Yes, Virginia, that other December holiday — Christmas — is coming, and that means it’s time for the Baltimore Jewish community’s annual community service blow-out gathering.
Now in its 11th year, Mitzvah Day brings together more than 1,000 local volunteers to engage in more than 25 community service projects around the Baltimore metropolitan area.
Volunteers serve in soup kitchens, work with seniors, bundle up care packages for multiple agencies and engage in a host of other activities beginning on the evening of Dec. 24th – which this year also happens to be the start of Chanukah — and running through the following day.
“Our mission is to foster a culture of service and to engage volunteers to meet vital community needs. This has always been a popular event to showcase what we do,” said Erica Bloom, assistant director of Jewish Volunteer Connection, which is overseeing and coordinating Mitzvah Day.
The hands-on volunteer branch of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, JVC matches volunteers with community needs and programs throughout the year. Mitzvah Day is the largest of JVC’s annual four days of community service.
In addition to dispatching volunteers to locations around the metropolitan area, JVC also establishes “mega sites” at the Park Heights and Owings Mills Jewish Community Centers for the duration of the event.
At the JCCs, families and individuals help to assemble approximately 2,000 winter care packages for vulnerable individuals around the area.
“They include things like toiletries, snacks, hand-knit hats and scarves that we collect throughout the year from our knitting volunteers,” Bloom said. “And that includes for children.”
Both community centers will run “mitzvah rooms” where volunteers can work on multiple projects. “People can go from table to table to learn about different organizations, and they can do a project that makes an impact like making no-sew fleece blankets or packaging donated pajamas for children in hospital settings,” Bloom said.
Events at the JCCs have been especially appealing to families with younger children. “We know it is harder to find volunteer opportunities that allow for participation by young people,” Bloom said. One example is that families with kids can participate in the Play Date Together project, in which youngsters engage in multi-generational programming with residents at the Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital.
There will also be Mitzvah Day opportunities geared toward young adults through a partnership with the national Repair the World organization. For example, on Christmas Day, there will be an intergenerational holiday party with seniors and young adults at Weinberg Manor South.
Mitzvah Day opportunities include:
- The Baltimore Station: Volunteers of all ages provide services at this residential facility for men in recovery.
- Sarah’s Hope at Hannah More: Volunteers will provide, prepare and serve Christmas Eve dinners to residents of Sarah’s Hope at Hannah More, a Reisterstown emergency shelter for homeless women and their children.
- Chrismahanukwanzakah Cocktails with a Conscience: At Moishe House in downtown Baltimore, volunteers pack boxes to assist people experiencing homelessness, as part of Operation Shoebox. This event will include socializing opportunities.
- Weinberg Park Assisted Living: Volunteers will help serve and clean up meals, and socialize with the residents of Weinberg Park Assisted Living.
- Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital: – Bingo! Families join residents for an exciting program of Bingo fun.
- My Sister’s Place: Volunteers are needed to provide, prepare and serve meals for the clients of My Sister’s Place, which offers such services as case management, education and job training to women in Baltimore City.
For members of Baltimore’s Jewish community, Mitzvah Day provides an alternative avenue for expressing the philanthropic impulse.
“Many of us are already giving back in one way or another, and this is something a little bit different, a great opportunity for this diverse Jewish community to come together,” Bloom said. “The majority of people have off work [that day] so there is an opportunity there, and it’s also a way to help these agencies by providing some needed staffing on a day when they are typically short staffed.”
For information about Mitzvah Day, call 410-843-7490 or visit jvcbaltimore.org/mitzvahday
Adam Stone is an Annapolis-based freelance writer.
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