Welcome to the 2023/24 school year! We are Maya Zor and Laya Weissberger – and we are thrilled to Co-Chair the Chevra Committee this year. Chevra is made up of a group of parent volunteers that create and foster community among our families. We partner with the school to organize opportunities throughout the year for Heschel families to come together and get to know each other, to have fun and do meaningful work together. We help facilitate parent volunteers in classrooms, plan a variety of Chevra events for Heschel families and also plan events just for the adults. Chevra volunteers deliver hot lunches and offer teachers and administrators help when needed, but also thank and celebrate them in a variety of ways throughout the school year. Chevra’s mission is to promote meaningful connections and networks among families that reinforce school values and inspire joy and wonder outside the classroom.
Here is a little more about us and our time spent as Heschel parents. I (Laya) have been a Heschel parent since 2007 when my eldest started in JK. My children are Evan (Graduated 2017), Aaron (Graduated 2020) and Amy, who will be entering Grade 8 this year. I have been involved at Heschel in many ways since Evan started in JK. At that time I was a class parent and have been a class parent in all of my children’s classes at various times ever since. Becoming a class parent allowed me to see what other opportunities there were, and it was the beginning of my long time relationship with the Heschel community. Over the years I have volunteered in a variety of ways including co-chairing Havdallah on Ice, setting up the online school supply ordering portal, hosting and co-ordinating our Israeli Shinshinim and delivering hot lunches.
I (Maya) have been a Heschel parent for 8 years. My children are Morielle (Graduated 2023) and Lily, who will be entering Grade 7 this year. I became more involved in Chevra recently as a class parent, making phone calls on the Day of Giving and participating on the graduation committee this past Spring when Morielle was in Grade 8. I have always loved attending Chevra-run events and seeing our community come together.
We have found volunteering at school events to be personally enriching, as it allows us to forge a deeper relationship with the school and with other families. Our children have loved seeing us join in the community and be a part of their school, and in turn we are also teaching them the importance of giving back to the community you are a part of.
We wanted to take a moment to share the many different ways to be involved in Chevra – whether you have have a free weekend or morning to come out and volunteer at an event, or maybe your evenings allow you to communicate and email within a committee, or perhaps you are looking to be involved more frequently (for example, we always need hot lunch volunteers). Please take a look at this sign up form for Chevra volunteering opportunities.
We hope that you will join us at our Chevra events and volunteer to make this our best year yet!
