B'NAI B'RITH SPIRIT; VOLUNTEERS DONATE TIME AT CHRISTMAS.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer One shining example of the Christmas spirit came Saturday from people who don't even celebrate Christmas. Volunteers from B'nai B'rith B'nai B'rith (bənā` brĭth) [Heb.,= Sons of the Covenant], oldest and largest Jewish service organization in the world, founded (1843) in New York by American Jews "to provide service to their own people and to humanity at large. showed up at Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley Hospital so regular volunteers who celebrate Christmas could spend the day with their families. ``None of us volunteer during the year. We are letting the volunteers have off today,'' said Ira Simonds, a Quartz Hill High School Quartz Hill High School is a public, co-educational high school located in Lancaster, California. Founded in 1964, it is the third oldest comprehensive high school in the Antelope Valley High School District (AVHSD). teacher who coordinates the B'nai B'rith volunteers. The volunteers answered telephones at the reception desk, took patients' meal orders, made coffee for visitors on the second floor, sold stuffed animals
A stuffed animal is toy animal stuffed with straw, beans, cotton or other similar materials. Some stuffed animals are very old – home made cloth dolls stuffed with straw go back to at least the and flowers in the gift shop and otherwise helped around the hospital, just as the hospital's regular corps of volunteers does the other 364 days of the year. For some of the volunteers, helping on Christmas is a tradition - as with Lea Rosoff, the local B'nai B'rith vice president, who has worked in the gift shop every Christmas for five or six years. ``We know we're going to be here,'' said Rosoff, a retiree. Her husband, Irv, made coffee in the second floor waiting room. They both volunteer the rest of the year as tutors at Quail quail, common name for a variety of small game birds related to the partridge, pheasant, and more distantly to the grouse. There are three subfamilies in the quail family: the New World quails; the Old World quails and partridges; and the true pheasants and seafowls. Valley Elementary School Valley Elementary School is an elementary school located in Beavercreek, Ohio and is part of the Beavercreek City School District. The principal is Lisa Walk. External links
Several of the volunteers work as couples. Simonds' wife, Sala, staffs the reception desk. Their son, David, a UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX law student, helped in the emergency room. B'nai B'rith members have been volunteering at the hospital at Christmas for more than 30 years. The practice was started by Bill Grossman, a B'nai B'rith leader. ``He wanted to do something for the community,'' said Trudy Linder, who works with Rosoff in the gift shop. ``In the early 60s they volunteered and I've been here since then,'' Linder said. Not everyone who volunteered Saturday was Jewish. Deedee Townsend and her husband Tommy celebrate Christmas, but they have no relatives living nearby. They started volunteering last Christmas through her friendship with Sala Simonds, whom she met through the Alpha Charter Guild, a hospital fund-raising fund-raising, large-scale soliciting of voluntary contributions, especially in the United States. Fund-raising is widely undertaken by charitable organizations, educational institutions, and political groups to acquire sufficient funds to support their activities. group. ``We find it a very rewarding way to spend the day,'' said Townsend. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos PHOTO (1 -- color) ``Substitute volunteer'' Deedee Townsend of Lancaster, right, takes patient Jesse Nixon's lunch order at Antelope Valley Hospital. (2 -- color) B'nai B'rith members and others gave regular volunteers the day off at the hospital. Shownare Trudy Linder, left, and Lea Rosoff, of Palmdale, and Marleen Griffin of Lancaster. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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