(Courtesy of Ohel) Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services will honor attorneys Adina Lewis and Lawrence Garbuz with the Harvey, z”l and Gloria Kaylie Community Impact Award at its upcoming 51st annual gala on Sunday, March 7, at 5:45 p.m. The theme of this year’s event, which will be broadcast virtually, is “Celebrate Strength.”
This time one year ago the world changed. In the face of deep uncertainty and events unprecedented in modern history, we all had to tap into reserves of resilience to confront these challenges. Before a global audience, Adina and Lawrence, together with the entire Garbuz family staunchly, courageously and successfully met these challenges head on. Being the first is often exciting. Being one of the first with COVID is very much not so.
Their unmatched display of dignified strength throughout the past year would by itself be something to celebrate. Combined with the couple’s longstanding and extraordinary dedication to the Ohel family, their story is even more compelling and inspiring.
As powerhouse attorneys who own a boutique legal firm specializing in estate planning, the Garbuzes regularly give of their time and considerable expertise to help Ohel’s neediest families, drafting special needs trusts to plan for their children’s long-term care. Their selfless generosity provides a priceless gift to anxious parents’ peace of mind as active members in Ohel’s Rose and Maurice Halpern Lifetime Care Foundation, which helps families plan for the future to ensure their loved ones with developmental and psychiatric disabilities, the homebound, and seniors receive the best possible care as they age.
Moreover, the Garbuz family name is synonymous with chesed to their friends and neighbors in New Rochelle and to all those who are fortunate to know them. Through their support of the Young Israel of New Rochelle and SAR, the Garbuzes lead by example and embody the values of giving of themselves and giving back, most notably for their four children, all of whom are following in their parents’ giant footsteps.
“Ohel is blessed to count Adina Lewis and Lawrence Garbuz as lay leaders within our organization,” said Ronny Hersh, president of Ohel’s Lifetime Care Foundation. “Their experience and noble service have helped Ohel make a genuine difference in the lives of the many people we help and the communities we serve. The partnership of outstanding professionals and baa’lei chesed like Adina and Lawrence deeply amplify Ohel’s impactful reach into the community,” he added.
“Celebrate Strength” also serves as a meaningful culmination of Ohel’s fortitude during the past year, in which the pandemic challenged its staff to maintain its breadth of vital services and programming for the 20,000 children, adults, and families that Ohel serves. And it marks over half a century of Ohel providing support and services to the community’s most vulnerable children and adults.
In response to the pandemic, Ohel has expended every effort to successfully meet the new and amplified needs of our clients, creating Thera-Zoom, an online platform of free webinars helping people cope with the effects of COVID. These include education and outreach to frontline workers, clergy, teachers, parents, support groups for older adults and new populations of bereaved families who have lost a loved one to COVID-19. Ohel also created the My Covid-19 Resilience Workbook for schools to help children adjust to new safety protocols and a collective feeling of uncertainty.
Ohel is the communal lifeline for the many individuals and families who count on the services it provides. Where people don’t have strength to meet the obstacles in their lives, they have Ohel. And Ohel has the partnership of its special direct support professionals and outstanding honorees, whose selfless service and generosity are emblematic of the people in our extended family.
The gala will also recognize Toby and Yoeli Steinberg and the Gourmet Glatt family, Guests of Honor; Shani and Dov Weinstock, Nediv Lev (Heart of Gold) Award recipients; and Libby and Shloime Dachs with the Shem Tov Award.
Gala attendees will be automatically entered to win an all-expense paid vacation to Dubai with an itinerary curated by Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, chief rabbi of the United Arab Emirates, or free tuition for one child at Camp Kaylie this summer.
To make reservations or place journal ads, visit www.ohelgala.org or call (718) 972-9338.
