A silent auction and raffle prizes were part of the evening's activities. (L-R) Carole Stamps acccepts her winning raffle prize from committee members Susan Green and hostess Kris Gross. (More Photos on Page 12) JAFCO, Jewish Adoption & Foster Care Options, held a fundraising dinner at the home of Kris Gross in Longport on Thursday, August 5, 2010. The organizing committee, most of whom also have residences in Florida and are familiar with the JAFCO site in Sunrise, Florida, cast a wide net and attracting one hundred and thirty people to the event.

The JAFCO Jewish Children's Village in Sunrise, Florida, is the only Children's Village of its kind in the Jewish community in the Nation. JAFCO has created a model child welfare program to help families deal with serious issues related to mental health, substance abuse and family problems, such as divorce, domestic abuse, incarceration, terminal illness and parent death. This model was created in South Florida but could be applied to any Jewish community.

As part of the long-term strategic plan, JAFCO hopes to share the model they created with other communities in the nation. They recently opened a JAFCO Northeast Development office serving PA, NY, and NJ.

Rana Bell, director of Northeast Development for JAFCO, has moved back to this area and is leading the effort to create a Northeast JAFCO chapter. Committee members included Elaine Friedland, Susan Green, Marlene Goss, Liz Schneider, and Carol Sussman, all of Ventnor; Sally Feldman, Donna Greenberg, Karen Schwartz, and Michelle Simon, all of Margate; and Kris Gross of Longport.

There is a strong connection with the Golden Slipper Club & Charities, as Michelle Simon, of Margate, one of the organizers of last Thursday's JAFCO event, also serves on the board of directors of the Golden Slipper Club.

Three years ago, Michelle was invited to a tea in Florida for the benefit of JAFCO, and she happened to have with her some brochures about the Golden Slipper camp in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. She asked the head of JAFCO if she wanted to send any of the children who are housed at the Sunrise facility up to Pennsylvania for overnight camp.

The answer was a resounding "yes," and this is the third summer that JAFCO kids have the benefit of camp. Two sisters from JAFCO were planning to attend both sessions at the camp this summer, but there were three days in between the finish of one and the start of the other.

Michelle and her husband Michael took one of the sisters in for that period of time, and Celeste Rose took in the other, with assistance from Marlene Goss and Simon's niece Marissa Zienteck. They all agreed that they had a wonderful experience with the JAFCO girls.

There is a plaque in honor of the Golden Slipper Club in the JAFCO facility in Florida.

At the fundraiser in Longport, Rana Bell showed a heart-rending video of the lives of three Jewish children who had been abused by their parents. Their lives were really saved by JAFCO, and the children speak for themselves on the video. The myth persists in the Jewish community that there is no child abuse, no drug or alcohol addiction, but the devoted staff members and supporters of JAFCO know that this is not true.

And they are determined to save all the children they possibly can. For eighteen years, the work has been going on, primarily in Florida, but the core of volunteers and professionals see the need to spread the word and the JAFCO mission.

All of the food was donated for the fundraiser, thanks to the efforts of Carol Sussman, of Ventnor, and her committee, who approached every restaurant owner they could find. The restaurants who responded include the following: Aversa's Italian Bakery of Brigantine, Casel's Supermarket, Chef Vola, Hannah G's, Inlet Restaurant & Bar, Malelani, Ozzie's Luncheonette, Sage Restaurant, Sofia Restaurant, and Steve and Cookie's by the Bay. Various committee members, like Elaine Friedland of Ventnor, donated all the wine.

For information on JAFCO, you can google www.jafco.org. Or you can call Rana Bell at the Philadelphia office, 610-397-8688.