Three-year-old class donates to Save a Child’s Heart Foundation.

Submitted by Larah Winn, Mandell JCC

ECC teacher Felica Poretsky and a few of her students with the letter from the Save a Child’s Heart Foundation President. Submitted photo.

Three- year-old students of the Mandell JCC’s Beatrice Fox Auerbach Early Childhood Center took it upon themselves to donate nearly two-hundred dollars to a cause close to their hearts – Save a Child’s Heart Foundation – at the beginning of the school year.

Save A Child’s Heart (SACH) provides urgently needed pediatric heart surgery and follow-up care for indigent children from developing countries. Based in Israel, their mission is to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from countries where the heart surgery they need is not attainable.

Deeply moved by the classroom’s donation, SACH president, Barry Perlis personally thanked the students of Room 6 by writing, “Your donations will be used to help children around the world get well. Thank you so very much.”

Room 6 Teacher Felica Poretsky came to learn about SACH on her Mandell JCC Birthright trip for JCC professionals to Israel. Felica commented on the connection to SACH stating, “I was so inspired and touched by this wonderful facility. Being a teacher and working with children everyday, I couldn’t think of a better place to donate the money we had collected over the past year.”

Enrollment and membership to the Mandell JCC and its preschools is open to everyone. The Mandell Jewish Community Center, Zachs Campus, 335 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT, is open to everyone and supported by funds raised by the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, a recipient of funding from the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford, and a member of the JCC Association of North America. For updates, follow the Mandell JCC on Facebook and Twitter. All dates and programs subject to change.