ISO ALIVE COORDINATOR:
AAC is desperately seeking a new liaison for ALIVE! This could be one or two people. The position and the amount of support given to ALIVE! varies greatly by the person who takes on this role. Please contact Rachel Goldberg for more info. She said she would share the job initially. Responsibilities include:
- Operation Isaiah at the High Holiday time — publicizing the food collection, giving out flyers on Rosh Hashanah, organizing the collection on Yom Kippur, coordinating with the ALIVE warehouse for packing and pick up (and a lesson/activity with religious school or the community).
- Furniture collection once a year — getting volunteers to pick up and deliver used furniture. Coordinated through the ALIVE furniture program.
- Periodically take collected food from the coat room to the ALIVE warehouse on South Payne (next to the Agudas Achim cemetery).
- The ALIVE! congregational liaison becomes a board member for ALIVE! and is invited to all ALIVE! board meetings and receives notices from the organization for needs and opportunities. Note from Rachel: I have rarely attended these meetings, but the liaison can be more or less engaged.
- Publicize and create mitzvah opportunities to help ALIVE!
- Good Deeds Day event with ALIVE! (optional)
Please contact Rachel Goldberg at: rachelfgoldberg@gmail.com or (703) 473-9131 for more information.
ISO Volunteers for Winter Hypothermia Shelter at St. Clement Church
Saint Clement is hosting up to 13 overnight male guests this winter (the Shelter is open three nights a week (Sunday through Tuesday) from Jan 2-mid March. Rabbi Rein connected with them and is encouraging members of our community to get involved and help support this mitzvah.
Note: This year Saint Clement is only asking Agudas Achim members to try this mitzvah out for size and chaperone for a few hours, therefore, you do not need to commit to staying from 7:30 pm to 6:00 a.m. Next year they are hoping that we will be able to help fill some chaperoning shifts.
DATE: March 13. (Tuesdays)
TIME: Chaperones stay from about 7:30 PM to 6:00 the next morning.
Please contact Esther Miller at nykoftyme@gmail.com or (703) 915-3496 for more information.
AAC Rides Program
Agudas Achim Congregation is embarking on a new program for members unable to drive to medical appointments, to visit people in hospitals, shopping, and to attend services and other programs at AAC. AA Rides is a volunteer supported rides program so that more non driving adults 55+ will be able to get rides to medical appointments, make hospital visits, shopping, as well as attending services and programs at AAC.
We are starting by first offering the drivers who signed up to drive last year and if necessary expanding the program to new drivers. It is the volunteer drivers who will make this program a success. For volunteers: The length of your commitment depends on your schedule. AA Rides provides volunteer drivers access to our ride scheduling software that lets you select your driving assignments, offering volunteers a flexible schedule.
You can volunteer as little or as much as you like. NV Rides will pay for a required background and a DMV check for all volunteer drivers.
Besides volunteer drivers we will also need a couple of volunteer coordinators. Sam Backman has already signed up to be lead coordinator. We need more than one so that the system will be covered when the lead is out of town the program will still work smoothly.
The program will match member requests for rides with drivers. We are doing this by patterning with NV Rides to form the AA rides program. Ride requests should be made as early as possible and at least 48 hours in advance in order to assure the best chance of being matched for a ride. The requests from the Client/Member request will be put in the AA Rides system and an e-mail will be sent to all drivers to respond.
We are starting with medical rides because of an immediate need and will shortly expand the program to all rides within the next couple of months.
Sam Backman (backsam@aol.com) is the point of contact for this program.