West End Synagogue will be honoring Adina Barocas with this year’s Social Action Volunteer Award. The honor is given to a synagogue member who has volunteered in the broader Nashville community.
The presentation will be made during Social Action Shabbat at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 7. All are welcome to the service and special kiddush luncheon.
Adina has served as the overall chair of the WES Room in the Inn Monday night winter shelter for the last three years. She has been responsible for arrangements with the Room in the Inn program, preparations for each week such as getting the beds (mattresses) ready, washing blankets from the week before (a job split with two others), putting up appropriate signage, shopping for and making lunches and getting breakfasts set up, as well as on Mondays often being the person in charge until the overnight volunteer arrived.
What motivates her? “I get such a feeling of pride and accomplishment by giving these men a warm and safe place to sleep along with food and clothing,” she said. She sits and talks with the men and learns “so much about life, their circumstances and their difficulties. I am blessed with everything I have now, and want to give back,” Adina added. “I can’t imagine the situation they are in.”
She herself, along with son Sam, has served as an overnight volunteer. During last January’s big snowfall, even though she was out of town, Adina coordinated with the downtown Room in the Inn program and with transportation, enabling WES to take on an extra night of shelter that week. And with the bitter cold continuing, she volunteered to take on yet another extra shelter night the following week for which she and Sam provided the food and served as the overnight volunteers.
The volunteer award includes a $1,000 donation to the awardee's choice of charity. Adina has chosen to split the donation between Abe’s Garden and Room in the Inn.
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