Mitzvah Day, December 25, 2011, part two.

Then Ez and I drove to the Durham JCC, where Mitzvah Day was beginning. There were around 450 Jews there getting deployed to various homeless shelters, blanket making activities, etc. Ez and I went to Ronald McDonald room in the Duke Hospital pediatric ward.


Volunteers had provided turkey, green bean casserole, stuffing, etc. I baked a cake and two pies and other people had baked goodies as well. I was elated to sit at the dessert table and ply people with treats: only the sickest children stay on the ward over Christmas so these were some worn-out, worried parents. I'm not saying a piece of buttermilk chocolate pie lifted their spirits, but at least it lifted their blood sugar.

By the time we left, we'd doled out an amazing amount of food, not just to families but to nurses all over the place, even the PICU, nurses who'd given up their Christmas to be with the kids. There's no amount of chocolate that is enough thanks for the work nurses do! Ezra felt like Santa Claus bringing big plates to the nurses who couldn't leave their stations.