A whole lot of good going on here

from Federation Star - May 2022

Appreciating our natural gifts

Kirk Wisemayer, Annual Community Campaign Director

As you read this, I will mark my first full year as your Annual Community Campaign Director. My goodness, time really does fly when you are having fun!

“Here for Good” is about all our donors make possible through their gifts to the annual campaign — and those of you who have made gifts have been overwhelmingly generous. The more than $1.52 million already promised demonstrates your commitment to being here for good, but Here for Good is as much or more about how we connect to and engage with one another, the relationships we form and build and how we celebrate these connections and all we accomplish as a Jewish community.

I am very fortunate to work with incredible professionals, leaders and volunteers, and more fortunate still to have met and get to know many, but still too few, of you who make success possible. I look forward to meeting and getting to know many more of you over the months and years ahead.

Your attendance and support of our most recent campaign events make it a pleasure and privilege to be a part of the incredible Jewish community you have built and sustain.

Our Women’s Philanthropy luncheon at Artis—Naples on March 7 was a wonderful opportunity, despite a brief burst of rain that sent us running for cover. Almost 100 women of every giving level came together to celebrate and enjoy each other while learning about the inspiring journey of an incredible young leader in her own Jewish Federation and nationally.

A few days later, on March 11, almost 40 donors to our Pomegranate Society gathered for Purim in the Park, inspired by Suzanne Cohn, who shared her family’s remarkable journey of resilience and survival during and after the Holocaust. Following Suzanne’s moving and, yes, uplifting address, all present worked together to assemble Purim gift packages for delivery to local Holocaust survivors or to compose handwritten notes that were mailed to them before Yom HaShoah to let them know their community was thinking of them on this special day and every day.

Paula Filler, Jewish Federation board member, Annual Community Campaign Chair and Power of Community committee member; Jerry Bogo and Rosalee Bogo, Jewish Federation board member and Major Gifts co-chair; Kirk Wisemayer, Annual Community Campaign Director; Marcia Cohodes, Jewish Federation board member; and husband Dr. David Goldsteen at the Power of Community post-ceremony reception

Almost 100 women enjoyed the beautiful outdoor setting at Jewish Federation’s Women’s Philanthropy luncheon at Artis Naples featuring guest speaker and author Simone Knego who shared her inspiring story of leadership and philanthropy.

**Lion of Judah and event co-chair Sandy Roth (right) welcomes friend and Ruby Lion Sandra Roth to the service project luncheon at Collier’s Reserve Country Club.**

**Marci Margolis, event committee member, with Linda Lerner, Barbara Ross, Pomegranate Society co-chair Susan Pittelman and event co-chair Carol Mest at the Purim in the Park event at Baker Park**

Always a force to be reckoned with, almost 50 of our 95 Lion of Judah donors (yes, we have 31 new Lions in 2022!) gathered for lunch on March 24 at Collier’s Reserve Country Club to hear from Linda Goldfield, executive director of Youth Haven, about the center’s life-changing and life-saving work with abused and neglected children.

These incredibly generous women contribute almost half of all we raise in our annual campaign. It is a credit to them, and to event chairs Dr. Judith Finer-Friedman, Susie Goldsmith, Rissa Grossman and Sandy Roth, that this very special luncheon was both enjoyable and meaningful, raising more than $8,000 to help renovate the kitchen of one of Youth Haven’s residential cottages. In the words of Lion of Judah co-chair Rosalee Bogo, “Long may we roar!”

