every year, on christmas, the jewish federation of metro detroit organizes a mitzvah day. voluteers are organized into groups to serve over 30 social service agencies in the detroit metro area.

two years ago, i volunteered at a domestic violence shelter where we decorated the house for christmas, and made christmas dinner. the looks on the kids faces when they opened the door and saw that the house and tree had been decorated was priceless. luckily, costco donated lots of toys so we were able to wrap them and put them under the tree for the kids to open. (thanks costco).

it was funny actually, to watch a bunch of jewish people try to make christmas dinner. i think we did pretty good except for the ham. after we were done cooking, the volunteer coordinator came back to the kitchen to see how we were doing. we showed her all the food we made for dinner: the turkey and stuffing, salad, mashed potatoes. while she was clearly impressed and appreciative, she also had this confused look on her face. very politely, she asked, “where is the ham?” “the ham?” we panicked and then looked back in the refrigerator. it was only then that we noticed a foreign piece of meat wrapped up in the back of the refrigerator. who knew? but they were still very happy with the meal and it all worked out ok.

this year, i went to vista maria in dearborn. vista maria is a private, non-profit community center for adolescent girls in need of help. while there, we visited, talked, played scrabble and did crafts with the girls.

i was so impressed with the volunteer coordinator who prior to us volutneering provided a history of the program and its mission. i’ve gone to mitzvah days before that we just went in a served meals or did whatever was needed but didn’t really learn about the agency or its mission.

we learned that vista maria was established in 1883 by the sisters of the good shepherd but has its roots in france. in the late 1930′s the need to increase the facility became apparent. after receiving help from the salvation army to raise money for a new building, the ford family donated 50 acres of land.

vista maria

*mitzvah is a hebrew word meaning a good deed.