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Fair Gural JCC helped Five Towns community through the Covid-19 pandemic
Despite the obstacles that came with the coronavirus pandemic, the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC has continued to serve Five Towns and Far Rockaway residents thanks to its dedicated volunteers.
The JCC, based in Cedarhurst, has a variety of volunteer programs that offer community members educational, enrichment, recreational and social services. They include support and wellness groups for at-risk communities as well as the SHOP — Sustenance, Hope, Opportunities Place — a food pantry and social services hub.
In a typical year, before Covid, all volunteer activities took place in person, and the JCC had nearly 700 volunteers — many of them regulars, active weekly or monthly, and others who were drop-ins, taking part in special programs and events.
During the pandemic, “volunteer numbers dipped,” Volunteer Services Manager Laurie Stone Brofsky wrote in an email, and some of the usual volunteer opportunities transitioned to virtual programs, while others were either put on hold or grew into new opportunities.
Lynbrook resident Miriam Feffer, 68, was happy to continue volunteering during the pandemic, she said, though her husband and son were hesitant about letting her leave the house. “It was a decision I made at that point — you know, when you think about it, was it the right decision?” Feffer said. “I don’t know.”
A former New York City special education teacher, Feffer started volunteering at the JCC after retiring six years ago. “I have to tell you, when I retired, it was like, I don’t know what to do with myself,” she said, “and I was always looking for things to do. So I was very happy to volunteer.” She heard of the opportunity through a friend who was already active with the JCC.
Roughly four years ago, Feffer began volunteering one day a week sorting clothing donated to the SHOP, which stopped taking donations when Covid hit. At that point she began packing pick-up orders for the Rina Shkolnik Kosher Food Pantry, another JCC affiliate.
Food insecurity on Long Island grew during the pandemic, so the JCC ramped up its pantry efforts. Volunteers of all ages “stepped up,” Brofsky wrote, to make “contactless” deliveries of frozen and cooked meals to pantry users. Many volunteers got involved in huge weekly outdoor produce distribution events in the summer of 2020. “Many people were working from home, and were able to give an hour or two a week for those activities,” Brofsky added.
Since the peak of the pandemic, the JCC has kept some of the virtual programs it implemented out of necessity, because some support groups “actually flourished in a virtual format,” Brofsky said, and because there are still clients who are more comfortable at home.
The clothing donation program has not yet resumed. Other programs have changed formats since the pandemic, including the four- to five-week summer camp for children with special needs — which is now one week long — and Friendly Visitors, a companionship program for the elderly, which is now Friendly Callers, having transitioned from in-person visits to phone calls.
Now Feffer volunteers three to four times a week at the JCC. “It’s a very pleasant place to be, and I enjoy it,” she said, adding that volunteer work gives her “meaning in life.” Last month, she was recognized in a JCC Volunteer Spotlight Facebook post for staying active throughout the pandemic, stocking shelves and packing food at the pantry.
Volunteering, Brofsky wrote, “gives community members the opportunities to do chesed” — Hebrew for kindness.
CEO Aaron Rosenfeld added in an email, “Our volunteers live the Jewish values of chesed and tzedakah” — Hebrew for kindness and charity
Having volunteers is “integral” and “important to the JCC,” he wrote. They help the organization expand its programs, services and community resources.
“Volunteers are the backbone of our organization. It is impossible to provide all the social service supports needed with staff alone,” Rosenfeld wrote, adding, The JCC “and the entire community are grateful for the quiet yet extremely impactful work of our extraordinary volunteers.”
