Teaneck—Tova Weinstock of Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Aviva Segal of Bergenfield are Teaneck-born-and-raised sisters who have found a meaningful way to honor the memory of their mother with a Mother’s Day flowers fundraiser for Sharsheret.
“Our mother, Hindy, loved flowers. As soon as spring arrived, she would be outside, happily working in the yard. Luckily, she shared that love with us, and we have so many amazing memories of helping her pluck weeds, plant perennials, and set up the sprinkler in just the right way so that each flower would get watered,” the sisters said.
Hindy worked as a speech pathologist at a school for children with learning disabilities in the Bronx. According to her children, she took pride in her work and the connections that she made with her students who mostly came from broken and distressed homes. Her garden at home was a haven for her family. “Her love for the outdoors and nature was our main drive for creating the flower sale,” Tova Weinstock said.
Hindy Weinstock passed away 11 years ago, and the two sisters, who also have a brother, Yosef, always dreamed of establishing a fund in her memory. While Tova is a professional organizer and founder of a company called Tidy Tova, and Aviva is a nurse at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, neither had much experience in either fundraising or flowers. Undaunted, they approached Sharsheret early last year with the idea of a flower sale. “Our mother died of breast cancer, and since Sharsheret provides so much support and resources to women and families affected by cancer, we knew we wanted to contribute to their charity. The team at Sharsheret suggested we sell flowers on Mother’s Day and raise money to establish a jewel in our mother’s memory,” said Weinstock.
“Mother’s Day was always such a difficult day for us, one that we could no longer celebrate with the absence of our mother. It would be really hard to see others joyous on this day. But then we realized that this is actually the best way for us to continue celebrating Mother’s Day, even though our mother is no longer with us. We could give a new meaning to the holiday and create something really beautiful,” Weinstock said.
Over the next few months the sisters created a fundraising page on the Sharsheret website, reached out to our friends, family, and local synagogues to publicize the sale, sourced the best flower distributor in the area, found the perfect paper to wrap each bouquet in, and printed thank you cards to tie on to each bouquet. Last year’s efforts paid off. “We raised $10,000 and sold close to 150 floral bouquets,” she said.
This year, the Sharsheret Mother’s Day Flower Sale in Memory of Hindy Weinstock will take place on Mother’s Day, May 11, at Congregation B’nai Yeshurun in Teaneck from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. The sale is also set up to take pre-orders which people can sign up for with the link at the bottom of the article.
The sisters are offering 12 stem bouquets in varying combinations—mostly pinks, yellows, burgundy, and white flowers. Each bouquet costs $20 and 100% of the proceeds go to Sharsheret. The sisters this year have enlisted friends to help with their pre-sale preparations, which last year took approximately 40 hours.
“We are hoping to grow the sale each year and eventually expand and sell at multiple locations,” said Weinstock.
The order deadline for pre-orders is Monday, May 8, 2014. Flowers can be pre-ordered at this link: https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=sharsheret&id=46. There is also an option for additional donations to be made to Sharsheret on the page. For more information, please contact: Aviva Segal at 201-446-7304 or Tova Weinstock at 201-446-7422.
For more information about Sharsheret’s free, national programs and services for Jewish women and families facing breast cancer and ovarian cancer, please visit www.sharsheret.org or call 866-474-2774.
By Elizabeth Kratz
