Febraury 1, 2011

The social action committee would like to thank everyone who brought in donations for baby Karissa! The Dunne Family, owners of Double R private school, are helping take care of Karissa and her family. Baby Karissa is five months old and her mother died from a hemorrhage during childbirth. You may read about Karissa's story here. Donations are still in need. Karissa is currently in size 3 diapers. We have already donated one high chair and the family could use one more as they are keeping Karissa at Double R during the day and at home during the night. Also, gift cards to Target or Publix or cash donations would help the family tremendously. Donations can be iven to Jennifer Hall or any social action committee member at Friday night services or religious school.

It's time again to get our boxes out to the troops in time for Pesach! Here are pictures from the latest counting/packing/carrying efforts!

Throughout the month of November, adults and kids collected and packed items to send to Jewish soldiers overseas. Spearheaded by our director of education, Robyn Schulman, over 50 boxes were shipped and arrived in time for Chanukah. Here are some of the responses:

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My name is Major Ari Schein, and I am currently serving overseas with the Army in Korea. Before this tour, I and my family lived in Maitland. Imagine our surprise to see Shir Shalom's Chanukah mitzvah during our on-post party last Sunday. It made the holiday for us. Incidentally, we are en route to another overseas tour, and when the movers came we somehow ended up packing our menorah. Your gift enabled us to overcome that glitch in our holiday planning, while providing warm memories of our time in Maitland. Thank you for your support, and Chag Sameach.

Ari, Eve, Alexa, and Steven Schein

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Thanks very much for the package you sent. It was really nice of you to think of us, and to go through the trouble.
Our group meets for Shabbos services and dinner at the camp chapel on Friday nights. I'll share your kind words with them.
I picked out the kosher treats from your package to share as well--and left the rest for the other guys in my battalion, so it'll all go to good use.
Your support means a lot to us--again, thank you very much.

Take care,
Chaplain (CPT) Andrew Shulman
4th Battalion, Combat Aviation Brigade
3rd Infantry Division
Camp Striker (BIAP) - IRAQ

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Please pass my thanks to the boys and girls who contributed to the mitzvah project. Thank you so much to Anna and Sarah and everyone who made a card or a star or a sefer Torah or a mogen david and for sending such wonderful care packages to us Airmen in Korea. We used your gifts to have a huge Hanukah celebration here. Can you watch this video and guess what night we had our celebration? You can see me once in the video cooking latkes and sufganiot. Do you like my kippah? It matches my uniform. Happy Hanukah to you and all the Temple Shir Shalom families!

B'Shalom,
Captain Jonathan Newman
Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea

Temple Shir Shalom walked for Brandon Baronoff and all those stricken with autism. Overall, Team Brandon raised over $2,000. Temple Shir Shalom is committed to helping our children have a brighter future by supporting medical research as well as programs that help families with children who have autism.