In a delightful departure from the usual annual fundraising dinner, Ben Porat Yosef held its first-ever “Evening of Achdut,” a parent and staff appreciation event that took place on Tuesday evening, March 15 at Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck. The idea behind the new event was to create an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the parent-staff communal partnership that has resulted in the extraordinary education and special environment that defines BPY. The entire “BPY family” was acknowledged for the time, talent, energy and creativity invested by all who contributed to the school’s continued success.
The “Evening of Achdut” was chaired by BPY’s PTO co-chairs, Jodi Cohen and Jamie Toporovsky, who took the reins of the event, and shaped and planned it with their committee of volunteers and staff, who helped generate ideas for this evening. Many entertaining activities were featured that brought parents and staff together, such as human bingo, a photo booth, an auction chaired by Cori Robinson and Deborah Blaiberg, videos both of the school’s recent Discovery Learning Day program and of children’s humorous responses to everyday questions and many other team-building moments.
A highlight of the evening came when the parent-staff crowd was able to celebrate several recent communal successes of the school in different areas.
High School Admissions: For three years of graduating eighth-grade classes, all BPY eighth graders have continued to be accepted to the yeshiva high schools of their choice. BPY’s reputation for producing graduates who are not only academically prepared, but who are also individuals with wonderful middot, continues to grow and students are in high demand at all of the area high schools.
Security: Through the school’s new partnership with Global Operations and success receiving a Homeland Security Grant, the safety and security of the school community has been enhanced tremendously. The work and focus of the parent-school committee in this area have yielded success.
BPY Torah Garden: After much planning, the school is starting its own organic school garden. The garden, called “Grammy’s Torah Garden,” has been dedicated in memory of Dr. Ruth S. Jacobs by her children and grandchildren: Laurie, Steven, Devorah, Akiva, Ariel, Rafi and Naomi Ruthie Eagle. It will serve as an outdoor experiential classroom for students and faculty across all the grades. Students will be able to eat some of the fresh produce grown in the garden and the school hopes to donate some to a local food pantry as well.
Reader’s Workshop Implementation: This year BPY began its transition to the Reader’s Workshop model in grades K-8 to ensure that students develop strong comprehension, fluency and decoding skills as well as the strategies they need to navigate texts independently in high school and beyond. This approach in the classrooms, thanks to the dedication, enthusiasm and focus of the school’s talented teaching staff, is already yielding obvious and impressive results.
Beit Sefer L’Musica: On Friday, March 11, the annual BPY Beit Sefer L’Musica performance took place. Elementary-school Judaic studies faculty worked with the students to produce an amazing show of Israeli musical performances. The joy and excitement on the children’s faces as they performed were priceless.
With this new focus on having an “Achdut” event rather than a gala dinner, BPY has adopted the best practices in the area of fundraising for independent schools. The school has worked hard over the past few years to shift its fundraising practice away from centering on a single high-cost gala event. As a result, the school’s annual campaign has become more successful each year, and the funds raised have been able to be directed solely to supporting educational programming, tuition assistance for families in need and curricular enhancements, rather than to cover the significant expenditures typically required to produce a gala dinner. This year, through the creativity of BPY’s event planning committee and the generosity of certain key vendors, the school was able to significantly reduce the cost of the event and transform it into an even more enjoyable evening of camaraderie and appreciation for parents and staff, the two parties who are the keys to the success of the school. All were able to enjoy the event together without any additional couvert so that all could comfortably attend.
The triumph of the evening was undeniable, with its success measured by the palpable feeling of unity and warmth among all present. The “Evening of Achdut” provided the perfect forum to the BPY community to celebrate all that makes the school the special.
