JUNE 27 • 2024 | 15

been staggering. AFMDA typ-
ically secures between 75-100 
ambulance sponsorships a year. 
In 2023, they secured 406. 
Being prepared for whatever 
may come, even if MDA doesn’t 
necessarily know what it is, will 
be wholly important for the 
future — whether that’s through 
increased volunteers, blood ser-
vices and/or a fleet of vehicles 
that will enable them to respond 
quickly.

THE MAGEN PROJECT
The events of Oct. 7 created a 
new challenge in emergency 
care not experienced previously 
in Israel on a wide-scale basis. 
While MGA responded quickly, 
the ferocity of the fighting and 

difficulty in breaking through 
war zones to reach patients 
clearly identified an urgent need 
to be addressed. The Magen 
Project has been developed to 
meet that need. 
The Magen Project is struc-
tured to provide locally based 
medical equipment, supplies 
and trained volunteers neces-
sary to meet the emergency 
medical needs of communities 
when immediate response from 
outside the community is not 
available. 
As learned from IDF and 
MDA reports, many of the 
victims of Oct. 7 died from 
bleeding out after sustaining 
what would have been other-
wise recoverable injuries. Thus, 

the ability to treat patients in 
multi-casualty events within the 
community itself could result 
in the saving of lives otherwise 
destined to be lost. 
“Whether caused by war, 
whether caused by earthquakes, 
if there are communities that 
are shut off, we will know that 
those communities have a way 
to respond — at least in the ini-
tial stage until we can get ambu-
lances there for evacuations 
or whatever else is required,
” 
Myers explains.
The program is currently in 
the initial stage, and 60 munici-
palities throughout the country 
are participating in the project. 
The target in phase one is to 
establish 1,000 Magen Project 

teams across the country. 
Several families who attended 
the event agreed to contrib-
ute to making a “Community 
Emergency Response Team” 
from the Metro Detroit Jewish 
community possible. 
Max and Caryn Emmer are 
leading the way among our 
community’s “NEXTGen” 
members to send $120 first- 
aid kits to Israel as part of 
the Magen Project. They’ve 
launched the website afmda.
securesweet.com/metrodetroit, 
and the first 20 first-aid kits will 
also be matched. 

To learn more about this program or 

to contribute to its success, reach out 

to Stacy Carroll at scarroll@afmda.org 

or (248) 522-0420. 

Yaakov Katz, Israeli-American 
author, journalist and former 
editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem 
Post, spoke at the event.

Nearly 50 attendees came 
to show their support for 
Magen David Adom.

 

PUZZLE ANSWERS

Solution to puzzle in 6/20/24 issue.

1. Schelp

2. Chutzpah

3. Heimish 

4. Essen