December 2020
Local school children still sang and families brought us the joy of candle lighting every evening at sundown. Despite a global pandemic, JAA made spirits bright and kept the holidays festive for our residents.
Much of the celebration happened virtually, with community partner organizations providing video greetings that ran all day long on our in-house television station playing in residents’ rooms.
School groups from Community Day sang to us and students put on plays and skits that we could enjoy whenever we tuned in.
Repair the World students from the PeerCorps group studied ageism and isolation among seniors and their project included sending us holiday cards to brighten our rooms.
Rabbi Small and his family videoed and shared candle lighting ceremonies from his home that we could watch and visited with residents individually for their own menorah traditions.
At Weinberg Terrace we made “Hanukkah Activities Packets” with holiday themed crosswords and word puzzles to brighten our quiet time.
And the blankets! At least 65 individually knitted or crocheted blankets and throws are now keeping our residents warm and cozy thanks to the volunteers who wanted to do something kind for us during the holidays.
Chanukah at JAA must include some fried food prepared by our dietary and nutrition staff. The demonstration may have been virtual but the outcome was still the same…fresh, MTO potato latke (pancakes) garnished with applesauce or sour cream, and our favorite, the jelly-filled sufganya (doughnuts), delivered door-to-door.
Lest we forget ringing in the new year! None of us will be sad to see the end of 2020 so we plan to bake cookies and drink sparkling grape juice because on December 31, we’re gonna party ’til it’s 2021!