Part of the Super Sunday Steering Committee—Jason Lurie, Guy Berkowitz, Jacob Mart, Amy Weinstein (YAD director), Jennifer Groves, and Shikma Rubin.
An outpouring of community support made the 2014 Super Sunday phone-a-thon one of the most successful in recent years. The annual event, held at the Sandler Family Campus on Sunday, Jan. 26, raised more than $100,000 from more than 320 donors, many of whom were making gifts to the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater for the first time.
Amy Weinstein, director of the Young Adult Division of the UJFT, says the nine young adult leaders who comprised this year’s Super Sunday Steering Committee deserve credit for coming up with a creative theme, “From Baby to Bubbe, Our Community is Extraordinary,” that resonated with the community, and for ensuring the phone-a-thon ran smoothly.
Additionally, Super Sunday 2014 marketing efforts included a very successful social media campaign that featured photos of Tidewater community members in a traveling photo frame. The Super Sunday Steering Committee wanted to show the world what “Community” really looks like; the campaign touched more than 15,000 unique Facebook users.
Weinstein also emphasizes the important role played by the 95 community volunteers who made phone calls or otherwise helped. In this still lackluster economy, Weinstein says, it is notable that so many gave their time to reach out to their fellow Jewish community members, and that the community—in turn—opened their hearts and made gifts to the UJFT’s Annual Campaign.
The success of Super Sunday is much more than just the dollars raised for the Annual Campaign. Super Sunday touched more than 400 people this year—volunteers and donors. The outpouring of support, from donors and volunteers, perfectly illustrates the Super Sunday theme: Our Community is Extraordinary.
“I think a big thank you is in order to all of the volunteers—and the donors. Super Sunday wouldn’t have been so successful without each of them,” Weinstein adds.
During the event, volunteers were fortified by the responses they were getting on the phone, as well as through the delivery of kosher pizzas, generously donated by Pepe’s N.Y. Pizzeria, located in Norfolk’s Ghent neighborhood.
You can still make a gift to Super Sunday; email your pledge to pmalone@ujft.org, visit www.jewishva.org/supersunday and make your gift online, or mail a donation to UJFT, 5000 Corporate Woods Dr., Suite 200, Virginia Beach, VA 23462. You can find the UJFT “This is What Community Looks Like” photos when you Like the UJFT on Facebook.