The donors: Kate Schatzky and Shawn Kimel
The gift: Raising $500,000
The cause: Ve’ahavta
When Kate Schatzky was growing up in downtown Toronto, her parents taught her to respect everyone regardless of their station in life.
That included reaching out to homeless people. Her parents helped her understand that “anybody can end up in that situation and most people are just looking for a bit of human connection,” Ms. Schatzky, 35, recalled from her home in Toronto.
Over the years, she worked with various charities but she always wanted to do more and thought about starting an organization to help the homeless. Then a friend put her in touch with Ve’ahavta, a Jewish organization that runs programs to fight poverty such as an arts project, life skills training, a mobile outreach van and a job-placement service. Ve’ahavta is Hebrew for “and you shall love” and Ms. Schatzky said the group operates from the premise that “we all love each other and take care of each other, even when we don’t know each other.”
Ms. Schatzky got involved in fundraising and she and her husband, Shawn Kimel, are co-chairing an event on Dec. 8 called Act to Impact. Volunteers will spend the day working on activities to help the homeless such as making sleeping mats and blankets, preparing food packages for the mobile van and packing supply kits for participants in the training programs. About 400 people are expected to participate and each has been asked to donate at least $25. Ms. Schatzky is hoping to raise $500,000 from the event and other fundraising activities and Mr. Kimel has donated $100,000.
“I can’t think of a greater purpose than helping to restore someone’s dignity and independence,” she said. “The work Ve’ahavta does makes Toronto a better, kinder and safer city for us all.”