Alum Raises Money for Border Police
Aviva (’94) and Dov Katz made aliyah with their family more than a year ago to live in Ma’ale Adumim. This Chanukah they raised money to support the border policemen working nearby, providing gloves, pizza and sufganiyot. Read what the Katz family did and their continued effort to raise funds.
I am having trouble putting into words the emotions that ran through me today. I am so incredibly grateful to those who so generously donated in order to provide wonderful gifts for the soldiers this Chanukah. Today we had the ultimate privilege of being invited to the training areas of the army, where normally no outsider is allowed in this area. A van of soldiers came to escort us to the base and off we went.
Maybe 20 minutes from our house, we entered an entirely different world. As we drove further in, we saw many border police training; going through exercises and drills. A sense of pride came over me along with an overwhelming sadness. Sad that we live in times that we must send our babies out at 18 years old to train and see the evil in the world which we work so hard to protect them from while they are young.
When we arrived, all the men in the unit thanked us and some even hugged us for coming. I spoke to the unit and explained to them how much people all care, think of them, support their work and are thankful for their service. I told them that their service is so important, not only to our State of Israel, but the world. This love and support came from a small Facebook post and look how much people care!
They were incredibly thankful for the gloves (it is COLD out there!), the pizzas, sodas and sufganiyot. One soldier came up to me and told me that even if we had come empty handed, just the fact that we came is HUGE! Our support gives them strength to continue. Which made me tear up because in truth, it’s the knowledge that they are protecting my family that gives me strength to continue.
While we were there, they went through one of their training exercises. Amazing! One of the guys came up to me and discussed the importance of proper gear. The army does not have the funds to provide every soldier with all of the proper gear necessary. Many of the soldiers do not have proper hiking mountain boots and the regular army boots are really not sufficient for their type of work.
So, Dov and I are changing our fundraising goal and putting on a Purim deadline. Our goal is to be able to buy a unit proper boots. I hope to get a final total for this project soon, but it seems to probably be about 10,000 shekel. Email us to participate.