On March 4th, the Sisterhood at East Meadow Jewish Center (EMJC), located in East Meadow, NY, held a Purim Party for the children of their community in memory of Ayelet, a toddler who recently lost her battle with a rare bone marrow disease. Jennifer, the coordinator for the event, learned about Ayelet when she came across her Facebook fan page and blog and read her incredibly moving story. She was immediately engaged and felt a connection because she had a daughter around the same age as Ayelet. Additionally, her connection was even stronger because she grew up in Montreal, and she attended the synagogue where Ayelet’s maternal grandfather was the Rabbi. For all those reasons, and more, she knew she had to do something more concrete than follow Ayelet’s blog and pray.

Jennifer began to plan a party in honor of Ayelet. At first, the planning of the party was inspired by the hope that Ayelet could one day be well enough to attend something like it next year; the plan was to have children write and draw cards to send to her, and hair accessories and stickers would be collected to send to not only Ayelet, but to her fellow ‘friends’ and patients in the hospital. When the heartbreaking news of Ayelet’s passing reached Jennifer, she knew she had to continue. To honor her memory, Jennifer knew the event needed to move forward to get the word out about Gift of Life and becoming a bone marrow donor while raising money so others could have a second chance at life.

Prompted by her passion to honor a young girl whose story is an inspiration to everyone it touches, Jennifer reached out to the Sisterhood at EMJC to collaborate on planning. They secured three performers who generously donated their time and talent to the event and began to market the event by circulating flyers around the synagogue and local businesses, and even created a Facebook event page. They released a press release about the event to generate interest, and a friend of Jennifer’s contacted her to suggest holding a raffle, as well. Thanks to the enormous generosity of many local, kid-friendly businesses, they hosted a raffle with many great prizes, including a swim package and certificate and an autographed children’s book.

The Purim Party was a wonderful success, with about 50 families attending the event and over $1,000 in donations collected. The children were able to create crowns and draw Purim pictures at a crafts table, meet and greet Elmo, and even had the opportunity to have their face painted. Many of the kids who attended drew pictures, which were collected and placed in a scrapbook and sent to Ayelet’s family, and hair accessories, toys, and stickers were collected and donated to the children in the Bone Marrow Unit of Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Ayelet’s memory.

There is a definite possibility that another event like this will happen in the future. Not only is Jennifer motivated to host something like this again, others in the community have also expressed interest in participating and donating their time again. Additionally, other business owners have shown an interest in wanting to donate raffle prizes in the future.

Jennifer says, “Witnessing the inexplicable suffering and incredible strength of Ayelet z”l and her family through the blog inspired thousands. Ayelet z”l showed that even tiny children can have an impact on the world. This event helped us continue the legacy-to bring together Ayelet’s tiny peers in an effort to raise money and awareness with the hope that many, many lives will be saved.”