I write this short note as late as possible on deadline night to say a heartfelt thank you to all of our family and friends, virtually all of them part of our readership, for enabling the Bayit Association that I co-founded with Adam Chill and Rebbetzin Bassie Taubes to hit and exceed our 72-hour matching campaign’s goal of $1 million. At press time now we are closing in on our bonus goal of $1.3 million, with well over 1,000 contributions large and small. We have figuratively and almost literally been blown away and bowled over by the positive responses.
With the help of 44 special Ambassadors of whom many, but not all, are parents or close relatives of individuals with IDD (Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) and/or autism from the Northern NJ area, the last few days have been filled with such a powerful, upbeat and persistent energy as we received one positive response after another, almost nonstop all day long. As we called, texted, emailed and WhatsAppped (and apologies to the many who probably got tired of seeing our messages), the warm response from so many in our community, from our good friends, casual acquaintances, business connections and family members was a joy to be on the receiving end of. It’s a feeling that I wish I could bottle and share.
The experience of running such a campaign – short and focused as it was – has been so powerful and empowering. It gives me such chizuk as we look to formally open the first home in the next 2-3 weeks and move ahead as quickly as possible to make sure that our second home is finished. If you are reading this and donated to this campaign as so many did, you should know that you now own a portion of the second Teaneck home. I truly look at it that way, and I hope you do as well.
Our goal on the financial end was $1.3 million (after a bonus round) but our primary goal is still creating beautiful homes and housing that currently don’t exist in our core Northern NJ community for our special children and adults with IDD/autism. With this campaign, we have taken more than a few steps forward in making the dream of housing for all who need it a reality. With Hashem’s help and a lot of effort, we will get there, but we feel a lot better about it today. Thank you and thank you again (we can’t thank you enough) for all your support and your trust. We at The Bayit Association will do our best to not let you down!
(And of course, you can still make a donation at our campaign site – causematch.com/bayit – which will stay open for the next 30-40 days or so.)
Donation Info for the Bayit Association (if you missed the campaign):
We are a fully approved 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our EIN Number is: 86-1535722
To donate to the Bayit Association of NJ, you can send a check to the address below:
The Bayit Association of NJ
1415 Queen Anne Rd – Suite 210
Teaneck, NJ 07666
You can also donate via a donation site we have set up here – https://pay.friendlygateway.com/bayit OR https://tinyurl.com/bayitnow
One can also donate via Zelle to: [email protected]
One can also donate via Paypal Giving via the link here – https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=34GV7PFDRD9AL
For those wishing to donate through a donor-advised fund, we have been vetted and approved by the Jewish Communal Fund and Fidelity Charitable.
