The excitement is building for the JFS Birthday Bash, an inclusive celebration of Jewish Family Services' milestone 120th anniversary of helping people in the Greater Kansas City community.
The event will take place on Sunday, April 23, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. throughout the Jewish Community Campus in Overland Park.
“We believe JFS provides quality, thoughtful and needed services in every program they provide,” said JFS board member Jenny Isenberg. ”We recognize how lucky we are as a large, extended family to be available for each other in many of the same ways that JFS is available to people in our community, including us.”
Isenberg is leading a committee of volunteers and staff in planning the event.
The Birthday Bash will include engaging hands-on service projects, a birthday party with sweet treats and kid-friendly activities as well as a birthday-themed food drive. Capping the morning off will be an interactive performance with singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb, who won a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album.
“The Birthday Bash is a particularly exciting event because it’s multigenerational and offers the opportunity for younger generations to learn the importance and joy of giving from their own families," Isenberg said. “There will be lots of activities for all ages, some for taking home, experiencing or eating, and some for giving to brighten up a life. I invite everyone to sign up to share in this special celebration.”
Isenberg is part of the presenting sponsors/families for 120th Birthday Bash that include the “Sunday Night Dinner Family,” consisting of the Barnett, Epstein, Isenberg, Babs & Bill Lowenstein, House and Poskin families. Isenberg’s inspiration for the April event came from her family.
“The birthday idea was a fun match for us because, as teenagers, my sister Lynn Poskin and I were birthday party helpers, organizing games and giving puppet shows with the collection of puppets that our mom, Babs Lowenstein, used at Temple B’nai Jehudah for many years,” Isenberg said. “In our family the puppets have always been regular party-goers.”
Following the Birthday Bash, JFS will host a 120th Celebration on Aug. 24 at The Madrid Theatre. Further details will be released soon.
For the year of celebration, JFS’s 120th Honorary Families include the Krigel, Regnier, Sosland, White and Fried families. All five families provide financial and philanthropic support as well as vital advocacy to JFS’s mission and the people it serves.