More than a dozen volunteers came to the Jewish Community Center in Kingston on Friday morning to stuff some 250 backpacks with treats. The backpacks will be presented to police, firefighters and other first responders who will be working on Christmas.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Effort thanks first responders for working holidays and every day
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Temple Israel Cantor Ahron Abraham, at left, and 12-year-old Sofia Kaplan help stuff backpacks with treats for first responders who will be working on Christmas Day.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Ten-year-old Carter Kaplan pitched in Friday morning with the backpack project, which was a joint effort of Temple Israel, Congregation Ohav Zedek, Temple B’nai B’rith and the Jewish Community Center.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
‘Happy Holidays and Thank You!’ the gift tag message says. ‘From Temple Israel, Congregation Ohav Zedek, Temple B’nai B’rith and the Jewish Community Center.’
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Bedonna and Joe Mitchneck, who helped with the backpack project on Friday morning, have also sponsored an annual project of their own in the years since their daughter, Heidi Mitchneck Seeherman, passed away. This year, the Toys From Heidi project supplied some 800 gifts for children in need.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
“My grandmother had a heart attack on Christmas Eve,” Brenda Styczen said, remembering a family emergency from about 30 years ago. “We were so glad for the first responders that night.”
“We had a fire in the oven on Thanksgiving,” 12-year-old Sofia Kaplan said, recalling a less serious event that nevertheless resulted in first responders showing up, ready to help.
Certainly not every emergency takes place on a major holiday, but Styczen and young Sofia and at least a dozen other people gathered at the Jewish Community Center on Friday morning to show their appreciation for the local first responders who are ready to protect and serve others every day — even on holidays when they’d probably rather be spending time with their loved ones.
The group kept busy stuffing some 250 backpacks with treats — from cookies and pastries to veggie straws and energy drinks — and plans are in place to deliver them to police and firefighters and paramedics on Monday, which is Christmas Day.
“Nanticoke, Dallas, Hanover Township, Pittston, Forty Fort, Plains, Wyoming, Wilkes-Barre, Mountain Top, Life Flight in Avoca …” Styczen said, consulting a list of 45 locations where the volunteers had found out how many first responders would be working.
“It’s really part of Judaism to do something like this,” Temple Israel president Ben Messinger said, calling the kind deed a “chesed.”
For Rabbi Larry Kaplan and his wife, Gerri, the kindness is a “mitzvah,” bringing blessings to both the givers and the recipients.
“I’m the one who came up with the project,” Gerri Kaplan said, showing a flier that Jane Messinger had designed, inviting people to sign up to give monetary donations, with each level of giving having a different emergency-services name.
“People were saying ‘I’ll be an ambulance’ ” Gerri Kaplan said. “Or ‘I’ll be a firetruck.’ “
The Kaplans’ son Dan works as a paramedic, Rabbi Kaplan said, so their family knows how difficult that line of work can be. “This (showing appreciation) is something we should be doing every day.”
The backpack project started at Temple Israel, was disrupted by the COVID epidemic, and has now returned as a joint project with Temple B’nai B’rith, Congregation Ohav Zedek “and our friends at the JCC,” Ben Messinger said.
The backpack stuffers on Friday morning included Joe and Bedonna Mitchneck, who recently spearheaded another giving project, Toys From Heidi, which supplied 800 gifts for children in need this year.
That project is named after the couple’s daughter Heidi Mitchneck Seeherman, who died unexpectedly in June 2012 at age 40 and it “seems to grow every year.”
“Heidi worked with children who had special needs,” Bedonna Mitchnneck said, and she loved to give them presents.
This year, about 25 people helped with the wrapping of the Toys From Heidi, which are distributed to children in need through non-profit agencies.
