’s Christmas gifts were 
donated by Howard Goldman, 
owner of H and H Wholesale, 
a local distributor to drug 
stores. Elizabeth Jacobs and 
Howard Davis chair the Friends’ 
Christmas Committee.
Rebecca Blumenstein, who 
attended kindergarten at 
Pasteur, is a supporter of Pasteur 
Friends and helped secure a 
donation from a New York 
charitable fund. She is deputy 
managing editor of the New 
York Times. 
The Pasteur Friends expect 
to spend $28,000 for Christmas 
gifts for Pasteur’s 260 families. 
Each family will receive a $75 
gift card as well as toys and 
household items. A smaller 
group of especially needy fam-
ilies will receive additional help 
including food boxes from 
Project Healthy Community. 
This nonprofit provides healthy 
food and health-related educa-
tional programs in partnership 

with Hartford Memorial Baptist 
Church in Detroit. The orga-
nization was started by Rabbi 
Joshua Bennett and Dr. Melvyn 
Rubenfire and his late wife, 
Diane. 
After Christmas, the Friends 
want to bolster student par-
ticipation in online pandemic 
learning. “Kids can’t stay online 
all day. They are dropping 
through the cracks. There is 
no joy in being by yourself all 
day in front of the computer,
” 
Wagenheim says. 
School staff members have 
asked them to develop an incen-
tive program, perhaps offering 
gift certificates for meals or 
other presents to encourage stu-
dents to “come and stay online 
every day. I’m not aware of any 
other schools doing this,
” she 
adds. 
“We care about our families 
and we’re doing our best … It’s a 
blessing what Pasteur is doing,
” 
says Comeaux. 

For more information, visit 

friendsofpasteur.org.

Today there are 1,500 alumni on 
the Friends of Pasteur mailing list 
and 175 supporters from all over 
the U.S., Canada and Israel. Most 
are Pasteur alumni, relatives or 
friends of alumni, and many are 
Jewish. Pasteur’s catchment area 
encompasses the Green Acres and 
Sherwood Forest neighborhoods 
east of Livernois, as well as the 
area around the school, located on 
Stoepel, a block west of Livernois. 
The group evolved after a Mumford 
High School reunion led to a social 
get together of Jewish and African 
American women alumni who want-
ed to “catch up” after many years.
Prior to the pandemic, Feldman 
says that about 40 volunteers 
served at Pasteur — some as 
regular tutors or assistants in the 
afterschool art club funded by the 
Friends, and others who speak at 
Career and Earth Day events. Many 
are alumni but others are residents 
of the Pasteur neighborhood. Some 
are tutoring virtually. 
An annual special activity takes 
sixth-grade students to see live 
performances of Anne Frank, pro-
duced by the Jewish Ensemble 
Theater. Students also receive 
books, as well as tablets and schol-
arships for selected students grad-
uating from sixth grade. 
Sharon Lawson, now retired, 
who was Pasteur’s principal for 
15 years, says that the volunteers 
“opened up the school. It was such 
a joy having them around.” She 
said that it was valuable for the stu-
dents to have the new experiences 
that they provided. Lawson serves 
on the board of Pasteur Friends. 
Wagenheim points out that the 
organization is volunteer-run and 
operated. Their only administrative 
costs are to maintain their website 
and PayPal account. “All of the 
money donated goes to benefit the 
children,” she says. 

LEFT: Board members 

Deborah Terrell and 

Elizabeth Jacobs get 

ready for gift distribu-

tion. RIGHT: Volunteers 

Marcy Feldman, Lean 

Crumm and Celia 

Savonen help with gifts. 

BOTTOM: Five of the 

volunteers from Friends 

of Pasteur helping 

organize Christmas 

gifts: Marcy Feldman, 

Howard Davis, Deborah 

Terrell, Celia Savonen 

and Wendy Wagenheim.

