Yeshivat Noam fifth grader Temima Baker recently celebrated her 11th birthday. While wishing Temima a happy birthday, her savta mentioned that it might be nice to find a chesed Temima could do in honor of her birthday, and Savta offered to sponsor the endeavor.

According to Temima’s mother, Rachel, Temima immediately “thought of kids who might not be able to be in school and have fun every day like she does.” She narrowed her focus to children in the hospital and decided to make beaded bracelets with encouraging, inspiring messages for those children in a difficult situation.

Temima enlisted her friends at school to join her and with some beads sponsored by Savta—and some brought in by friends—the group spends every recess and break time, with much energy and excitement, hard at work beading beautiful bracelets to cheer kids up with messages like brave, strong and love. Even when some girls were out sick with COVID, they joined the group on Zoom and encouraged their friends to not lose sight of their goal.

The plan is for the bracelets to be delivered by a friend who works at one of the area hospitals.

“Temima and her friends thought that maybe if they shared their project in The Jewish Link, they could inspire other kids to join or even start a chesed project of their own,” said Rachel.

The girls are already brainstorming their next project: cards for the elderly to perk up their day.

By Michal Rosenberg