By Morgan Goad, Associate Director of Development
Jewish Family Services
The Lights of Love shone brighter than ever this year! Thank you so much to everyone who shopped for a neighbor and shared a little extra light and love this winter.
Because of your generous support, JFS delivered personal gifts to 171 homebound elders and adults with disabilities, low-income families, children in institutional foster care placements, and new neighbors from Ukraine and Russia.
We have many special thanks to share!
To the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond’s Sisterhood and Women’s Philanthropy and all our JFS volunteers, for helping wrap so many presents; to Rudlin Torah Academy for sharing the gifts from their third annual toy drive honoring Skyler Legano, OBM; and, of course, to the Weinstein JCC for hosting our giant menorah again this year!
JFS was also thrilled to partner again this year with Richmond Area Bicycling Association (RABA) to give bikes (and helmets!) to kids living in Fairfield Court, one of the East End public housing communities we serve.
This year, thanks to a gift from the Rotary Club Of Innsbrook, we were able to get 23 bikes, twice as many as last year, and 66 helmets – enough for the kids who’ve grown out of last year’s! JFS is profoundly grateful to My Guys Moving & Storage Richmond for helping haul the bikes and to Boys and Girls Club Of Metro Richmond for giving us a place to store them until the holidays!
JFS has already received calls and notes from several neighbors who received gifts from Lights of Love. One elderly gentleman, with emotion in his voice, left a message saying, “Thank you very much to all the volunteers for the gifts that I received. Thank you for doing that for me, and I hope you had a nice holidays and New Years. Take care.”
Jewish Family Services is supported, in part, by a generous annual contribution and programming grants from the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond.