On Thursday, May 31, Ma’ayanot celebrated its 10th anniversary of “Heartbeats: A Night of Song & Dance” to a sold-out crowd of 600 women and girls at Ben Porat Yosef. This year, the student-led performance raised a record-breaking $17,500 for Tackle Kids Cancer, which supports research on pediatric cancer at Hackensack University Medical Center. New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning matched the contributions for a grand total of $35,000. Amy Glazer, director of Tackle Kids Cancer, thanked the students and attendees for their support. “We are so honored to be a part of this event,” she said.

Guided by their faculty advisor, Dr. Shoshana Poupko, this year’s business heads were Shalva Faber, Malka Kaminetsky and Ayelet Marder; dance heads were Sarah Berman and Elisheva Mirwis; and song heads were Tali Antosofsky, Adira Levine, Dafna Levine and Davi Zlotnick. In a Dvar Torah introducing the performance, Principal Rivka Kahan described the reciprocal nature of chesed; students and community contributed their talents and came together to support a worthy tzedaka and ultimately were the beneficiaries of a beautiful evening of warmth and spirit.

As Dr. Poupko said, “We could not have done it without our very talented performers and hard working business heads, as well as all of the individuals who pitched in along the way. Thank you for making the 10th anniversary of Heartbeats so special.”