Av/Elul 5776 • September 2016
Federation creates annual Ahava scholarship aiding families of children with special needs
By Emily Gordon
Glass artisit Adam Goldberg decanter and wine glasses On Sunday, September 11, 25 local Jewish artists will be presenting and selling their own work at the 2016 Jewish Art Festival at Temple Shomer Emunim next to the JCC/YMCA in Sylvania. All artists are Jewish, but their work is not all Jewish in nature. Media on display for sale will include jewelry; felted wool mittens; knit wear; glass jewelry; blown glass; fused glass; slumped glass; needle point; acrylic and graphite paint; kiln-fired glass; needle felted fairy houses; 3D framed digital collage art; photography; quilting; pottery; graphic art prints; pen/ pencil/wood/paint prints; touchable art; eco-printed scarves; paper cuts and copper enamels; hardwood kitchen wares; and more. In addition, each vendor/artist has donated a piece of their work for an auction during the Art Festival. Tickets will be sold for the auction and 100% of the proceeds will go directly to Ohio C.O.P.S (www.ohiocops.org). Ohio Concerns of Police Survivors provides resources to assist in the rebuilding of the lives of surviving families and affected co-workers of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Tickets for the raffle are available for purchase at $1 per piece or six for $5. You do not have to be present to win. The Art Festival is sponsored by the Jewish Federation and Foundation of Greater Toledo; major sponsor Huntington Bank; and additional sponsors Arakyta; Perry Pro Tech; Rehmann Robson; and an anonymous funder. Most artists accept cash or check and some will accept credit cards. For more information please contact Hallie Freed at 419-724-0362 or Hallie@JewishToledo.org.
Jewelry by Sharon Frankel
Madison Bush Madison Bush is a bubbly, effervescent young woman. The 20-year-old loves to dance, help her family garden, and ride horses with her sister. She revels in many forms of art, from painting to sculpture, and is active in the Toledo Jewish community. She also has cognitive disabilities. Her parents, Robyne and Stephen Bush, of Temperance, Michigan, do their best to provide their daughter with all the therapies, medical care, specialized equipment, and other resources Madison significantly benefits from. Unfortunately, many of those resources have always been just out of reach, Robyne Bush said. “One of the sources of great stress for families who have children with special needs is not being able to get access to things like therapies for their kids. Either the insurance deductible is huge or families can’t fit equipment into their budgets,” she said. “We’re not millionaires by any stretch of the imagination. Therapy camp starts at $1,100, so Maddie has never been to camp because of the cost.” Megan and Samuel Vandyke can relate. The Toledo couple spends a large amount of money paying for resources for their children, Madeline, 14, and Isabelle, 12, who are both diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. “When you have children with special needs, you spend a lot of money out-of-pocket because insurance turns you down most of the time. The things
people recommend to my children for them to be happier are just out of our means,” Megan Vandyke said. “Unfortunately, we pay for so many appointments, co-pays, and medications that we can’t afford to take them to special events or classes. Everything has a cost.” In Toledo’s Jewish community, there are 20 families raising children with special needs who could all use a helping hand to keep up with medical care, education, and hobby expenses. Joel Marcovitch, CEO of Jewish Federation of Greater Toledo, called each family to learn about what it’s like to raise children with special needs. “They were very open about it and told me about how their medical insurance doesn’t see these special needs as insurable. Nearly all of the families are paying out-of-pocket,” Marcovitch said. “We developed the idea of the Ahava program over a few months with the idea that the Federation could help lessen the financial burdens on these families and dramatically improve the children’s lives, as well as their family dynamics.” The Ahava program, which launches this year, offers each family an annual scholarship of up to $1,500 to put toward the cost of their children’s therapy, equipment, continuing education for their parents, and related resources.
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Senior trips to remember
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Young Jewish Toledo
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PJ Playdates
Madeline and Izzy Vandyke The Federation and Toledo Jewish Community Foundation supporting organizations already support a third of the budget of Friendship Circle, a collaborative program of the Federation and Chabad that provides programs and support to children with special needs and their families with the help of passionate teen volunteers. The program provides excellent short-term support for families who have children with special needs on an initial level, hosting approximately 25 programs and events during the year. Ahava continued on page 8
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Jewish Art Festival this month