**Jewish Federation’s newest Pomegranate, Wendy Israelite, receives her pin from Pomegranate Society co-chair Susan Pittelman.**

**Pomegranate Purim in the Park event co-chairs Felicia Anchor and Carol Mest welcome guest speaker Suzanne Cohn at the March 11 event.**

**Emerald Lion Estelle Price and Annual Community Campaign chair and Ruby Lion Paula Filler embrace in welcome.**

**Gail Smith and Nancy Schachtman are welcomed to the Lion of Judah luncheon by Capital Campaign & Planned Giving Director and new Lion of Judah Marcy Friedland.**

**Lions Elaine Landau and Carolyn Lichter with Ruby Lion Lin Klein at the service project luncheon benefiting Youth Haven**

**Lion of Judah Society and event co-chair and Ruby Lion Dr. Judith Finer-Freedman chats with guests at her table at the Lion of Judah luncheon.**

The spirits of Joan Saperstein, Mona Brodsky, Dorothy Schwebel, Eileen Orlow, Charlene Kerner and Peggy Brown weren’t dampened by having to run for cover from the rain at Women’s Philanthropy luncheon.

Jewish Federation’s annual Power of Community Celebration took place March 29, attended by more than 120 members of the community, including deserving award recipients and their families. Awards were given to Ana Ellis and Daniel Isakov (Patricia J. Adkins Youth Leadership Award); Cultivate Abundance and STARability (Human Needs Award); educators at local schools, Courtney Cassidy, Catherine Crawford, Kathryn Doyle, Romi Rameau and Lindsey Simmons, for their innovative work in the classroom to dispel antisemitism, bigotry and bullying (Stand Up for Justice Award); Susan Pittelman and Betty Schwartz for their leadership in founding and building our Pomegranate Society (Campaign Achievement Award); and to Collier County Sheriff’s Office, represented by Sheriff Kevin Rambosk and Chief Stephanie Spell, for its work keeping us safe, strengthening positive community relations, and for its partnership with Jewish Federation in the Shop with a Sheriff program (Power of Community Award).

**Event co-chair and Sapphire Lion Susie Goldsmith announces there are now 95 Lion of Judah donors in Greater Naples who collectively contribute almost $900,000 to the annual campaign.**

Most recently, 110 donors attended the Major Gifts & Lion of Judah Appreciation reception on April 5 at Kalea Bay. There are 121 donors in our community who, each year, support the annual campaign at the Major Gifts level ($5,000 or more), including Lion of Judah women, and whose generosity amounts to $1.1 million, or 72% of the total campaign. They were celebrated because of their financial generosity, but also for the generosity they extend to our Jewish community in many other ways. Many of these donors contribute expertise, ideas and countless hours of time in the leadership roles they hold as board and committee members, and programand event chairs at Jewish Federation, local synagogues and many other organizations, Jewish and not.

There is no greater feeling than the palpable sense of community we feel when we come together joyfully at events. It is worth it just to see so many smiling faces. As grateful as Jewish Federation is for your very generous financial support, we are equally or more grateful for the support you show when you walk into a room.

This feeling we all, as Jews, love so much is a gift from all those who volunteer on program and event committees, and they each deserve incredible gratitude: Felicia Anchor, Rosalee Bogo, Paula Filler, Cheryl Ginsburg, Susie Goldsmith, Carol Hirsch, Estelle Price, Susan Rabin, Jamie Satz and Phyllis Seaman (Women’s Philanthropy Luncheon); Felicia Anchor, Harriet Berneman, Marci Margolis, Carol Mest, Susan Pittelman and Betty Schwartz (Pomegranate Purim in the Park); Rosalee Bogo, Paula Filler, Dr. Judith Finer-Freedman, Susie Goldsmith, Rissa Grossman, Sandy Roth and Phyllis Seaman (Lion of Judah Service Project Luncheon); Harvey Cohen, Paula Filler, Larry Israelite and Arlene Sobol (Power of Community); and Rosalee Bogo, Paula Filler and Michael Sobol (Major Gifts & Lion of Judah Appreciation).

Thank you for being here for good, for celebrating the power of community, and for making Jewish life enriching and meaningful in Greater Naples.

To learn more about how you can participate in campaign and community, as a donor and as a volunteer, please contact me at kwisemayer@jewishnaples.org or 239-263-4205.