International Good Deeds Day took place on April 6.
At Sid Jacobson JCC, that meant collecting food, books and medical supplies for local charities and offering recycling services to the community.
Over one hundred people collectively dropped off around 900 pounds of non-perishable food for Sid Jacobson JCC’s Nikki Schwartz Community Needs Bank. Attendees also donated 30 boxes of books for The Book Fairies, and around 3,500 pounds of clothes for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island.
“What’s always really exciting for us is we said our program was scheduled from 10 [a.m.] to 12 [p.m.], but people were literally waiting for the program to begin. They get very excited about coming out to volunteer,” said Susan Berman, associate executive director of community engagement at Sid Jacobson JCC.
“Even after the scheduled time was over, people were still pulling up in their cars to still continue to donate,” Berman said.
Along with food, books, and clothing, Sid Jacobson JCC collected more than 200 medical supplies for the donation center, The Long Island Trading Post. The center also provided recycling services for community members, shredded more than 1,700 pounds of documents, and recycled over 1,300 pounds of electronic waste.
“[There were] so many opportunities to touch so many people in different ways,” said Danny Capps, program coordinator at Sid Jacobson JCC. “Whether it’s supporting their needs through feeding them, supporting their needs through giving them the medical equipment they may need after surgery, or whatever that may look like all around, I think it was a great day, and the volunteers had a wonderful time.”
Volunteers included Sid Jacobson JCC members, the association Cornell Cares and the Shevet Gefen Israeli Scouts, who donated food to the Nikki Schwartz Memorial Food Pantry in honor of Omer Neutra, Sid Jacobson JCC said.
Volunteers worked as a well-oiled machine throughout the donation process, from accepting items to bringing them into the center to weigh and sort them.
“The community needs bank, I’d like to say, is 99% run on volunteers, from taking the orders to packing them to delivering them,” said Nathalia Melo, Community Needs Bank coordinator. “We really wouldn’t be able to do the work that we do without our volunteers.”
Berman said the event epitomized the three pillars of their Center for Community Engagement: the Nikki Schwartz Community Needs Bank pillar, the Linda & Gerald Marsden Social Responsibility Pillar, and the volunteerism pillar.
The event kicked off Earth and Volunteer Month at Sid Jacobson JCC, and the Center for Community Engagement will host other events to celebrate the month, like a screening of the movie “Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story” on Sunday, April 27, at 3 p.m.
Organizers and volunteers also took the center’s mission of “tikkun olam,” or “repairing the world,” to heart.
“We all have a duty to try to make whatever positive difference we can, whether it’s in our small corner of the world, whether it’s in our home, whether it’s with one person, whatever that may be, that step forward,” Capps said. “I think if everyone continues to take those steps forward over time, the world will repair.”
The event was a special extension of the center’s monthly Curb Your Mitzvah food donation day. The next Curb Your Mitzvah is on Sunday, May 4, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Sid Jacobson JCC.
