Nothing is more fun than Mitzvah Day at Cedar Village!  We had a fabulous day this year, as we always do.  From the pancake breakfast that was cooked and served by our friends at Rockdale Temple to an amazing concert by Dialogue, a group from Columbus, to a "winter picnic" dinner, the Friends of Cedar Village Mitzvah Day was a huge success.  Nearly 150 community volunteers joined us and they helped with many things-transporting residents, popping and filling endless bags of popcorn, wrapping and delivering gifts to our patients and residents who were celebrating Christmas (Chanukah gifts were delivering during Chanukah) and helping in the kitchen making thousands (seriously!) of matzo balls and even prepping the burgers for dinner.  It is a day that our residents look forward to all year long, with the energy in the building (always high!) at an even higher level.  If you missed it this year, plan on it for 2013-we promise that it is a day you will enjoy and remember!

One of the very special things that we did during Mitzvah Day was a snowflake project for the children from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  We all know that those children will not return to that school, that they will be relocated to an unused school in a neighboring community. The Connecticut PTA began a project to cover that new school in paper snowflakes to greet the children when they come back to school in January.  Our friend and talented artist, Beth Goldstein, helped set up three locations at Cedar Village for snowflake creation.  We had one outside the Cohen Center, another in the Cedar Center on the 2nd floor and a third in the Rehab Center.  Lots of snowflakes were lovingly produced and many had beautiful and moving messages on them.  Step two for the project is our Chesed Corps coordinating a Cedar Village-wide program in early January.  We'll complete that all and package our snowflakes to arrive by January 10.  This has been a wonderful project for us, it's given folks a chance to express their feelings about this tragedy and to show their caring and support for these children, even in this small way.

One special event from last week didn't make it into our e-newsletter and I did not want it to be missed.  On Friday, a group of our residents had a very unique experience.  They attended a Naturalization ceremony at the United States District Court.  This event began with one of our regular programs, Coffee and News.  On Wednesday mornings, Jerry Teller, a former Cedar Village board chair and dedicated volunteer, comes in and facilitates the program.  Some weeks ago the discussion centered on immigration and Jerry had discussed the process of naturalization and citizenship with the group.  None of them had ever witnessed a ceremony so Jerry made arrangements for them to view a ceremony and even took them to lunch beforehand!  They had a fascinating experience and were thrilled when the presiding Judge acknowledged the Cedar Village visitors. Thanks to Jerry for making that happen and thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers who, like Jerry, help to enrich the lives of our residents every day.

New Year's eve celebrations will happen at Cedar Village on Sunday, during the day for our Health Care residents and in the evening for the Oak View and Fountain View folks.  It will be a great day and a wonderful opportunity for us to ring in 2013 together.  We hope that this will be a year of health, joy and peace for our Cedar Village family and for all of you.

All the best,  

 carol@cedarvillage.org
www.cedarvillage.org