SPOTLIGHT

T

he Greater West 
Bloomfield Historical 
Society (GWBHS) 
received a $9,100 grant 
from the Community 
Foundation of Southeast 
Michigan (CFSEM), made 
possible with a financial 
endorsement by the City of 
Orchard Lake Village and 
support letters from Greater 
West Bloomfield community 
partners.
GWBHS will further fulfill 
its mission of “enriching our 
communities by collecting, 
preserving and sharing 
history” through this project. 
This project is the third 

phase of “Our School 
History” Project, an 
ongoing GWBHS project to 
document the history of area 
schools. In the first project 
phase, volunteers gathered 
information from the West 
Bloomfield School District 
and archives at Orchard 
Lake Museum. Ten reports 
chronicle early school history 
and are available for free at 
www.gwbhs.org/our-school-
history. 
In phase two, volunteers 
implemented a community 
outreach campaign to seek 
additional information from 
members of the community. 

In 2016, this resulted 
in informational panels, 
detailing the individual 
histories of each school, 
being installed at their 
respective school buildings.
Now with this CFSEM 
grant, GWBHS will digitally 
catalog more than 1,000 
documents and photographs 
used as research for the 
panels into the GWBHS 

archive collections database.
Those interested in 
volunteering for this project 
should contact Shelby Nelsen 
at snelsen@gwbhs.org. 
These digitally cataloged 
items will be available for 
viewing via the GWBHS 
archive digital database, 
which is accessible for 
free at http://gwbhs.
pastperfectonline.com. 

West Bloomfield 
Historical Society 
Receives Grant

City of Orchard Lake Village Clerk Rhonda McClellan, GWBHS Grant 
Writer Christian Sonneville, GWBHS President Gina Gregory and 
Director of City Services Gerald McCullen receive the grant check.

62 | FEBRUARY 9 • 2023 

T

he National Council 
of Jewish Women 
(NCJW) announced 
that its Jewish Fund for 
Abortion Access surpassed 
$1 million in donated funds, 
which directly help thousands 
of patients navigate an increas-
ingly complex abortion care 
landscape after the Supreme 
Court’s decision to overturn 
Roe v. Wade. 
These funds help patients 
who need immediate resources 
to cross state lines, stay at 
hotels and pay for abortion 
care in partnership with the 
National Abortion Federation 

(NAF). The Fund, which 
NCJW planned in anticipation 
of the Court’s decision, is the 
first time that the 130-year-
old organization has ever 
fundraised in support of a 
coordinated, movement-wide 
effort domestically. 
 The $1 million the Fund has 
raised came primarily from 
thousands of small-dollar 
donations from individuals 
moved to help after the 
Supreme Court’s ruling this 
summer.
“This is a moral emergency. 
People in this country can’t 
access basic healthcare, 

including abortion, and we 
won’t stand idly by as more and 
more stumbling blocks are laid 
in front of patients,” said Sheila 
Katz, CEO of National Council 
of Jewish Women. 
“We launched the Jewish 
Fund for Abortion Access to 
connect those most impacted 
by abortion bans with the 
emergency resources they 
need to receive reproductive 
healthcare. Jews believe in 
kavod habriot, the dignity of 
every human being, and full 
access to abortion is essential 
to uphold that dignity for all 
women and people who can 

become pregnant.” 
NCJW launched the Jewish 
Fund for Abortion Access 
in May 2022 after the leaked 
Dobbs decision alerted the 
public of the imminent fall 
of Roe. Instead of reinventing 
the wheel, NCJW wanted 
to direct funding to an 
established organization that 
could quickly get funds to 
patients that needed them the 
most. NAF runs the National 
Abortion Hotline, which helps 
patients from the beginning 
to the end of the abortion 
care process, ensures people 
seeking abortions get the 
care they deserve through 
its infrastructure to provide 
funding, guidance and travel 
support for abortion care 
to patients anywhere in the 
country, including running the 
largest abortion hotline in the 
country. 

NCJW Raises Unprecedented 
$1 Million to Help Patients 
Access Abortion Care

