Rachel Spiro is a social worker who specializes in grass roots community building and helping to  organize charity events. Rachel's joy is to bring family, friends and community  together through Vegetarian Cooking/ Art/ Meditation/ Music/ Torah/ Dance  and Organic Gardening Workshops at Willow Pond, the family farm. Rachel lives by the philosophy that each moment in life provides opportunities to bring more light into this world through thought, speech and action and her hope is to inspire others to see Hashem’s loving hand in each divine moment. Rachel and her amazing  husband David are the blessed parents of four awesome kids ages 16 to 26 years old.  If you are looking for a covid friendly day trip to rural Ontario, you need help organizing a charity event, know someone who needs help, or just need someone to talk to, Rachel would love to hear from you at [email protected]

 

Seeing how the Jewish community has united in finding ways to help each other during this past year has been inspiring. The following are some of the ways that my family has tried to do our part to ease the hardships brought on by this pandemic. From taking the time to  keep in touch with neighbors, family, friends and  classmates: people we haven't seen in awhile  to show we care, & see how we can help, to organizing community wide donation drives for families & individuals in need, we continue to seek out opportunities to be an active part of a caring community that is focussed on ensuring the mental, physical, emotional & spiritual well being of each other.   From  grocery shopping for seniors  via "chesed vs covid",  to baking homemade challah  & delivering them to people throughout the city, there have been so many ways to foster connection  during fearful times. From phone calls to online posts that create opportunities to support others, these efforts help us to feel connected to our purpose. We have worked with others to help provide people with homemade meals and household items. Together with Rebbetzin Michalowicz, we organized the "Light up Hanukkah with Love" warm clothing donation drive for the homeless.  Due  to the  incredible generosity of so many people, we were able to collect more than 10  very full  van loads of  donations for Ve'ahavta, Jewish Addiction Services (JACS) and Morgans Hands. Helping out as family is important to me and with a teenage daughter still at home, we have been able to actively participate in many wonderful initiatives from making homemade Hanukkah cards that Rebbetizin Korobkin distributed to seniors,  to driving around the city distributing Purim baskets for CIrcle of Care. Through  NCSY live2give monthly chesed group we have volunteered to help Chai Lifeline, women at risk,  essential workers and seniors. Seeing my teenage daughter make heartfelt connections with the people that we are delivering packages to  has been very meaningful.  Hashem provides the tools for our refuah and for over a year, we have been part of a weekly Prayer of Thanks conference call, been an active participant  (mostly with camera ON) on weekly  local Torah classes, supporting local businesses by signing up for ongoing  Zumba, Yoga  Fitness classes, hosted virtual dance parties &  participated  in community outreach phone calls as part of synagogue  & UJA wellness check-in initiatives.There was a time not that long ago when we were the very grateful recipients of these kinds  of acts of compassion. The prayer calls, the meals, the phone calls all served to help us physically, emotionally & spiritually.  Having an optimistic,  positive attitude of gratitude & enjoying the blessings of each new day helps us to help others.  Chesed is one of the pillars upon which our world stands & it is  our responsibility to do our part in repairing our world. Every act of kindness in our world has amazing ripple effects.  Bringing people together through acts of kindness can be the unity that is needed to bring redemption for all. As my youngest daughter says, " Be the reason someone smiles today"