The Jewish Federation’s Super Extraordinary Sunday phonathon and mitzvah day was held Jan. 25 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. More than 150 volunteers made calls to community members, who pledged more than $229,000 to the 2015 Community Campaign, which supports humanitarian, educational and social programs in Southern Arizona, Israel and around the world. Some 60 children from tots to teens plus about 10 adult volunteers turned out to take part in mitzvah day activities. Thirty-one people also donated blood as part of a Red Cross blood drive.
Audrey Brooks (standing), co-chair of the JFSA 2015 Community Campaign with her sister, Donna Moser, chats with phonathon volunteers Fay Roos, Beverly Sandock and Rosie Eilat Kahn. (John Wu)Children took part in a PJ Library story walk in the sculpture garden of the JCC. At each set of pages from “Matzo Frogs” by Sally Rosenthal, illustrated by David Sheldon, they performed an activity relating to the story, such as hopping like frogs and pretending to catch flies with their tongues. PJ Library kids also decorated picture frames and created soup kits for seniors in the community. (John Wu)Kids from PJ Library, Many Mitzvah Makers and B’nai Tzedek, accompanied by Julie Zorn, Jewish culture specialist at the JCC, pose after serenading Super Extraordinary Sunday volunteers with a song about the day, written by JFSA Campaign Co-Chair Audrey Brooks to the tune of “To Life (L’Chaim)!” (John Wu)A view of the bustling mitzvah day activities from the balcony of the JCC. (John Wu)With a focus on how the concept of mitzvah goreret mitzvah (one good deed brings another good deed) emphasizes the importance of helping one another across all ages, teens from B’nai Tzedek Teen Philanthropy collaborated with Many Mitzvah Makers (aka 3M, a club for grades 4-7), in a game of Tzedakah-Opoly. (John Wu)
