This year there are more than 1,000 Project Give Back students in over forty classes a week.  They are following their hearts and inspiring each other with their projects.  We are so proud of the young leaders who choose Jacob’s Ladder for their Project Give Back journey as well as those who choose over 600 other wonderful organizations.  Awareness is key and these Grade 4 and 5 students share what we do so well. Many of these children continue years later to be enthusiastic supporters and volunteers of their chosen charity.

Both Jacob’s Ladder and Project Give Back lost a very good friend this past year. To honour the memory of this extraordinary man, each year one Project Give Back student will be presented with The Joe Goodbaum Award of Excellence, affectionately called “The Joey”.  This student will embody qualities of empathy, generosity and leadership – all character traits that Joey himself represented.

Erin Sade, our first recipient of “The Joey” is a Project Give Back Alumnus who had chosen the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem as her charity to honour the memories of those who lost their lives in the Holocaust. As part of her research she participated in the Twinning Project that allowed her to commemorate her Bat Mitzvah with a child Holocaust victim. Her effort has resulted in in her working as an Ambassador for the Canadian Society of Yad Vashem.  She has been visiting classrooms across the city and telling young people about her experience with the Twinning program and educating children about the Holocaust. This project was recently recognized further when Erin was honoured at the National Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa.  She received the Cantor Kraus Catalyst for Change Award.  Congratulations Erin on a well deserved honour.