Bat Mitzvah Chessed Projects at HANC

The Bat Mitzvah season in HANC’s Elementary School in West Hempstead began with two extraordinary chessed projects that stemmed from personal experiences.

When someone she was close to was undergoing treatment for cancer, Leah Haar noticed that the hospital blankets felt uncomfortable to her. Someone then bought her acquaintance a “Comfy,” which is a big sweater made of soft, microfiber material. This made all the difference, and she wore it every day when she went to the hospital for treatment. At that moment, the idea for Leah’s Bat Mitzvah project was hatched. If Leah could raise money, she could donate Comfy sweaters to all the other children in the hospital so they could be more comfortable when they went for their treatments. With tremendous determination, Leah began taking on babysitting jobs and started a GOFUNDME page to raise money. When Leah had raised enough to purchase one hundred Comfy sweaters, she presented them to Cohen’s Children’s Hospital, where they were rapidly distributed. She continued raising money and had raised enough for almost another hundred sweaters. When the owner of the company heard about her project, he not only provided her with the remaining sweaters to fulfill the order but also sent her an additional hundred sweaters to give out to the children battling cancer. The owner was so impressed with her efforts, he arranged for a Zoom meeting and told her that he not only wants to fly out from Arizona to meet her in person, but he wants to get involved and publicize her project as well.

Chloe Hamada chose to do a project in honor of a family she is close to who lost their baby shortly after his birth. Chloe invited her classmates to her home, and together, they assem-