Spotlight on Gemach
Strangely enough, at our clothing gemach, we noticed that this
year, with an extra bonus Adar month for Pesach cleaning, people
nevertheless began doing their closets even before Tu
Bishvat. This is how we happened to receive ten bagfuls from a
kalla gemach on the fourteenth of Shevat at one of our collection
depots.
If the public was really into Pesach, they must be into Purim, too,
we thought, and duly brought two bags over on the following
Sunday.
Out of the first bag came one stunning, magnificent, pearl-studded,
appliqued bona-fide, even clean, wedding dress. Why they gave it
away is our guess, because it was in excellent condition.
Hashgocha Protis, anyone? One of the volunteers working that
morning was a young kalla shortly about to be married. Had
we saved this particular bag until right before Purim, it would
have been after the wedding. Another volunteer took one look at the
dress, another look at the girl, and made the shidduch.
It was a perfect fit! Straight to the chupa! Imagine,
getting a wedding dress at a clothing gemach! Will wonderful
wonders never cease!
And now that we have your interest, we'd like to put in a few good
suggestions about clothing gemachs in general. WE LOVE TOYS. We
love linen and towels, even not full sets. We love shoes that are
rubber- banded or shoelaced together. We don't even mind
shmattes that are CLEARLY LABELED in a bag, preferably with
a Magic Marker and a huge X. We love girls' Shabbos dresses in good
condition, ditto for boys' trousers and shirts. We like
sheitels, hats and girls' barrettes, curtains. But not
things that need fixing, especially at this time of year. And we
love NEW things that you have no use for. How about maaser
of wedding or baby gifts?
WE HATE shoes that are single, worn and non-repairable (we get
them, I don't know why), same for TZITZIS that cannot be worn. For
some strange reason, people think we are a geniza gemach and
send us old Torah notebooks, worn siddurim, parsha handouts,
odd pages etc. Why? We HATE odd socks, since these cannot be sold
for weight, either.
And a tip: don't overdo the sorting at your end. Each gemach has
its standards and specific needs, and will probably re-sort, in any
event.
So get to work, the sooner the better, for us!
And now, some FEEDBACK
"Your recent article, `The Singles Crisis," underlined a great
problem. I do NOT have the solution, but I did want to add a
postscript. Some of the impediments to non-professional matchmaking
are:
"1) If singles and their families become oversensitive to
suggestions, especially those they feel are not suitable, people
may stop suggesting. 2) People need encouragement to stay actively
involved in matchmaking since it is very time consuming. 3) The
expense of long distance calls can make it prohibitive. One
matchmaker wryly commented, `Hashem makes the matches, but I pay
the phone bills.' [We think he's got it all wrong. Hashem pays the
phone bills, too, but] it helps when he sees it, i.e., when the
parents offer use of phone cards or reversing charges.
"Thanks for providing a wonderful platform for public issues."
R.O. from Ramat Shlomo, Jerusalem
PASS THE PLATTER
A great idea for finicky eaters from S.N., Jerusalem.
I have invested in sectioned disposable plates. My kids play
airplane meals, overnight camp meals, restaurant and so on. Never
before did they go for salad vegetables, but now that it comes in
the sectioned plate and in seemingly smaller portions, it seems so
much more exciting and appetizing. We let them help plan the menu
to be colorful, healthful, eye appealing, balanced and yummy,
too.
Sometimes we make an open sandwich supper, just like hor d'oevres
in the cookbooks. Pretend this is a bar mitzva appetizing table.
The trick is to trim the crusts and cut the bread in very small
shapes: rectangles, squares, circles (and don't throw away the
cutouts: French-toast them). Spread with mustard, mayonnaise, egg
or tuna salad, white, yellow or spread cheese and decorate with
circles of olives, cut cherry tomatoes, thin carrot curls (with
your peeler), pickles, cucumber and so on.
You can decorate your vegetables with mustard and ketchup put into
a plastic bag and squeezed through a small hole at one end. They'll
love that, too.
