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• THE GOOD PEOPLE FUND

It is with great enthusiasm that I write this letter to highly recommend the Good People Fund for the Great Nonprofits list of Top-Rated Jewish Nonprofits. One reason I am so impressed with this extraordinary umbrella tzedakah is that it supports a wide variety of worthy causes and innovative projects, most of which are grass roots and do not receive major support from any one source. I continue to be inspired as I read about the profound impact of this fund on people who are in need of food, clothing, comfort, support, companionship, and healing, both of body and spirit. Moreover, I know the overhead is minimal and that the leadership is deeply committed to ensuring maximum effectiveness of gifts, honesty, and transparency. I have known the Executive Director, Naomi Eisenberger, for approximately twenty years, and I have full confidence and faith in her outstanding, devoted work that makes such a meaningful difference in the lives of so many people who depend on us to be G-d’s partner in healing broken lives.

About how many people could it be said that in their lifetime, they were responsible for helping 10,000 of thousands of people? Naomi Eisenberger is one such person. If not for her, the agency that I direct would not exist. In 1988 I was diagnosed with Leukemia, and the first specialist which I saw told me that I had no chance to live. I eventually was hospitalized for six months at Sloan-Kettering in Manhattan, whereat I received a bone marrow transplant. During this time my family had to spend $20,000 for an apartment so that my wife, mother and children could be nearby. After I was cured I became a Hebrew school principal and in that capacity I received the Ziv Tzedakah newsletter. One of the mitzvah organizations that ZIV championed was the Boston Hospitality Program, an agency that provided free lodging for patient-families coming to the Boston area for medical care. The mission spoke to me, so that I contacted ZIV to discuss creating such a program in Philadelphia. It was then that I first met Naomi. With her help, in 2000 we created HOSTS for HOSPTIALS (HfH)to provide free lodging for patient-families coming to Greater Philadephia area hospitals for specilized medical care. Over the next nine years she was influential in promoting HfH so that we received onoing funding directly from ZIV. She also promoted our cause with her colleagues from other foundations, with the result that during the last five years one of these foundations has significantly funded our efforts to set-up host-homes programs in other cities nationwide. Indeed, in the coming year we will be setting up such programs in six new cities across the country. Through our first ten years HfH has provided lodging to over 1,500 patient-families for a combined 43,500 nights of lodging. These families in the process have saved an estimated $2.7 million in equivalent hotel expenses. In another ten years we'll be able to multiply these numbers tenfold or more as other host-homes programs are set-up nationwide. NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF NOT FOR NAOMI! And HfH is but one of the scores of agencices that Naomi has promoted over the years! We are so blessed that she will be continuing the monumental work of ZIV through the Good People Fund!!

Our experience with The Good People Fund has been through Naomi Eisenberger. We are a small grassroots organization helping families of children battling cancer and other serious illnesses, and supporting pediatric cancer research. Naomi been instumental in forming the structure of our organization. She has shared with us her years of non-profit experience in such a way that is honed in to help our specific organization just where we are at this place in time. Naomi is very gentle and warm in her approach but her words are very impactful. She talks, we write notes! Each sentence is filled with vital information. Our organization has benefitted tremendously from her guidance. I only hope that the "Good People"(people of the Good People Fund) can fully comprehend how many people Naomi and the Fund has helped directly and indirectly.By strengthening the Foundations, the "Good People"are touching the lives of the thousands of people the foundations help. May we all be blessed to continue Tikkun Olam! From our Board and our families, a great big thank you to Naomi and The Good People Fund!

How can I explain TEN YEARS of long distance, unconditional support, encouragement and empowerment of middle school kids by Naomi Eisenberger? How can I express the transformation in middle schoolchildren when adults named Danny Siegel and Naomi Eisenberger contacted them and asked the kids what tools they would need to change the world? The 11-14 year old children, half living in a housing project, responded with a "Wish List" of poster board, markers, white out, pencils and pens, envelopes, stationery and stamps. A week later, a huge Staples box arrived at the school (the Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy, MA) filled with the tools they listed plus some Twizzlers to keep kids' energy up! Perfect! That was ten years ago. Every year since then, the Quincy Kids write to Naomi and Danny explaining how they used those tools to spread the word about child labor and how they united with other schools in other states to fundraise and establish schools in developing countries. The kids co-founded Operation Day's Work-USA ten years ago. A school or orphanage or community health center was created each school year in Operation Day's Work. Projects funded by kids exist as a result in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burundi, Maiti, El Salvador, Nepal and Bangladesh and in Vietnam. www.odwusa.org How do you get U.S. youth to be active global citizens? Let the kids write a wish list. Then, put those tools in their young hands. The more that adults like Naomi Eisenberger show a belief in kids, the more the kids believe in themselves. It doesn't take millions of dollars to repair the world. It just takes adults like Naomi and The Good People Fund and a true belief that youthful idealism can become practical activism. Hundreds of children's lives have been changed as a result over the past ten years. Naomi is the ten year guardian angel of The Quincy Kids and their life changing after school club called Operation Day's Work-USA. Thank you Naomi. I wonder how many "good people" you have discovered, shown a belief in, then empowered? The Quincy Kids are blessed you noticed them and their ten years of after school activism. Thank you, Naomi! Ron Adams, teacher and adviser to The Quincy Kids: Operation Day's Work-USA at Broad Meadows Middle School 50 Calvin Road Quincy, MA 02169 USA

The Quincy Kids helped build two schools in Ethiopia

I have known Naomi Eisenberger for the past 15 years. Because of Naomi and the Good People Fund the Redistribution Center, Inc. has be able to continue to help thousands of people throughout the U.S. that are in need. Naomi is a blessing to thousands, she has dedicated her life to others. She is our friend, our family and our mentor. The Good People Fund is a blessing and so is Naomi. Thank you for making dreams of other come true. This is a great Non-profit!!!!!