Another New Year!

It is another New Year and that brings with it lots of “new” things. We all hope that we have a new response to Covid-19 and that things will get a little easier. For many, this year will mean new jobs. After a year of being at home more, there seems to be lots of new babies. We will have new blessings and new challenges. With a little luck, a new outlook. We are grateful for those who have helped.

Under the heading of new challenges, The Jewish Pavilion, like most non-profits, struggles with fulfilling our mission to enrich the lives of residents in elder-care communities. We have been going into facilities for years to bring love, tradition, holidays, education, music and so much more to residents. This year, we have not been able to do much of that. We have worked hard to come up with alternative ways to reach out. We have delivered thousands of cards from all over the country to residents. We have organized goodie bags for holidays (more about that later). We have had staff and volunteers making phone calls and leaving messages. We have been working with facility administrators to enhance residents' Jewish experiences. Lots of challenges finding ways to meet their needs.

In the way of blessings, we have been able to meet the hurdles head on because of the generosity of people like Andy Pargh and the Pargh Family Foundation, Jeanette Gould and the Gould Family, The Harper Family Foundation, Sharon Littman, Marcie Gaeser, the Friends of the Jewish Pavilion Board, Providence Senior Living, our Jewish Pavilion Board of Directors and our staff. Without help from all of these people, excelling would not have been possible.

We have had new fundraising challenges as well. We were lucky enough to be able to have our annual fashion show last year, this year we are not as lucky. Our Citrus Club event, our golf tournament, our gala and our volunteer appreciation luncheon were all cancelled. Basically all of our community fundraising activity did not happen, and we are not sure if and when these events will ever happen again. This also let to a lot of new challenges. Work harder to fulfill our mission with less money and help. Remove all of the FUN that being involved with the Jewish Pavilion provides to so many. Everyone knows we have the best events. All of those missing moments.

But, again, there are blessings. Many of our sponsors have been amazing. Although we have lost a disconcerting amount of sponsors in the last year, have also partnered with a new group of pearls including; Providence Senior Living, Gentry Park, Florida Funding and WritersBlock Bookstore. We have also transferred some of our fundraising to online events and been able to make up for the deficiencies cancelling our events caused. We had a successful golf certificate promotion and a very successful online auction, and the amount of donations from our appeals this year has been overwhelming.

The biggest challenge has been the lack of personal contact. All of us have worked hard to make up for the hugs we were so accustomed to. We have lots of people to thank for that as well. We want to thank our board for making the meetings so successful on Zoom. We would like to thank the Friends of the Jewish Pavilion board for not only having Zoom meetings, but having several productive “parking lot” meetings as well. We would like to thank the communities for working so closely with us. We would like to thank our Program Directors Julie Levitt, Susan Bernstein, and Cantor Nina Fine for adapting to the constantly changing regulations due to COVID. We would like to thank Ashley Fisak for her versatility and constant smile. And certainly, both The Jewish Pavilion’s Executive Director Nancy Ludin (who has been outstanding – there aren’t the words to express her dedication), and I would like to thank all of you who have continued to support us and our seniors.

Keep in mind all of the blessings we have seen and stay positive. Things are looking up! I hope they are for you as well. A very happy and healthy New Year!