Pasteur students on a 2015 field trip to the Detroit Institute of Arts provided by the Friends of Pasteur. Pasteur principal Sharon Lawson is at the right in the last row with the late songwriter/artist Allee Willis in front of her.
JEWSINTHED
Alumni Step
UP
The Friends of Pasteur School help needy families during the pandemic.
SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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TOP: Howard Davis, Pasteur Friends board member and co-chair of the Christmas Committee, helps organize gifts. BOTTOM: Pasteur Friends’ Generational Connections: Marcy Feldman (left) attended Pasteur with Lillian Baxter (deceased), whose sister Terena Moore, contributes to Friends of Pasteur. Feldman is pictured with Arlina, Moore’s daughter, a former Pasteur student who attended the school's first reunion in 1997, and her son Jonathan, who Feldman has tutored at Pasteur.
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DECEMBER 31 • 2020
he gymnasium at Pasteur School in northwest Detroit was now a Christmas gift distribution center. The long tables normally used for lunch were stacked with boxes of toys, games and books for students, as well as household gifts for their parents. Volunteers from the nonprofit Friends of Pasteur School Detroit (previously the Pasteur Elementary School Alumni Association) as well as school staff, some nervous about being in a public setting during the pandemic, helped sort and organize so that everything would be ready when parents arrived for their gifts on Dec. 16. But this year’s holiday distribution took on new urgency and scope — changing like many other aspects of life because of the pandemic. The Pasteur Alumni Association was established in 1997 to provide volunteer tutors, aca-
demic enrichment programs, books, and scholarships for Pasteur students. About 20 years ago, that assistance expanded to helping 15 needy families, identified annually by school staff, with food and presents for Christmas. According to Marcy Feldman of Huntington Woods, founding president of the Pasteur Friends, that group of families had grown to 60 by last year. COVID-19 has been very detrimental to Pasteur families, many of whom were already below the poverty line. After the school building closed due to COVID, Pasteur counselor Tammie Comeaux was making wellness calls to check on families. She found that many families were experiencing severe financial distress — some due to job loss and illness. “The community seems to be changing. There are fewer homeowners in the
area. Several families had to leave due to eviction. One woman is living in her car and paying a family to care for her daughter. It weighs on you,” says Comeaux. She contacted the Pasteur Friends and they immediately offered help and began raising additional funds. Since March, the Friends have provided $52,000 in assistance to 140 families, Feldman says. Wendy Wagenheim of Birmingham, chair of the Pasteur Friends, says that they delivered 203 Visa gift cards for $250 each; these cards can be used to pay bills as well as purchase food and other necessities. Some families in particularly dire straits received more than one gift card over time, and all families received children’s books and art projects. Wagenheim, Ann and Barry Waldman, and Elizabeth Jacobs distributed the gifts in several Detroit
