"Stay Safe"

Jewish Cub Scouts craft holiday packages for military
 
By Shani McManus
 Journal Staff Writer 

Armed with paint, glue and good things to eat, more than 25 Jewish Cub Scouts from Troop 770, ages 7 -11, set aside their usual Monday Scout meeting time at the Jewish School of the Arts in North Palm Beach, to decorate and pack about two dozen Rosh Hashana packages for Israeli soldiers. The Scouts' special packages will be hand delivered this week by Chabad of Palm Beach member, Miriam Franks, who is going to Israel for the holidays.

Supervised by den mothers, Sandy Morris and Dana Francis, the Scouts decorated each bag with holiday symbols, crafted a personal "Happy Rosh Hashana" card, and stuffed every holiday bag with honey sticks, apple chips, and Honey Nut Cheerios. In addition, each package contained a laminated, prayer card with words from Psalm 27. And to give the whole enterprise a touch of reality, the Scouts painted their faces with brown and green paint representing a soldier's camouflage.

"Because of Rosh Hashana, I thought it might be nice to acknowledge the soldiers," said Frances, a Palm Beach Gardens resident who has two boys, BJ, age 10, and Jeremy, age 8, in the Cub Scout troop.

"The kids had a great time," she added. "We called it 'Army Day,' and while we were painting the [children's] faces, we talked about the war, and what the soldiers have to do to camouflage themselves," she said.

"Dana and I tied the project to the holidays," said fellow den mother and Jupiter resident, Sandy Morris. "They loved it. The boys put their names on the cards, which were handmade as well, and we painted their faces because we're teaching them about the soldiers in the army."

The Rosh Hashana cards the Scouts included in their holiday package were personally signed by each boy and said: "Wishing you a very Happy and Healthy New Year. Stay Safe and Keep up the hard work ... Troop 770."

"The children were extremely excited with the good deed that they did," said Rebbetsin Chani Ezagui, who organized the Jew Cub Scouts. Seven-year-old Cub Scout, Andrew Morris, would agree.

"I liked doing it because we made [the soldiers] feel happy for Rosh Hashana," said 7-year-old Andrew Morris.

And 8-year-old Boruch Ezagui said it made him happy to do something for the soldiers in Israel.

"It's a nice thing to do for the soldiers because they work very hard for our people," he said.

"Scouting the Jewish Way" for boys ages 7-11 meet every Monday from 5:30 - 6:15 p.m. at the Jewish School of the Arts in Chabad on Palm Beach, 844 Prosperity Farms Road in North Palm Beach. For more information, call 561-624-7004.