We were excited to spread our community outreach efforts even further this week.  Our Chesed Corps is a group of resident volunteers who do ongoing community service projects.  They do large monthly projects, such as making and taking lunch to the Ronald McDonald House (which they have done five times); dinner with folks at Halom House; craft projects at Talbert House; making and packaging cookies for the troops through Operation Thank You Troops-the list goes on and on.  We are always excited about new projects so if you have an idea, a cause or an organization that you think would enjoy some wonderful volunteer help, please let us know.
 
Chesed Corps also does an ongoing weekly project, preparing Shabbat baskets for patients at area hospitals.  Each basket contains a freshly baked challah, fruit, candy, juice and a note from Cedar Village.  We deliver these baskets to the hospitals and their staff delivers them to any Jewish patient or, if there are not Jewish patients, they may be used for Jewish staff or any patient who might enjoy a little "pick me up."  It has been a very successful program for several years.  Recently, we decided to expand the program further to include our friends at West Chester Hospital and today was the first day of our Shabbat basket delivery there.  They were thrilled to be included and we were thrilled to include them-a wonderful win/win for everyone!
 
We had some other great, special programs this week.  On Thursday we had a wonderful treat, Rabbi Shena Potter Jaffee paid us a visit and presented a fascinating program entitled "Civil Rights and the Jewish People."  We had a great crowd and lots of wonderful dialogue.  On Wednesday, Jerry Teller, a past chair of Cedar Village's board and an active volunteer, brought in a guest speaker for one of our "coffee and news" sessions.  Jerry has been facilitating one of these sessions weekly for some time and one topic they've had a lot of conversation about is immigration.  You may remember that some of the residents, along with Jerry, were able to watch a naturalization ceremony several weeks ago.  The speaker this week was Ausama Algassab, who is from Bagdad and had a remarkable story to tell.
 
We've got a lot of upcoming events we are excited about-on Monday, January 21 we will have a special inauguration day luncheon and both watch, and talk about, the inauguration.  And on Tuesday and Wednesday, our good friend Marc Rossio will be here as our very first Artist in Residence, made possible by the David and Nancy Wolf Creative Expression program.  It will be a remarkable couple of days as we all participate in learning a song Marc has written for us, sharing it with students from Rockwern Academy, performing it all together and even making a video!
 
Our new outpatient Rehab Center at the Mayerson JCC is really moving along and we are all very excited about it.  Grand opening will be early in February so watch for details-we're excited to show you the new space and tell you about the project and the services that will be available.

All the best,  

 carol@cedarvillage.org
www.cedarvillage.org