MIZPAH SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE

What would YOU like to do?

Quick Quiz: What do the following have in common?

• Mike Seeber thought it would be great to help Habitat for Humanity build a house. A few months later, a dozen or more Mizpah folks gathered on a Saturday afternoon to help raise high the roof beams of a home for someone in need.

• Sue Cohn and Deb Tepper knew an easy and fun way to create warm, colorful scarves for those unprepared for winter’s chill. For the past two years, after December’s First Friday Hanukkah Dinner, diners put down their forks and picked up a pre-notched scarf, completing it by knotting its fringe. A representative of the agency whose clients would receive that gift told the “knotters” about them.

• When the Social Action Committee vowed to assist Bridge Refugee Services in welcoming an

immigrant family, Jo-Ann Morris suggested that we could help a family and demonstrate our sense of community by sponsoring a Muslim refugee family from Iran. Scores of Mizpah members lent hands and items to furnish a three-bedroom apartment, welcome the new family at the airport and oversee their transition to Chattanooga with transportation, food, tutoring and continuing friendship.

• In what has become a Mizpah tradition, members marked the High Holy Days by filling barrels with non-perishable food for families relying upon the Chattanooga Food Bank to supplement their diets.

• When Helen Smith and her family told folks about their annual Christmas Eve “gift” of gift-wrap assistance to raise funds for Chattanooga’s Kids on the Block, dozens of Mizpah members joined in what is now one of three December congregational projects.

• Soon after Henry Stoloff learned that St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was seeking a congregation to partner with its members in hosting homeless families through the Interfaith Homeless Network, members began signing up to serve as greeters, cooks, children’s play friends and overnighter hosts in the shared project, which continues to this day.

We bet you’ve guessed by now what all these projects have in common, as well as those for collecting Holiday gifts for seniors of limited resources, linens for those left homeless by recent tornados, etc.

Each began as someone’s idea and grew to fruition with the help of Mizpah’s Social Action Committee.

We believe that several Mizpah members have ideas about ways of helping others, but don’t want to tackle the job alone. If YOU have an idea for a project and would like support from the Social Action Committee in making it happen, e-mail Deb Tepper at billdebmax@hotmail.com to set a time for a planning meeting with the committee.

What would YOU like to do?