Super Sunday, the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City’s annual community outreach and campaign kickoff event, will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2, at the Jewish Community Campus.
This year’s event — co-chaired by Jeremy Applebaum and Tracy Shafton — features an open house (Note: open house begins at 10 a.m.) at which community members are welcomed for authentic New York bagels plus kosher pastries and smoothies, as well as three service projects aimed at fighting hunger in the community: a canned food sort for Jewish Family Services, baking cookies for JFS pantry clients and packing sack lunches for Harvesters’ Give Lunch program. The cost of ingredients for cookie baking and lunch packing is being underwritten by a generous family in the Kansas City community.
Other new elements include a partnership with the Jewish Community Center’s Sports & Fitness department, whereby anyone working out at the JCC during Super Sunday hours can come upstairs to enjoy refreshments and log their workout minutes, resulting in additional funds being raised to sustain and enhance Jewish life thanks to sponsorship of fitness minutes by additional generous community members.
The traditional phone calls to thank donors for their contributions to the 2014 community campaign and to ask others to make their commitments will occur, as will targeted outreach to those who use social media — this year, for every post on social media involving the hashtag #supersundaykc, a donor will contribute $1 to the fundraising effort, up to $500. Thanks to another donor’s generous match and double match offer, if the goal of 500 posts on social media is reached, the $500 will be matched, and then the total $1,000 will be matched again, resulting in a grand total of $2,000.
The idea behind all of the new components is to focus on community participation — whether via volunteering on the day, stopping by to show support, donating when called, giving “sweat equity” at the JCC’s fitness center, or simply spreading the word via social media, according to Super Sunday co-chairs Applebaum and Shafton.
“We feel these changes will enhance the community-building spirit of the day, which is what Super Sunday is all about,” Shafton says. “People give in a variety of ways, and we encourage that.”
“We look forward to everyone’s enthusiastic participation, and thank the many community members who have already volunteered and made donations to our 2014 campaign,” adds Derek Gale, director of financial resource development for Jewish Federation. “Together we will continue to strengthen the Kansas City Jewish community.”
Be sure to follow hashtag #supersundaykc on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get a glimpse of what’s happening in the Jewish community on Feb. 2, Super Sunday.