JULY 15 • 2021 | 27

Topsy Turvy Bus Meets Banana Car

Rabbi Goldberg Wins Health Hero Award

Hazon usually uses its Topsy
Turvy bus as a mobile class-
room. When this became
unfeasible during the pan-
demic, it was used to deliver
compost and seeds as part
of Hazon’s Relief Garden
Initiative.
During a compost deliv-
ery, a large, low branch took
off two of the tires on top
of the bus. The organiza-
tion brought it back to the
original fabricator, Steve
Braithwaite, to replace them.
“It is important that the
bus is kept in tip-top shape

because a book about the
Topsy Turvy bus is coming
out in January 2022, and the
release will be followed by a
bus tour,” said Hannah Fine
of Hazon.
Upon picking up the Topsy
Turvy bus, Hazon found that
the bus’s battery was dead.
“Steve’s only vehicle is
the banana car,” Fine said,
“and thus, on a sunny, driz-
zly Monday, on a farm in
Michigan, the Topsy Turvy
bus was jumped by a banana
car!”

Kids Kicking Cancer founder
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg,
aka Rabbi G, received the
Michigan Hometown Health
Hero Award for 2021.
“This award recognizes
individuals and organiza-
tions across the state work-
ing tirelessly to maintain
and improve the health of
their local communities,”
said award organizers. The
Hometown Health Hero

award is a major part of
the Public Health Week in
Michigan. This year marks
the 16th year the Hometown
Health Hero award has been
presented.”
It has been Rabbi G’s mis-
sion since the founding of
Kids Kicking Cancer in 1999
to improve the health of sick
children and families in the
community, and he has made
an enormous impact.

HAZON

Rabbi G
with his
award.

Meijer Gardens Announces
Holocaust Memorial Gift

Frederik Meijer Gardens
& Sculpture Park has
received a gift from the
Jewish Federation of
Grand Rapids in order
to establish the first
Holocaust memorial in
the city, anchored by Ariel
Schlesinger’s Ways to Say
Goodbye.
The Jewish Federation
of Grand Rapids received
a generous gift from the
Pestka family in memory
of their father, Henry, and
the millions of Jews who
perished in the Holocaust,
for Grand Rapids’ first
Holocaust Memorial.
Ways to Say Goodbye is a
20-foot-tall cast aluminum
tree that has sheets of glass
between its branches. The
cast is taken from a fig

tree in Italy that the artist
selected. In Jewish culture,
the fruit tree is venerated
as a source of life and new
beginnings. The sculpture
deals with the themes of
profound loss and grief
and will beautifully serve
as a memorial to Holocaust
victims in Western
Michigan.

Ways to Say
Goodbye

Adam Fox First Jewish NHL Honoree

(JNS) Adam Fox, a Jewish
hockey player with the New
York Rangers, was named on
July 6 the winner of the 2020-
21 James Norris Memorial
Trophy.
The trophy is giving annu-
ally to the National
Hockey League’s
(NHL) top defen-
seman and Fox, 23,
has become the first
Jewish player to win
a major NHL award.
The 5-foot-11
athlete and lifelong
Rangers fan joins
Bobby Orr of the Boston
Bruins as only the second
hockey player in the 67-year
history of the trophy to win
it in his second season with
the NHL, and Hall of Famers
Doug Harvey, Harry Howell
and Brian Leetch as the only
Rangers to take home the
honor, according to the New
York Post.

Fox led NHL defensemen
with 42 assists while finishing
second in points with 47.
“It’s special,” Fox, who grew
up in Jericho, Long Island,
said of receiving the award.
“I’ve been throwing that word
around a lot the last
few weeks and it’s
now accurate for
how I feel. You hear
your name with
[Orr and Leetch],
it’s always going to
be a special, special
thing.”
He added, “I just
tried to play my best game-in
and game-out and help the
team win. I think personal
success comes from that. The
next step is just team success.”
When asked by the New
York Post in 2019 about being
one of the few Jewish athletes
in the NHL, he said, “It’s defi-
nitely nice to represent a com-
munity, for sure.”

Adam Fox

JNS