“Without this program, we wouldn’t have had a Minyan on Shavuos!” said Rabbi Menachem Andrusier, Chabad shliach in the rustic town of Manchester, Vermont. “Thanks to the bochurim you sent us, our community was able to hear the Aseres Hadibros read and bring the Yom Tov spirit so powerfully to life.”
For the past four years, a beautiful Shavuos Visitation program has helped shluchim living in geographically remote areas with no family or fellow Lubavitchers nearby. Organized by The Ufaratzta Circle, a small-community outreach department at Merkos 302, this remarkable project sends groups of Yeshiva bochurim to more than 40 shluchim throughout North America for the Yom Tov, helping the community make a minyan for Krias HaTorah, imbuing the communities with an energetic holiday chayus, and bringing powerful chizuk to the shluchim and their children.
For the shluchim’s children, the bochurim’s visit is specifically impactful, as these children often experience the most loneliness during Yom Tov at home without friends or schoolmates. As one shliach from Arkansas wrote, “Our children benefited immensely from the bochurim’s attention – they patiently played with them for hours over the long Yom Tov and were true role models for how chassidishe bochurim behave. My son cried after Yom Tov when the bochurim left!”
As a special bonus, the bochurim bring along a beautiful kosher care package full of milchig treats that for these “front line” shluchim families, with cheesecakes and blintzes and pizzas and other goodies that aren’t available anywhere near where they live. One bochur that traveled to Ashland, Oregon last year said, “The children broke out in a dance when we gave them the care package!”
The program was conceived by the Hammer family of Five Towns, who had often experienced the care and support from shluchim in remote locations on their travels and wanted to give back to these shluchim in a meaningful way. With their incredible generosity, the program is now in its fifth year.
As word of this program has spread, however, the number of shluchim requesting these special visitors has increased by leaps and bounds, with 65 shluchim families requesting bochurim this year.
With this overwhelming number of requests we are in need of outside financial support in addition to the Hammers’ generosity, to send bochurim to all 65 of these shluchim families, help them make minyanim, and turn their Yom Tov from something potentially quiet and lonely to a time full of increased simcha, chayus, and chizuk. We need your help!
Please partner with us to help these shluchim and their families celebrate a joyful Yom Tov with their families and communities!
The airplane tickets to “Small Town, USA” cost between $200-$600 per bochur, and the care packages of milchig treats are $100 each.
Every gift counts and every dollar will go towards giving these special shluchim the loving care and support that they give to so many others throughout the entire year.
As we prepare to to receive the Torah b’simcha ub’pnimius, give this gift to shluchim families as well! A Yom Tov gift that will uplift their entire family and that they will remember forever.
As Mrs. Bassie Feldman, shlucha in Halifax, Novia Scotia, shared, “As a member of Tzivos Hashem, our son is given opportunities to mark “missions” to receive prizes. He was devastated when we had no kohanim over the entire Pesach, and he couldn’t complete his mitzvah missions through no fault of his own… When you sent us bochurim for Shavuos, one of them was a Kohen. We watched with such nachas as our son proudly and joyfully stood under his father’s tallis on both days of Yom Tov for Birkas Kohanim.”
Please donate today so we can tell the shluchim, “YES! Bochurim are coming, thanks to the care of your fellow Yidden!” and arrange the flights and packages in time to arrive for Shavuos.
If you would like to donate a mileage ticket or foods for the packages, or if you are a bochur who would like to participate, please contact UC@merksos302.com.
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