Two troops of Girl Scouts headquartered at Stephen Wise Temple have donated over $2,000 from their Girl Scout Cookie sales to Ukrainian refugees.
At the start of each meeting of Girl Scout Troop 71925, the girls recite the Girl Scout Promise. Troop leaders Sharhzad Ghodsian and Dorit Warner have strived to connect that promise with the teachings and values at the heart of Judaism. One of those values: tzedakah.
After selling 3,361 boxes of Girl Scout cookies over the span of 10 weeks—many of them to the Wise community—the third- and fourth-grade girls of Troop 71925 voted unanimously to donate $1,000 of their proceeds to help Ukrainian refugees. Their second-grade counterparts in Troop 71895 also voted to donate, giving one-third of their proceeds—$1,032—to the same cause: the joint campaign by the Wise community and Congregation B’nai Jeshurun to raise funds for United Hatzalah of Israel’s Operation Orange Wings.
“We are also so proud of the girls’ kind and giving hearts,” said Ghodsian.
Under Operation Orange Wings, United Hatzalah of Israel scheduled charter flights from Israel to Moldova, filled with medics, medical supplies, and medical equipment, which would help deliver emergency medical aid to those fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the return trip, the planes would carry refugees to safety in Israel. When the Wise community and Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New Jersey began their fundraising effort three weeks ago, the goal was to fund one such flight, at $100,000. That flight landed in at Ben Gurion Airport in the early morning hours of April 1.
Though the refugees are now safe, the war has not stopped, and neither will the fundraising effort, supported by the donations from Troop 71895 and Troop 71925 (which also voted unanimously to donate $1,000 to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles).
As of Wednesday afternoon, the joint campaign has raised over $268,000, and will continue for as long as is needed. After the flight received its necessary funding, all further donations have been and will be used to send medicine and medical equipment to the Jewish communities in Ziev, Odessa, and Dnipro, as well as Chernihiv. Funds being donated to the campaign will also go toward funding a cargo plane from Israel to Slovakia, delivering kosher-for-Passover food to Jewish communities in Kishinev, Moldova, Bratislava, and Kosice in Slovakia, and Uzghorod in Ukraine. Become a part of this continuing effort, and donate today.
