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Health & Fitness

At Beth Abraham, Volunteer Emma Baer Heads Project to Prepare Fun Kits for Hospitalized Children

Temple Beth Abraham in Tarrytown has a Tikkun Olam program which encourages projects to be undertaken by its members that are beneficial to the community. Some of these projects involve nonsectarian or interfaith activities. In the same sprit, children preparing for a bar mitzvah (boys) or a bat mitzvah (girls) are asked to perform a community service of their own choosing.

For her project, Emma Baer, 13, chose the assembling of craft activity kits for overnight patients of the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. She got the idea after hearing about a knitted-gift program that was conducted by the synagogue to benefit seniors at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale.

Emma named her project "Kidz Krafts for a Kauze" and began looking into items appropriate for inclusion in such an endeavor. After some research, she decided on a mix of construction materials, simple tools, and coloring and puzzle books—items she felt could hold an ill or injured child's attention.

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“I have always loved art and art-related activities,” Emma said. “This was a way for me to do something I loved and to help other kids.”

Emma recruited other youngsters, ages 5 to 13, to assemble the kits and scheduled working sessions—four of these classes have been held thus far, attended on the average by about ten volunteers. More sessions are planned for the fall. To date 35 kits have been completed; the goal is to assemble and deliver 100 kits.

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Emma’s parents, Herb and Melissa Baer, are paying for the activity-kit supplies. To reward the volunteers for their efforts, they also purchase items and materials the volunteers can use to create arts and crafts they can keep.

Items chosen by Emma for the activity kits include:

  • Puzzle books
  • Model Magic (a molding compound that can be easily shaped into forms)
  • Foam picture frames with foam stickers
  • Sketch and coloring pads 
  • Start-up lanyard (cord threading) kits
  • Crayola crayons
  • Cards with messages

Emma will enter eight grade at Irvington Middle School in the fall.

Anyone interested in helping Emma assemble kits or who would like to contribute items or donate money to purchase activity-kit components can contact Stuart Skolnick, Director of Temple Operations for Temple Beth Abraham, at sskolnick@tba-ny.org.

Temple Beth Abraham, 25 Leroy Street, Tarrytown, 924-631-1770. www.tba-ny.org

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