With Thanksgiving right around the corner, the Hofstra community is giving thanks through the 1,000 Thanks (& Giving) Project, through the encouragement of Hofstra Hillel.
In its ninth consecutive year, the project allows a member of the community to send a message of gratitude to another member of the community via bright yellow cards distributed by Hofstra Hillel. The cards suggests that people, “Send a note of thanks to someone at Hofstra who may not often hear expressions of appreciation for their work.”
The University Jewish Chaplin Rabbi Meir Mitelman started the project with a colleague in an attempt to do something concrete in the spirit of Thanksgiving. “As we were brainstorming we came up with this idea, let’s create little cards and let’s encourage people to write to people who aren’t usually acknowledged for all the work they do that’s so important to the life here at the campus, and to people who don’t usually hear expressions of appreciation,” Mitelman said.
Hofstra Hillel and the co-sponsors of this project – the Office of Residence Life, the Interfaith Center and the Inter-Fraternity/Sorority Council – encourage people to give thanks to those who don’t often hear expressions of appreciation. There is no restriction on who you can send a card to.
“In some ways, I think it’s probably especially meaningful to folks like Public Safety and custodial staff and plant staff, who often don’t have that much interaction with people,” Mitelman said.
Jimmy DeLeo, an 18-year veteran of custodial services at Hofstra has been receiving cards for a few years now and really appreciates the project. “I think it’s wonderful, the Rabbi is doing a great job. What’s nice is that it recognizes the unsung heroes – and there are many unsung heroes,” he said. DeLeo, along with the other members of his team, set up virtually every table and chair in the Student Center for different programs and events. He keeps the cards he’s received posted on a board in the office where he works.
“You’re sitting here busting your chops all day and a lot of people don’t notice it, but it’s nice to see that some people do and that’s what each one of those cards on the board means,” DeLeo said.
Jennifer Gold, a graduate student working on a degree in literary studies and a member of Hofstra Hillel, highlighted the importance of a project like this. She said, “Thanks and giving cards are amazing because despite the hustle and bustle on campus, we should still have time to thank the people that we love and appreciate.”
The project used to just be called the Thanks (& Giving) Project, but after having successful years, the “1,000” was added to the name, to encourage the community to make the goal of completing 1,000 cards. “It’s very exciting, the first couple years I think we got maybe three or four hundred cards, the next few years was in the five to six hundred or so range, and then two years ago we got 700 cards, and we thought, ‘Wow let’s shoot for over a thousand the following year,’ which was last year,” Mitelman said.
Last year, that goal was met, and surpassed, with about 1,700 cards distributed throughout the university. “We were just so focused on students writing cards before the last two years, but we starting giving them out to all the administration folks, faculty folks and staff folks,” Mitelman said.
“It’s getting widespread, where now custodians are sending them out to administrators and vice versa,” DeLeo said.
This year, the goal is to complete 2,000 cards. Hofstra Hillel asks that people bring the cards to their office by Wednesday, Nov. 18 so they can deliver them to the recipient before Thanksgiving. They will, however, continue to distribute the cards after the holidays if they receive them late.
Mitelman discussed the project’s significance to the Hofstra community and why students should contribute. He said, “It helps keeps us humble and it reminds us that there are a lot of people out there who make a difference in our lives that we never get to thank – or maybe we get to but we don’t – and this is to heighten that awareness.”
