International volunteering

Jewish Pittsburgh will participate in Good Deeds Day 2014, an international day of volunteering, Sunday, March 9. It’s the second year Pittsburgh has participated in the daylong event.

Founded in Israel in 2007, Good Deeds Day drew 400,000 volunteers in 50 countries last year. This year, 530,000 volunteers are expected to take part worldwide.

Locally, more than 600 volunteers are expected, donating some 1,500 hours of service at five area locations:

• The Charles M. Morris Nursing Center, helping and socializing at the Senior Prom;

• The Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill, bagging snacks for after-school programs, making kosher meal packs for the Squirrel Hill Community Food Pantry and delivering canned food donations;

• The Jewish Community Center of the South Hills making no-sew fleece blankets for hospice patients and refugees resettling in Pittsburgh, and knitting or crocheting “chemo caps” and baby blankets for patients with cancer at Children’s Hospital;

• Shaare Torah Congregation, donating blood to Central Blood Bank and items to Global Links, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that promotes health in Latin America and the Caribbean; and

• Hillel Academy, sorting books collected in a recent book drive for distribution to Squirrel Hill Community Food Pantry, Sojourner House, Fulton Elementary School, Book ’Em, Big Idea Bookstore, Children’s Hospital and East End Cooperative Ministry; recording audiotapes to benefit children with special needs and preparing recycled paper for schools whose art budgets have been cut.

Good Deeds Day in Pittsburgh is an initiative of the Jewish Federation Volunteer Center. Event participants and good-deed recipients include many who are not Jewish.

The Giant Eagle Foundation and KIND Healthy Snacks are the event sponsors.

Contact Jessie Svec at 412-992-5229 jsvec@jfedpgh.org or visit jfedvolunteer.org for more information.

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