Combine ESRA volunteers who love to knit, with children who need warm sweaters..... and Bingo .... a very special ESRA Knitting project is born.  

Established 4 years ago with some skeins of donated wool, this remarkable group of knitters has grown exponentially. This year 170 beautiful sweaters were hand-knitted for 162 children in 11 Moadoniot (After School Clubs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds) run by the Rishon Municipality's Welfare Department.  

Shortly before Hanukkah, groups of ESRA Rishon volunteers arranged parties each week to distribute the sweaters, together with donated goodies (doughnuts from ‘Chalom Yaacov’ and 'Strudele' bakeries, sweets from Carmit, and dreidls). As the children were invited to choose sweaters from the beautiful assortment, their eyes beamed with joy!  The children showed their appreciation with a Hanukkah song, or a poem, or a beautiful picture. Below you can see a thank you letter written by one of the children.

Our adopted Moadonit, Ofakim, was chosen to receive extra treats. A pet expert came with small animals and the children were delighted to be able to hold and pet rabbits and hamsters.  After selecting their sweaters and scarves they were presented with recorders to get them started learning music.

We left each group with a lump in our throats and a song in our hearts – and, as volunteer Naomi Aharont said: ' with a goal to reach out to more than eleven Moadoniot next year'.

In this video clip prepared by new volunteer Mal Tobias, you can see ESRA Rishon chair, Janet Kiesari, together with Marion Levy, coordinator of our volunteer tutors, and Lorna Taub and Shirley Frenkel who run the ESRA Rishon knitting group.

Kol Hakavod to all concerned!