BOSS Ursula Sherman Village Birthday Parties
The BOSS Ursula Sherman Village shelter is located in West Berkeley. It
houses families, single parents and single adults and provides support for
residents to move toward independent living.
On the third Sunday of each month at 6:30pm we hold a
Bingo Night and Birthday Celebration at the shelter. We start by leading residents in 30 minutes of Bingo.
Winners get to choose gifts from the prize boxes that we provide. At the end of Bingo, all
children who have participated can also take a gift from the kids’ prize box.
In the second half hour we celebrate the residents who are enjoying birthdays that
month. We have ice cream and a sheet cake that feeds up to 40. We sing Happy
Birthday and each birthday person gets a gift of a toiletries bucket. Children
under 12 years old get to pick
a gift from the kids’ Bingo prize box.
Above: Jake Thorne, son of Esther Saidman and David Thorne,
assembled hygiene kits for the residents
of the BOSS Ursula Sherman Village as a Mitzvah Project.
Interested? Here’s how you can participate in helping this
mitzvah be a successful and vibrant program:
1. Make toiletries buckets. Each gift bucket
contains new, regular size toiletries. Enjoy being creative and making the
gifts. Buckets can contain anywhere from 5-10 items including (but not
exclusive to) soap, soap holder, toothbrush, toothbrush holder, toothpaste,
comb, brush, razors, shampoo, conditioner, wash cloth, hand towel, bath towel,
nail kit, deodorant, lotion. The Dollar Store is a good resource for cost
efficient items in bulk. Past donations have come from chavurot, Girl Scout
troops, B'nei Mitzvah and individual congregants.
2. Donate items for the Bingo prize boxes. Items in
the adult prize box include cologne, flashlights, watches, nail kits, socks,
hair brushes, combs, blankets, reusable shopping bags. The Dollar store is a
good resource for finding gifts in bulk. Items in the kid prize box are gifts
that vary to cover both boys and girls and ages 3 to 12. Good resources for
this are the dollar aisle at Target and the Dollar Store.
3. Make a cake to feed 30-40. If you enjoy baking,
a homemade sheet cake is greatly appreciated. Pick a month that has a theme
even and enjoy making a creative piece. One December a congregant made a
Christmas tree cake that fed 40 residents. (Hint: two boxes of cake mix and a
large pan are what you need to cover that large group.)
Rona Bar-Din and Jenny Ettinger are the temple members that
currently head this project. Any questions? Ready to get involved? Please contact Jenny.