Looking Back at an Incredible Tikvah Family Shabbaton

Friends, this is a wonderful article written by a parent who attended our Tikvah Family Shabbaton last weekend, describing the amazing experience her family had. Here’s an excerpt:

Last weekend, my family and I drove up from our home in Rockland County, New York to Palmer, Massachusetts to participate in Ramah New England’s Fall 2014 Tikvah Family Shabbaton (Sabbath weekend). As parents, we are constantly thinking about what we can do to help R, our 7 year old, who has a diagnosis on the autism spectrum, and B, our 4 year old, a neurotypical preschooler. Although we know that parental self-care is important, our daily routines interfere and what we can do to help ourselves is often an afterthought.

The Shabbaton was completely different. The way in which our family generally functioned on a day to day basis was turned upside down for a precious 48 hours.

With every activity, service and meal, the amazing and capable tzevet (staff) who interacted with our family was warm, caring and supportive of all our needs – children and parents alike. I found that I was not worrying about R – and more importantly, not waiting for the proverbial “other shoe” to drop. I attended services, I had an aliyah (called to the Torah), I participated in interesting lectures. I had time and space to socialize with other parents of children with disabilities. We shared our experiences, empathized with one another and also did a lot of laughing. We came from several different states, but we spoke the same language.

Click here to read the full article.

Kol hakavod to Tali Cohen, our Director of Vocational Services, and to all of our spectacular Shabbaton staff!