Yad B’Yad joins children and adult mentors

Stefani Vonharten is awaiting a match for her daughter Sarah, seen together at Yad B’Yad’s end of school year outing. Adult volunteers and the children they mentor played miniature golf and video games, went on rides and enjoyed a pizza lunch at the Yad B’Yad program endof school party at Celebration Station in Clearwater last month.

The party was one of several outings this past year for Yad B’Yad — Hebrew for hand to hand. A program of the Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services (GCJFS), it is dedicated to matching Jewish children from single family homes with Jewish adult mentors.

“Any child age six to 16 from a single parent family can participate,” said program director Deena Silver. “We are looking for volunteers to be friends and mentors and role models.”

Silver said that siblings of youngsters enrolled in the program are invited to activities so that they, too, may feel included.

The program currently is seeking both children and volunteer mentors. “September is our busiest time,” said Silver, “so now is a good time to find a match.”

Currently some seven children are waiting for a match, she said, but that number changes constantly.

For information on Yad B’Yad, call GCJFS at (727) 479-1818.