Mayor Gives Out Chabad’s Awards

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Adrienne Tooch

Mayor of Markham, Ontario Frank Scarpitti presented awards to the volunteers of Chabad of Markham’s highly successful Tikkun Olam project on Tuesday evening May 15th.

Beautiful certificates signed by the Mayor were presented to the families who gave of their time and talent to help the needy, homeless and elderly across the GTA. The presentations were made in the Council Chambers by the Mayor in front of the families of the volunteers.

Chabad Markham Youth is always out to bring children closer to their Judaism through diverse and interesting activities, Shabbat and holiday programs and outreach activities.

One of our very successful project is called: Tikkun Olam.

Under the dynamic leadership of Mattie Schurder, each month Chabad families meet and get involved with Mitzvot to benefit a needy or less fortunate group in our city.

Activities such as baking 1,000 muffins for the homeless, buying and wrapping 500 presents for Chai Life children. Setting up a clothing drive for the homeless downtown and offering them Starbucks coffee and cake, dressing up for Purim and delivering Shalach Manot to the seniors in the Hospitals and Seniors Homes.

These are just some of the multi-faceted and diverse activities our families are involved in.

The most beautiful outcome of these events is the reactions we receive not only from the recipients but even more so, the response from our youngsters.

Overheard downtown Toronto, during a frigid winter day, the families were handing out warm drinks, coats, blankets to the homeless and one child tells his mom, “Today is the best day of my life!”. Incredible! Because b’h these children are blessed with so many material things, and yet this is what truly gives them joy.

The Mayor of Markham wanted to acknowledge the great work of Chabad and chose to honor these families by hosting an evening in the Council Chambers and presenting each family with an award.

“This was so much fun and rewarding,” says Rachel, age 9. “I loved meeting the Mayor”.