Deputy Mayor's Delegation to Baltimore - April 2010

Deputy Mayor Shlomo Cohen lead a delegation of Ashkelon committee chairs to Baltimore in April, for partnership meetings. David Wolfson, Meir Bouhnik, Einat Turgeman, and Marcelo Burdeman, joined Shlomo and me on this trip, Shlomo Cohen presented the Mayor of Baltimore Stephanie Rawlings, with a framed commemorative set of stamps

To see more photos from city hall - press HERE

During the visit, Ashkelon delegation members volunteered in the community.

Sigal & Einat met the Baltimore Moms at a Moms' Mission Reunion

Tu B'Shvat At Dekel School with the "Moms"

The Ashkelon Baltimore women's forum is matched with a similar group of women in Baltimore. The women from Ashkelon carry out various volunteer projects and this year they decided to "adopt" Dekel school in Shimshon neighborhood.

Vered said: "we wanted to volunteer somewhere where there is a real need and where our help would be appreciated. We don't donate money or raise funds, we donate our time and our skills. We saw the wonderful work being done at Dekel school by the principal Sigal Yashar and her group of highly motivated and dedicated teachers, and we offered our help"

Last week on the Friday morning just before Tu B'shvat, the women took over classes at the school to teach the kids about the role of trees in our lives, and carry out creative activities. The kids enjoyed rolling out clay tiles and decorating them with trees, working to create drawings on aluminium sheets, creating mosaics and flowerpots, and producing animals out of dried fruit.

At the end of the activity Einat said "It was hard to tell who enjoyed the day more. We were amazed at our warm welcome. The kids were very enthusiastic, participated wholeheartedly in all our activities and were so proud of their creations".

At the end of the activity, the headmistress Sigal Yashar thanked the women "Thank you for your help and the wonderful experience enjoyed by the children and the teachers. It is good for the children to be exposed to volunteers who come to help of their own free will. This will help to teach them the value of giving and turn them into people who volunteer and contribute to society."

The Ashkelon women are excited to continue their contact with the kids and teachers at Dekel School.

nicole

Magnificent Moms Mission Mosaics !

The colorful mosaic wall panels, created by women from Ashkelon & Baltimore during the "Moms Mission" to Ashkelon in July 2009, were hung in the Michael Lapidus Baltimore Park & Lynn Stacie Getz Playground in Ashkelon this week.

The panels portray Israeli flowers and are now situated next to the Jerusalem plaques created by the Plant Futrovsky family in June 2008.

See photos of the plaques being created by the MOMs at a workshop run by Ashkelon artist Nira Portugaly HERE

Each panel is unique

Sigal's daughter Gily admires the panels

The panels are located to the right of the panels created by the Plant Futrovsky family.

nicole

Moms on a Mission - First night in Ashkelon

We have just arrived back from a wonderful evening in Ashkelon Park, with the Ashkelon Moms and Baltimore Moms, tired but happy!

The Baltimore Moms arrived in Ashkelon after a VERY early start this morning (4:00 am) and a full day at Masada and the Dead Sea, but still full of energy and enjoying themselves. It was a beautiful evening, on the cliff overlooking the sea. The Moms greeted each other with hugs, Leslie got things going with an ice-breaker activity involving an orange Koosh ball, and then it was down to the beach for martial arts and tai chi opposite the setting sun.

Supper was houmus (of course) and pootjie stew (cast-iron pots - slow-cooked on the campfire) with rice and fresh veggies, and then watermelon and homemade chocolate cake and cookies (Liron's mom Shulanit's handiwork) washed down with lemonade, and wine.

Hadar Madnick introduced herself and led some games (she'll be in Baltimore with Natan Mish to replace Tal & Liron as the second pair of shinshinim or "young emissaries"). Leslie ended off the evening with a singalong.

None of this description conveys the wonderful atmosphere, the warm hugs, the mutual smiles, and the non-stop talking and bonding. There is no doubt that our Moms have already made an incredible connection, and this is only their first meeting!

See more photos from this first evening in Ashkelon's beautiful National Park at sunset:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nikirose/MomsOnAMission#

Nicole

Moms On A Mission

The group of Ashkelon Moms (who have been "matched" with Moms from Baltimore who will be visiting next week on the first ever "Mom's Mission" to Ashkelon), met last night with Ashkelon staff and Jonathan Strausberg from Baltimore, at Suzi's house to talk about the Mom's Mission. See the video, filmed by Jonathan, where the Ashkelon women introduce themselves, on Jonathan's blog: under "The Power of Partnership" (entry for 24th June 2009).

See the video where the Baltimore women introduce themselves HERE