Rabbi Shull welcomes the USY on Wheels group. (Photo by Sam Freedenberg)
At 6:13 pm on Wednesday, June 22, we got a call from Abby Kerbel of the Seaboard Regional United Synagogue Youth office headquartered on the 2nd floor of Tikvat Israel. “We’ve got a problem and we may need your help,” she said. She explained that a USY on Wheels group at a nearby hotel getting ready for a dinner prepared by Moti’s Grill, but their hotel was unable to heat it up for them. “Could you heat up our dinner, and host 50 teenagers in about an hour?”
“Of course,” we said, “we’d be honored.” We quickly mobilized, with our kitchen coordinator Bonnie Cowan coming back to the shul to turn on the ovens and serve as mashgiach, and Amy Matathias, Harley Liebenson and Marlene Mirman helped to put out additional tables and chairs.
At 7:15 the bus arrived, 50 teenagers and their chaperones walked into the TI Social Hall (past “USY on Wheels: Welcome to Tikvat Israel!” signs), and enjoyed a delicious dinner of meatball subs.
In the meantime we contacted Rabbi Shull to let him know what was happening, and he came over to greet the USYers (a few of whom he knew from New Jersey) and wish them safe travels on their cross-continent trip.
An hour later everyone was back on the bus, heading downtown for a nighttime tour of the monuments.
We received this thank you from Sasha Bloch, head of the Regional USY Office:
I just wanted to say a huge thank you again for opening your doors to USY on Wheels Bus B last night. I so appreciated your willingness to jump to the rescue when the original Bus dinner plans didn’t work out. You dropped everything to make sure that the USYers had a fantastic experience when the Bus was thrown a curve ball and were so thoughtful to make them down to the detail of including Welcome signs on the front doors of the shul!
Thank you again for helping us make sure that USYers are having a fantastic experience, especially when they are here in Seaboard!
