Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Home News
During the religious school wrap-a-thon, 11-year-old friends Nate Diamond and Ethan Russo, right, carry presents they wrapped to the table of gifts ready to be given to a family in need as part of the adopt-a-family project at Midbar Kodesh Temple Dec. 16.
Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008 | 2:52 p.m.
For a group of Jewish children, wrapping Christmas gifts for a needy family is a cross-cultural exercise.
"Some of these kids have never done it before," Daniella Muller, a Midbar Kodesh Temple religious school teacher, said.
"As you can tell by looking at the them," added teacher Abbie Villanueva, who then laughed.
The wrapped gifts won't be Martha Stewart Living masterpieces of foil and folds, but it won't matter much to the needy family destined to unwrap these gifts Christmas day.
For seven years the students have adopted a family from the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation every Christmas as a mitzvah project, said Rachel Kline, Midbar Kodesh vice president. A mitzvah is a good deed.
Kline also hired a Santa Claus to bring the presents to the family's Henderson home. Her husband, pediatric oncologist Dr. Ron Kline, treats the family's 3-year-old daughter for leukemia.
"We're trying to get the kids to realize that not everybody is as fortunate as they are," Rachel Kline said. She organized the event with her daughter, Ariel.
Even though they don't celebrate Christmas, they can still honor another's beliefs, Kline said.
Temple children wrapped 150 gifts for the parents and six children, aged 3 to 13, ranging from kitchen appliances to Bratz dolls. Kline estimated the temple, at 1940 Paseo Verde Parkway, invested about $3,000 into Christmas gifts for the family.
The teachers presided over a craft table while a gaggle of squirming students wrapped gifts in star-speckled paper with endless reams of tape and ribbons.
Eleven-year-old Ethan Russo, of Seven Hills, wrapped a Christmas tree for the needy family. But the significance of the object was a little lost on him.
He thought the gift was cool because "it was big." But he was more interested in a White Sox hat.
The hat has a serendipitous story. It began as a request on the gift menorah, the temple's version of the traditional angel tree.
"My first reaction when I saw the gift card was, 'Where am I going to get a black White Sox hat in Las Vegas?'" said Susan Tecktiel, of Henderson. "So, last weekend we went to a bar mitzvah in Chicago and the DJ was throwing out prizes, including this one black White Sox hat. My son, Ari, made it through the crowd and caught it. He brought it back to me and said, 'Look what I found for the family in Las Vegas.' So we wrapped it tonight."
Becky Bosshart can be reached at 990-7748 or [email protected].
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