Directorate

Great meeting tonight with our Shutaf social worker, Binyamin Rose. First of all, he's a Brit (I know they hate been called that but...) and that means he has all sorts of charming turns of phrase like 'whilst' and 'shedloads' but that aside, he's smart, savvy and knows how to write a great evaluation.

The upshot, is that Binyamin thought we ran a good Pesach camp. We set out to professionalize and develop the program this year and we've met many of our goals. That said, there's work to be done and the question is how to do it, especially this year when we we're struggling just to come up with the funds to make camp happen.

That's the painful part - how to make camp happen when all we've received are rejections to our grant proposals this year. We know we're not doing anything wrong, just have fallen on hard times but it's not easy to feel that we can't really serve our population of kids if we don't have the funds. We're probably planning 2 weeks of camp at most this August and while I'll personally miss the 3rd week - what will I do with Akiva - it's probably for the best. We're already making hard decisions on what to cut from an already skinny budget - probably my fave, the food program - and how to make camp as good as we can make it without spending a lot. Mind you, it's not like we were spending a lot given that Miriam and I are still working as volunteers 2 years later.

So, dear readers, help me think about how to reach out to others and ask them all to help make Shutaf possible. Every bit helps, every bit matters - have a bake sale, do a stoop sale, save your quarters for Shutaf. Help us continue to help our community of children. Help us meet that special person that could really help fund the program - now.

I welcome all ideas. www.campshutaf.org.