Social Action Committee

On December 22, the Chanukah gift bags, to which you so generously contributed, were delivered to Coney Island Active Aging, an affiliate of JASA. Ms. Donna McEwen, Social Worker, expressed the members’ and her appreciation for the gifts. We would like to thank Myron Klein and Mona Goldberg for their welcome assistance in delivering the gifts, and sincerely thank all of you for the success of our third annual Chanukah gift bag drive.

We are now collecting items for patients of the Veterans Administration Medical Center.  We hope to deliver these within the next few months, with the deadline to be announced shortly.  The VA has provided us with a wish list.  For reasons of infection control, all the following items, other than books and magazines, must be new:

·         large-print crossword or other puzzle books

·         board games

·         small (30-60 piece) jigsaw puzzles

·         T-shirts and sweatshirts, especially in size “large” or greater

·         socks

·         toiletries such as shampoo, disposable razors, shaving cream or lotion

·         boxed (store-bought) cookies

·         wide-toothed combs (for the women’s unit)

·         art supplies (for the art program at the Manhattan VA hospital)

·         magazines (no more than two months old)

These items will be used by patients (the majority of whom are male) in hospital, rehabilitation, and palliative care units of the VA Medical Center (primarily the Brooklyn branch), as well as by those who are homeless.  A list, which may be updated if needs change, will be provided on the table of the social hall. As always, we thank you for your generosity in contributing to this effort.

Our other collections continue:  clothing for distribution by St. John’s Food and Family Service; telephones and toiletries for victims of domestic violence; and blankets and towels for animal shelters. Greeting- and note-cards for use by incarcerated women and their families, to assist their maintaining contact with the community, are needed continually; Father Charles Keeney, Campus Chaplain at Long Island University, to whom the cards are initially delivered, expresses his gratitude for all the cards being contributed.

We welcome your suggestions for future projects, and welcome you to join us at a future Social Action meeting or to participate in upcoming projects.

Once again, our sincere thanks, and best wishes for a healthy and happy 2012.

     Joyce Kantrowitz, Yvette Pomeranz, Ilene Shapiro, and Janet Haynes