Jewish Family Services held its second, highly successful fundraiser Dinner with the Family on April 2, 2006. Roughly 300 people and 60 businesses helped us surpass our goal of raising $20,000 for our direct services for families in need. The community demonstrated deep support and appreciation for JFS and its work.
Our hosts not only paid for and prepared the meals in their own home, but they also led a brief discussion about JFS at each dinner. Each host shared their impression of JFS and had centerpieces featuring illustrative stories of the people served by the agency: the elderly, unemployed, families & youth, new Americans, and displaced refugees & evacuees.
Co-chairs Sue and Larry Adler held a host appreciation brunch in their home a week before the event to prepare hosts for this role. “I felt it was important as a host to know about JFS and be able to answer questions about the organization,” commented Larry Adler.
We are very grateful to our 69 hosts, 270 guests, 30 sponsors and 30 in-kind donors. Due to the generosity of our hosts and area businesses with donations of money, time, food, flowers and hospitality, all the costs of the event were covered and guest donations will directly support JFS services. In particular, we thank our platinum sponsor, The Charles and Rita Gelman Educational Foundation, and gold sponsors, ProQuest Inc, and Creative Windows for underwriting both Dinner with the Family and JFS at UMS.
