The families finished up a Peace-ful two weeks this morning. The children had fun carving pumpkins and seeing the spooky Halloween decorations. Delicious meals were enjoyed from several congregations: First Parish of Wayland, Islamic Center of Boston, Memorial Congregational Church, Congregation Or Atid, Peace, Presbyterian Church in Sudbury, Temple Shir Tikva, and St. John Lutheran Church. Youth groups were involved in food preparation from St. John Lutheran Church and in set up from Islamic Center of Boston. Volunteers came to us through Volunteer.com, including two teens who picked up four large bags of laundry this morning!

Volunteers offered warm fellowship to our guests as dinner servers, breakfast servers, and overnight hosts. The Islamic Center was vital in both set up and breakdown. The shopping was done by a many volunteers so the families had all they needed for their stay. The Rabbi’s mother from Congregation Or Atid knitted beautiful scarves for the guest children. Their mothers admired them so much, that she hurriedly knited one for each of the moms too!

This coming together of so many caring people is truly awe-inspiring. And watching the families in the program navigate such a challenging time in their lives makes us appreciate the strength and resiliency of the human spirit.

We look forward to coming together again in March when we host again. In the meantime, we can all support Temple Shir Tikva as they host the first few weeks of the new year.

Thank you from all our coordinators:

MaryAnn Borkowski
Kim Canning
Debbie Clain
Ann Greenawalt
Kim Ho
Cindy Fenichel
Libby Jonczyk