Healing Through Kindness
Bikur Cholim Month Launched in Crown Heights
Girls and boys, students of all ages are abuzz with the message and mitzvah of Bikur Cholim. The Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Bikur Cholim of Crown Heights, together with all the schools in the community, has designated Iyar – רופאך ‘ה אני – as Bikur Cholim Month 5770. Schools have eagerly joined this project by offering students various of activities, volunteer opportunities and incentives, so that each student has the chance to be involved in helping their own community in an enjoyable yet meaningful way.
The High School Girls of Bais Rivkah, Bnos Menachem, Bais Chaya Mushka, Ohr Chanah and Bnos Chomesh were treated to a Bikur Cholim assembly this week, featuring an informative video and inspiring speaker to launch their programs. The girls have many choices: becoming certified hospital visitors or shabbos mevarchim tehillim captains. Many signed up for the BBB program: help families with little children through the tough morning rush by getting the kids from Bed to Beakfast, with Backpacks onto the Bus. These early morning volunteers are given a breakfast certificate courtesy of Bunch-O-Bagels and Kingston Bake Shop. Some high schoolers and 8th graders chose to bake challas or cookies and deliver them to families – knowing that home baked goods deliver that much needed extra dose of love.
Elementary schools have a fun and learning packed program scheduled for the upcoming weeks to introduce the children to the practice of Bikur Cholim. Members of Crown Heights Hatzola will talk to the kids about taking care of themselves (summer safety) and taking care of others (bikur cholim), plus they’ll be taken on a thrilling tour of an ambulance. In class, while they learn about the significance of Bikur Cholim, students will be decorating custom refuah shelaimah cards that will be hand delivered and distributed to nearby hospitals and nursing homes by students in the older classes.
Seventh graders will take part in a spectacular project that will make a public statement of community togetherness. Each 7th grade student will be painting a tile of his or her own Bikur Cholim related design. The schools will join together to create a wall mural that will hang in the heart of town- on Kingston Avenue. (Bais Rivkah, Bnos Menachem and Bais Chaya Mushka will be painting the tiles this Sunday, April 25th, at their respective schools– mothers are invited to join their daughters for this wonderful project. Oholei Torah, Lubavitch Yeshivah, Darchei Menachem & Ohr Menachem will be painting tiles on May 16th– parents are invited to participate).
Yeshivas Chovevei Torah bochurim are hard at work designing and building a 48 foot long Bikur Cholim float for the upcoming Lag Baomer Parade, with the help of bochurim from Chanoch Lenaar. Even the Online Shluchim School, whose students don’t technically study in Crown Heights, nonetheless embraced this project by launching a creative array of activities and lessons that will spread the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim all around the world; whichever exotic locale the shluchim’s children are signing in from, many still consider Crown Heights home.
Finally, all 8th grade and High School students, both girls and boys, are being given the unique opportunity to express themselves individually, through writing or art, in the Bikur Cholim Creativity Competition. Entries will be judged by top professionals from our own community—Michoel Muchnik & Chaya Pellin in art; Dina Rosenfeld & Rishe Dietch in writing. The winning writing entry will be published in the N’shei Chabad Newsletter and in the Bikur Cholim journal; the winning piece of art will be showcased prominently and auctioned off at a the next Bikur Cholim event. In addition to having the chance to win spectacular prizes (like a brand-new iPad for first place winner!), students will have the amazing opportunity to inspire others through their experiences.
Bikur Cholim Month is bringing all parts of the community together b’achdus to heal each other through kindness and compassion. Talk to your friends and family about Bikur Cholim and ask yourself what you could be doing for your neighbor in need. Join Bikur Cholim of Crown Heights this month by making Bikur Cholim a part or your everyday life. To find out more about Bikur Cholim Month, call: 718-467-1661 or email: info@bikurcholimCH.org.
*To request BBB volunteers, please call 718-467-1661 and be connected to a service coordinator.
**To sponsor a tile on the community wall mural in the zechus of a refuah shelaima, please email donate@bikurcholimCH.org. (Limited corporate sponsorship tiles with company logos are available– secure a permanent ad in this highly visible public installation while supporting a great cause. Call today.)
Bikur Cholim Month is dedicated by the Poltorak Medical Relief Fund
מרים בן שמשון ברהםא נ”לע
Posted on: Friday, April 23rd, 2010 at 11:07 am