The final
culmination of our Diller journey was the Alumni Impact Projects. Every fellow
was given the opportunity to reflect on issues that he/she saw apparent in the
community and then we formed groups based on similar interests. The next step
was designing a project that will help fix the problem in our Montreal
community.
Our group decided to take on the issue of domestic violence by
teaming with the Auberge Shalom women’s shelter. After meeting our project
mentor, Joanna Kolb, who is a shelter counselor at Auberge Shalom, we came up
with the idea of Pamper Hampers. We set out to make baskets filled with cleaning supplies to be given to
women once they are ready to leave the shelter. Poverty is a very serious issue
for women leaving the shelter and providing them cleaning supplies, in order to
restart their lives in a fresh home, was something that we felt was very
important. Cleaning as a basic need, and those supplies can be expensive for someone living on a fixed income.
In order to collect items for the baskets, we had collections at
Bialik High School, Herzliah High School and Hebrew Academy, and then we
purchased the remaining supplies. Each hamper contained a laundry basket, toilet paper, multi-purpose spray, lysol wipes, a toilet brush, toilet cleaner, a mini duster, laundry detergent, glass cleaner, a hand towel, 2 sponges, cleaning gloves, paper towels and dish soap.
Thanks to our amazing volunteers, our excellent mentor, Joanna, our
fabulous coordinator, Sarah, and to all of the alumni working on this project,
we are proud to say that our event, Pamper Hampers, was a huge success!!
by Rebecca Gotteiner and Noah Adessky
