COJO Flatbush brightened Chanukah last week for more than 200 Brooklyn seniors, mostly Holocaust survivors, with surprise deliveries of holiday treats, additional assorted edibles, and brain-teaser challenges for some extra fun.
COJO staffers and volunteers fanned out to houses and apartments in Midwood, Kensington, Boro Park, and adjacent neighborhoods to drop off the sizable canvas bags marked with the distinctive COJO Flatbush logo, bringing smiles and even some tears to the elderly recipients, a number of whom are homebound.
The bags were stuffed with cheese blintzes and potato latkes and apple sauce and chocolate coins and Brain Games “Sticker by Number” sheets – along with cottage cheese and tuna fish and rice cakes and challah rolls and apples and oranges. Many of the items, noted COJO Flatbush CEO Louis Welz, were donated by Met Council.
“Chanukah, of course, is a celebration of miracles that took place during a dark and dangerous time,” said Welz. “And the lesson we take from it is to never lose faith, no matter the circumstances. It’s a lesson that resonates this year especially, as we’ve experienced one of the most difficult periods – for many of us, the most difficult period – of our lifetimes. But as was noted in the letter we included in each of our Chanukah bags, real hope is very near and there is good reason to believe we can look forward to better times in the months ahead.”
In the meantime, COJO administrators and the staff of the agency’s Pikus Senior Enrichment Programs “wanted to let our seniors know we’re thinking of them and looking forward to a return to direct contact between us – our home visitations, frequent parties, luncheons, and other special events.”