2006

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, my son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all. 

One is EVIL. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is GOOD. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: Which wolf wins? The old Cherokee simply replied: the one you feed.

The Lyn Stacie Getz Foundation and all of our supporters are dedicated to feeding the “GOOD” wolf. This Foundation is all about helping children and whether it is by providing transportation, nutrients, wigs and other necessities for cancer stricken children, helping to feed families, providing toys and cheer to ill children, providing toys to underprivileged children at holiday times, helping to send children to camp, or establishing a program for children and mothers at risk – we are there and we want to help. The aim of the LSG Foundation is simply to try to improve the quality of life for children who cannot do it on their own.

Your help in this endeavor this past year has been outstanding. You have been generous and caring and we want you to know that we so appreciate your contributions to Lyn’s Fund. The good that is done by this Foundation is amazing and far reaching. Poverty and illness do not discriminate and neither does the LSG Foundation. As we reach our seventh year, we have made every effort to reach out, touch, and help children and parents of every faith and color. As we have said before, “while the LSG Foundation cannot cure the world – we can make a difference!”

The Gifts for 2006 are:

1. The Impatient Children at the Kennedy Krieger Institute 

The Kennedy Krieger Institute, located in Baltimore, Maryland, is a wonderful medical facility providing loving medical care and treatment for children with developmental disabilities. We learned about a special program in Atlanta that provides a holiday party for homeless children and thought that the same kind of joy could be brought to the inpatients at KKI . We approached Kennedy Krieger Institute with our plan to fund a party for the children and they were thrilled. We, then, approached Mrs. Zipora Schorr, Director of Education, at Beth Tfiloh Day School, to see if their high school students would like to participate and volunteer as a community service project to help put on a holiday party for the patients at KKI. Mrs. Schorr was delighted with the idea and immediately came aboard. What a win-win-win situation – all this with no overhead to the fund. The Beth Tfiloh students get to plan and implement a holiday party for very deserving ill children and the children at KKI get a chance to be recipients of entertainment, lots of fun, good food and holiday cheer – a wonderful party with special presents for all of the Kennedy Krieger Institute children.

2. St. Joseph’s/Candler Hospital 

St.Joseph’s/CandlerHospitalhasanoutreachprogramlocatedinSavannah,Georgia. This program, run by Sister Pat Baber, is dedicated to making life better for the children of low or no income parents in a very depressed section of town. They wanted to start a preschool program and asked the LSG Foundation to help. The program will run several days a week with programming both for three and four year old children as well as their mothers. The program for the children will emphasize language development to give the children a jump start for kindergarten, while the programming for their mothers, operating at the same time as the children’s programming will emphasize preparing for the GED exam and learning how to make and use educational games that will assist the development of her child. The three main objectives of this program are: to assist the children from low or no income families in closing the gap of language development and school readiness, assisting the mother in increasing her skills to obtain a GED to help get them off of public assistance and to make them independent and increase their standard of living, and to show the mother how to interact with her children to provide greater and necessary language stimulation. The gift from the LSG Foundation will provide the seed money to get this program started.

3. Ahavas Yisrael 

A gift was made to Ahavas Yisrael. This charity, one that we especially love, whose purpose is to provide assistance, especially food, to individuals – young and aged – and families in need in a dignified and discreet manner. Outside of postage and food storage costs, this charity has no expenses. All of the work is done by volunteers. There are no salaries, no office and positively no administrative costs. This charity, located in Baltimore, Maryland is a model for the way it helps people – quietly and without fanfare.

4. The Toy ClosetThe Toy Closet, a volunteer run project of Family Services, began in 1997 in response to various groups asking to donate toys. Since then the project has grown every year – children in need might receive toys at holiday season, toys for their birthdays, toys after moving into a safe house as a result of family violence, and even school supplies. This project is a totally nonsectarian effort benefiting hundreds of children in foster care and families receiving counseling and psychiatric care. Run by clinical social workers, Amy Schunick and Melissa Schnaar, who devote countless hours pro bono each and every year collecting items, finding sponsors, sorting, wrapping and then delivering the items to the social workers who have identified clients in need of assistance. This project is a perfect choice for the LSG Foundation to help – volunteer led, no overhead and benefiting children who need help. Fits our mission perfectly.

5. Kehillat Netzach Israel 

Kehillat Netzach Israel is a synagogue located in the city of Ashkelon in the south of Israel. After the recent war that affected so many of the Northern communities of Israel, the people of Kehillat Netzach Israel decided that the best way that they could help their fellow Israelis that had been so badly affected by the bombs that had fallen in the Northern part of the country was to have children from the north come to the Southern part of the country, where they were located, and have the children stay with them in their homes and invite them to go to the camp that that they were running that summer. Our gift helped to bring 20 children from the north to Ashkelon so that they could go to the camp. As someone once said, “the bombs take but one second – the scars last a lifetime.”

6. Feeding Program for School Children in Gondar, Ethiopia 

Our daughter and sister, Lyn, after whom this Foundation is named, long ago championed the needs of the children of Ethiopia. Surviving on little more than hope, and suffering day after day with the results of a hunger that is unabated and lingering, the Ethiopian children have long been ignored and many simply have not made it. The North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry has developed a feeding program that provides a simple meal – one egg, one roll, one potato, one carrot, a slice of cheese, and an orange -that allows each child to flourish both physically and in their school environment. Without it, concentration would suffer and physical problems would abound. Feeding these children is an awesome achievement and we wanted the LSG Foundation to be part of it. There is absolutely no deduction for any administrative costs for this program… 100% of all moneys received goes for the feeding of the children.

7. Christian Service Program

It is the philosophy of the Christian Service Program that each person, regardless of race, religion, or gender is deserving of respect and has a right to a life of dignity. Guided by this very simple statement, Christian Service Program, founded by Sister Margaret McCaffrey, provides for the basic needs of hundreds of people in Shreveport, Louisiana, who frequently lack even the simplest of life’s necessities. It provides hot meals, medical care, clothing, job training and other essentials to the many people for whom poverty is a way of life that may never cease. This small organization’s goal is to help others achieve independence, self-sufficiency and self worth. This area of Louisiana, especially hard hit by Hurricane Katrina, deserves our help.

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Beth Mann of UJC says: “Have you ever seen a flower growing in an unlikely place? Out of a rock, in a desert – it is always an odd stirring feeling to see life being generated in that way. On a certain level, it reminds us not to become complacent – that there is no limit to the possibilities of what can be achieved, even under the most trying of circumstances. And as we write these words, we think of the gift given last year to the Children’s Cancer Center at Sinai Hospital and the good that has been done there and the notes we have received from the parents of children with cancer who had no money to get their children to the hospital for treatment and care. As one father put it: “I cried when they gave me the gasoline gift cards because otherwise my son just would not have been able to get there and that would have been tragic. The staff at the hospital said it just right: the Lyn Stacie Getz Foundation impacts our kids and medical staff each and every day.

The gifts this year center on hope, gentle caring, recovery, joy, and need. Given without regard to race, color or creed and based only on the will to do good, the LSG Foundation is dedicated to the concept of making this world a better place for children and their parents who need help. We thank you for joining with us!

As the off Broadway show Meshuggah-Nuns says:

The Fiddler on the roof, plays his simple song to remind us life is fragile, and doesn’t last long
The Fiddler on the roof, in his simple way is sayig cherish every moment, of every single day

May the old year be finished with its curses and the new year 2007 begin with its blessings.

Carollee and Alan Getz
Randy and Stacey Getz
Joel A. Getz