CHAI BABY—Michelle Koplan, with 7-month-old Alicia, Michelle Katz, with 2½-year-old Avi, and Heather Friedman, with 21-month-old Jackson, are teaming up to bring a host of goodies to new parents with the Chai Baby program funded in part by an impact grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.
BB Camp alumni create welcome bags for babies
By Deborah Moon
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The B’nai B’rith Camp Alumni Association is reaching out to future campers very early—in fact these future campers are too young to even say camp.
Through an impact grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland the BB Camp Alumni Association has launched Chai Baby, a program to welcome new babies into the Jewish community with a bag full of gifts and information.
Chai (meaning “life”) Baby will provide welcome bags within the first few months after birth or adoption. The welcome bag, which can then double as a diaper bag, will include items useful to all new parents and some especially geared to Jewish parents. Bag delivery will begin for children born or adopted on or after Jan. 1, 2008.
The bags will include onsies, spoons, snack containers, burp cloths, knit hats, American Baby magazine, tzedakah boxes, Shabbat candles and Jewish calendars, among many other donations. Also in the bag are a host of coupons for things such as a free Baby Boot Camp exercise class for moms and infants, information on signing up for the PJ Library (which provides free books to Jewish families with young children), and a Shalom Portland Guide to Jewish Portland.
BB Camp Director Michelle Koplan said she first heard about a program to welcome Jewish babies into the community at a camp fair in San Francisco a few years ago.
“Chai Baby is an opportunity to involve new families and to expose them to Jewish camping early in family life,” said Koplan. “We know studies show Jewish camping keeps kids Jewish for a lifetime.”
So Koplan took the idea to her alumni association and Michelle Katz and Heather Friedman eagerly signed on to the idea and now co-chair the program.
Shortly after Katz’s son Avi was born 2½ years ago, the three women began the long process of deciding what form the program should take locally and contacting agencies and synagogues to get things off the ground.
“I was pregnant with Jackson and Michelle called me and asked what I thought and would I help with brainstorming,” said Friedman. “The three of us came together and the wheels started spinning and we felt this was an awesome idea for our community.”
“It’s exciting to see it come to fruition,” she said.
Katz said she agreed to co-chair the program because she sees it as a good way to build community. At the time she was also heading the First Babies group at Congregation Neveh Shalom. She said she’s seen families just beginning their affiliation with the Jewish community and “they were struggling just to meet all the other families with newborns.”
“This is a project that allows me to meet families and get them involved in all aspects of the community,” she said, adding, “I get to work with two friends on a fun, innovative and exciting program.”
Donations for the bags have come from JFGP, several congregations, Chabad of Oregon, Portland Jewish Academy, Mittleman Jewish Community Center and Knit Knut Funky Fashions for Kids.
Volunteers are needed to help deliver bags to families.
To volunteer, to sign up a family to receive the welcome bag or to donate to the program, call 503-452-3444 or email the co-chairs at oregonkatz@Comcast.net or flying4kix@aol.com.