Daniel Katz, Boca Raton resident and founder of the Katz Day School, together with his family, walked into United Hatzalah headquarters on Monday, April 25th, the third day of Passover, and donated an ambucycle with his future in-laws, Moshe and Shari Hirth. The ambucycle donation was made in honor of his daughter’s engagement to the son of the Hirth family, both of whom were in attendance.
“We walked into United Hatzalah and we saw an ambucycle sitting there that had been donated in honor of someone else, and we said to one another, ‘let’s do that for our kids. Let’s honor our children with a new ambucycle on their engagement.’”
A week later, students from the Katz elementary school came to the national headquarters as part of their 9 day Israel trip to meet the Founder and President of United Hatzalah, Eli Beer. “Eli is certainly one of the modern day heroes of Israel,” said Katz. “We tried to introduce the kids to someone special every day of the trip, true heroes of Israel, and Eli is certainly among them.”
After meeting Eli and seeing United Hatzalah operate, the kids got back on the bus to head to their next event. Before they left, one of them decided to pass a hat around the bus in order to see if any of his friends, all of whom are in eighth grade, would be interested in donating pocket money to the organization. During the visit, the students saw a brochure that listed the cost in dollar amounts for different pieces of medical equipment. Two of the chaperon families who were on the trip were also inspired to donate, and between the families and the students the group raised enough money for a defibrillator.
“The kids themselves felt that there was such an amazing thing happening at United Hatzalah that they wanted to be a part of it,” said Katz. “We went to many other places and saw many other worthy causes but the kids didn’t do this anywhere else. These kids are smart and they saw something unique, something exciting and practical, happening at United Hatzalah. It was totally spontaneous, and that shows that they get it.”
Katz said that he was particularly surprised by the students’ initiative. “I’ve worked with a lot of children, and the work that United Hatzalah does is what really stands out as a good example of how we want to educate and influence our kids. When we asked the kids at the end of the trip what the highlight was, the students said that, ‘being able to help and contribute in a meaningful way, in their own way, is what stood out for them. The fact that we could do a mitzvah and really contribute is what was special to us,’” reported Katz.
