Filmmaker Meir Kay went out to the streets of Crown Heights, asking passersby who they would nominate for the Yocheved Gourarie Kindness Award and surprising them with special gifts.
Meir surprised the nominees with gift cards from stores, restaurants, bakeries, beauty salons, and flower shops, to continue spreading kindness.
The Kindness Award honors Yocheved Gourarie obm, and celebrates the acts of kindness―specifically of teachers, friends and classmates―that create a culture of empathy and support within the Crown Heights community.
Children in Chabad schools in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and other locations have been invited to nominate a teacher or friend that inspires them with their kindness.
Over 80 submissions have been received, with many more coming in daily.
The response has been overwhelming, with people being nominated by students, friends and family. Submissions have been received by people from all walks of life who were inspired by Yocheved Gourarie’s story.
Award recipients will be chosen from nominations made at kindnessaward.com. Nominations should be thoughtful, focusing on the people who made themselves present in the moments of silence, pain, transition and growth. Friends and educators who saw you for, well, you. Winners will be chosen across three categories, thanks to the funding of its generous sponsors. First prize will award a Morah and a Rebbi with a prize amount of $15,000 each. In the second category, a childhood friend will be awarded $5,000, of which half will be given to one of three charities selected by the Gourarie family. Third prize―to award a classmate―is still to be determined.
The closing date for nominations is October 19th.
An Award ceremony will follow.
VIDEO:
This is so awesome!!!
We need more of this thank you Meir Kay!!!
Moshe Rubashkin hands down Yosef Yitzchak Kratz believe it or not can get a nomination as well even though he works for 770 He is in charge & devotes time & energy to the Chessed fund & also equal if not Greater is Benjy stock
They know how to give graciously and uphold the dignity of the recipients. The way in which you give is crucial according to halacha.
I’m sure they will be graciously repaid.
This is so special!!!
What a beautiful thing to do.
Really amazing!
I want to mention the BR HOO program. They help hundreds of families every year!
May her neshama has an Alya
Yasher Koach to the sponsors!!
There are some angels among us and we have no idea of the extent of what they do.
So, i don’t want to dampen anything of this initiative – anything that promotes kindness is cool, and meir kay is cool, and this program to honor a special person is cool, but why limit the nominations so narrowly? only a student can nominate a teacher? only institutions of crown heights? why not include all citizens in this kindness infection? why not let everyone nominate anyone they want? let the love spread far and wide. or the other direction. since the person being honored for her kindness was of a certain challenging age and social space, why not limit the… Read more »
If you open the website. You can find the answers to your question.
Meir K i love this video
must necessarily be limited by the amount of funds raised for the awards. Those people who would like to broaden the possibility of awards to anyone kind in one’s life should be the first ones to contribute very generously to the Yocheved Gourarie Kindness Award. That would surely enable many more awards to be given to many more people, not “just” to a person’s most memorably kind teacher, friend, or classmate.