by Elyse Ingber

Jump for joy. Jump for Jen­ny. Jump-A-Thon. Jump for Col­orec­tal Can­cer Research. 

Wait, what? What is all of this jumping?

Through Jew­ish Book Coun­cil, Sid Jacob­son JCC engaged Ellen Bari, author of Jump­ing Jen­ny, to enter­tain the chil­dren of our Ear­ly Child­hood Cen­ter on Novem­ber 16. Ellen worked with both the Cen­ter for the Arts and the Ear­ly Child­hood Cen­ter direc­tors and teach­ers to devel­op a mul­ti-media pro­gram to cap­ture the atten­tion of our 2‑, 3‑, and 4‑year olds. The stu­dents col­ored cut-outs of Jen­ny, the book’s main char­ac­ter, and our pre-sale of the book ensured that they went home with a signed copy. It was an incred­i­bly suc­cess­ful day.

But it wasn’t over!

Inspired by Jump­ing Jen­ny, the chil­dren decid­ed that, like Jen­ny, they could use their jump­ing for good. And so, the Jump-A-Thon was born. On Novem­ber 30, par­ents and friends spon­sored chil­dren at both the JCC and Brookville cam­pus Ber­nice Jacob­son Day School & Camp for a pen­ny a jump in hon­or of an Ear­ly Child­hood Cen­ter teacher who was recent­ly diag­nosed with col­orec­tal can­cer. In total, the cen­ter jumped 8,812 times and raised over $2,000 for the Colon Can­cer Alliance.

There was tzedakah, there was laugh­ter, there was a con­nec­tion to a book that urged us to make a dif­fer­ence. And, yes, we jumped for joy.

Elyse Ing­ber is the direc­tor of per­for­mance and visu­al arts at the Sid Jacob­son JCC.