The local Jewish community is hosting its annual Mitzvah Day on Sunday.
The event starts at 9 a.m. at the Lubavitch Chabad Jewish Center, 2021 NW 5th Ave.
After an hourlong morning introduction, the event will continue with diverse projects hosted at different Jewish centers around Gainesville.
For the first time, the Jewish Council of North Central Florida is partnering with UF Hillel, Lubavitch Chabad Jewish Center and local temples for the national event to help Gainesville with more than a dozen different service projects.
“It’s an easy way for people to give back,” said Damien Boada, the community engagement associate for the Jewish Council of North Central Florida.
UF Hillel started its own Mitzvah Day six years ago, and Boada said the council followed suit the next year.
Boada said he hopes people will be inspired to go past just the one-day event and make the idea a daily habit.
Alexa Jacobson, a community service intern at UF Hillel, said she’s excited for this year’s Mitzvah Day because she has coordinated five service projects for it since June.
Some of the service projects offered at the event include baking cookies for children and families at the Ronald McDonald house, playing with animals from Alachua County Animal Services and playing outdoor activities with children in a field day at the YMCA at 5201 NW 34th Blvd.
About 500 people are expected to attend, Jacobson said, and volunteers have the opportunity to choose what impact they will have.
Sloane Bochman, a 19-year-old UF finance freshman, is running a community service project for the first time Sunday. She will be leading volunteers in creating care packages filled with T-shirts, food and water bottles for Israeli soldiers. She said she wants people to realize that the event is not so much religious as it is just meant to help others.
“You get your good feelings in for the semester,” she said.
Mitzvah Day is sponsored by the Jewish Council of North Central Florida Inc., UF Hillel, Lubavitch Chabad Jewish Center, Publix, Trader Joe’s, Panera Bread, Student Government, Jewish Student Union and local synagogues, according to a press release.
Volunteers who pre-register online can get a complimentary breakfast and T-shirt. Volunteers can use the hashtag #UFGivesBack during their service.
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 11/7/2014]
