EC staff and students at Academies at GBDS welcomed families in person to their Thanksgiving program. The theme of the program was kindness and gratitude. The theme corresponded with National Kindness month and was a perfect way to highlight the November mitzvah project, a sock drive for the organization Knock Knock Give a Sock, a nonprofit that collects socks for the homeless while also building relationships between neighbors.

Adina Lichtman, founder of Knock Knock Give a Sock, joined the program and read one of her books that explains homelessness to the children. Lichtman, who infuses her work with Jewish values, is motivated by her vision of a world in which people accept each other and act together to make a difference. The children were captivated by her story and were eager to offer their thoughts about the message of the book.