{"id":2107,"date":"2022-06-16T13:49:36","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T17:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevoiceoflakewood.com\/?p=2107"},"modified":"2022-06-16T13:49:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T17:49:36","slug":"chaveirim-of-central-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevoiceoflakewood.com\/chaveirim-of-central-jersey\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaveirim Of Central Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Price of Kindness<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gila Reifer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much would you pay for peace of mind?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For safety?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For kindness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all know that the most important things in life are not things at all; consequently, you can\u2019t put a price on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like those \u201clittle things\u201d that turn out to be not so little after all when they go missing, go haywire, or go rogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting to a meeting on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting on your jewelry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dropping off your kids at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming home late after a simchah<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking your groceries out of the trunk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching the kids play outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaving to an important appointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going to bed in a quiet house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those are all everyday events, right? And usually they\u2019re not \u201cevents\u201d at all, but simply tasks that you need to check off of your to-do list, things that barely register in your brain, occurrences that you take for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s only when something interferes with those events that we suddenly realize how crucial they actually are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When your car won\u2019t start and your boss is getting impatient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When your diamond ring slips off and clatters down the sink drain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When your tire goes flat on the way to school and your kids are fretting about being late again<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re standing by your locked door\u2014sans keys\u2014with overtired children in wedding gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When your trunk won\u2019t budge and the ice cream is melting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When your son loses his prism glasses in a leaf pile, your daughter\u2019s cochlear implant has disappeared down the storm drain, or your toddler is nowhere in sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you discover that your keys are locked in your car and the specialist that you\u2019ve waited six months to see won\u2019t reschedule your appointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When nighttime lights out is accompanied by an unnerving fluttering of wings or scurrying feet somewhere in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d pay pretty much anything to get back on the road, back into the house, back to sleep, back on track, or back to normal, wouldn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where Chaveirim of Central Jersey steps in.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chaveirim is an all-encompassing organization, a team of altruistic volunteers shouldering the community\u2019s needs at every level. They\u2019re the glue that holds the town together, carrying the weight of thousands of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who is Chaveirim?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the 188 members whose ages span decades, you\u2019ll find blue-collar workers and white-collar workers, kollel yungerleit<\/em> and rebbe\u2019im<\/em>, professionals and businessmen, students and entrepreneurs. There are Ashkenazim and Sephardim, chassidim <\/em>and litvaks<\/em>, lifelong Lakewood residents and out-of-town imports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Name a segment of society and there\u2019s a Chaveirim member who represents it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite their differences, they\u2019re a motley yet cohesive crew, a big, happy family drawn to each other and united by their shared aspiration to help others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you put a price on life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the members of Chaveirim tend to be fairly low-key as they carry out their selfless assistance, most people are astonished by the massive scope of their services and their impact on the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chaveirim is the organization that people call when they\u2019re not sure whom else to call, and they\u2019re always ready and willing to tackle the most unusual situations. Name any frustrating obstacle that\u2019s derailed your day, and chances are Chaveirim has dealt with it on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are the \u201cHelp, my kid is stuck\u201d calls, where panicky parents need help to extricate their kids from the most original sticky situations. Chaveirim members have freed children\u2019s hands from toy handcuffs with missing keys, their legs from bike chains, their bodies from jammed seat belts, and their heads from stair railings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are the \u201cHelp, I\u2019ve lost my [fill in the blank]\u201d calls. When the lost \u201citem\u201d in question is a person, Chaveirim deploys its highly skilled search-and-rescue team to locate the missing child, adult, or elderly individual effectively and sensitively, regardless of the time, date, or challenge. Frequently, the missing item is a valuable one that\u2019s difficult or impossible to replace\u2014a pair of tefillin<\/em>, a piece of medical equipment, a family heirloom, even a barely visible diamond dislodged from its setting\u2014and is in a location that makes it practically unfindable, such as on the lawn, in a parking lot, or in a garbage dump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are the \u201cThis storm isn\u2019t just an inconvenience\u201d calls, where callers face weather-related challenges: downed trees, flash flooding, cars stuck in the mud, shattered windows. These calls can turn life-threatening, like when a blackout affects the home of someone who\u2019s dependent on medical machinery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are the \u201cThere\u2019s a creature in my house\u201d calls, which range from the annoying but not dangerous (bunnies or kittens in window wells) to the disruptive (birds or bats flying around the house) to the entertaining (raccoon in the driver\u2019s seat) to the downright hazardous (rabid skunk in the garage).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And these calls are all answered amid the flurry of more standard calls regarding flat tires, dead batteries, home and car lockouts (both the non-urgent and child-locked-inside varieties), traffic control, crowd control, and requests for heaters, air conditioning units, generators, and other equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are countless needs, and there\u2019s one organization that responds to them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Money can\u2019t buy everything.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it can help support those who make those invaluable moments possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chaveirim doesn\u2019t ask for much; they\u2019re not paying salaries to their hardworking coordinators or selfless members. But the annual budget adds up quickly, especially as they welcome new members to keep up with the ever-rising demand. Between insurance, communication equipment, tools, vehicle maintenance, and administrative costs, Chaveirim operates at a minimum biannual budget of $800,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These funds are essential\u2014they enable Chaveirim to be there through every challenge that life flings at us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your contribution benefits an organization whose main goal is to help you; when you donate to Chaveirim, you\u2019re essentially donating to yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s priceless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making it count<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n