When Laura Cohen’s son had an overnight stay at Children’s National Hospital, Cohen had forgotten to pack snacks and her husband had left his phone charger at home. This “overwhelming” experience was made better by friends and family members who brought her son care packages and a small backpack of toys.
“Realizing that our community, our friends and family helped us was so powerful, and when we were so thankful that our son was okay and only had a short stay, I felt compelled to be able to provide that support for others who may not have it,” Cohen said.
The Bethesda resident enlisted the help of four friends — all local moms — who formed MoCo Mitzvah Moms in 2020: Julie Rachlin and Avery Sudow of Potomac, Nicole Schechter of Garrett Park and Molly Van Grack of Gaithersburg. Their mission? To help families spending time with a child in the NICU, surgery room or hospital.
MoCo Mitzvah Moms achieved 501(c)(3) status in August, making them an officially recognized nonprofit organization. But they started small.
“It grew out of a natural friendship,” Cohen said. “Many of our children were in Jewish preschool or knew each other from Jewish connections: camps and being involved in Jewish activities.”
The four friends received a text from Cohen that she needed their help for an idea, and they jumped on board.
Van Grack, who had a child stay in the hospital for 72 hours, said she had a long phone call with Cohen after receiving that initial text: “She’s such a connector. She knows so many different people and is so good at bringing people together.”
The five had their first meetings over Zoom, as the pandemic prevented them from meeting in person.
“2020, as we all remember, was a time where I think we felt like there was a dire need to be there for each other,” Cohen said. “[These meetings] gave all of us a sense of purpose, connection and feeling like we had an opportunity to make a difference, … strengthen our community and take action at a time when we were feeling so helpless.”
Cohen said although the group was brainstorming a community service idea, it was also “a reason to get together with [her] dear friends.”
The group is now 400 members strong. In their first year and a half, MoCo Mitzvah Moms hosted a variety of community events and packed more than 500 care packages filled with toiletries, snacks and other essentials for parents, collected and donated new clothes and games for children and raised money to fund future care packages. That number is now more than 1,500.
Van Grack said the care packages include snacks, water bottles, fidget toys for kids, hand sanitizer, wipes, mini coloring books and stickers. The moms’ own children get involved in packing and decorating the bags.
Each of the five board members brings a unique professional skill to the table. Cohen is an educator at Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School, which has held drives to collect items for the care packages. Schechter is a psychologist, Van Grack and Rachlin are in communications and marketing and Sudow works in communications and development at B’nai Israel Congregation, where some events are hosted.
Synagogues have provided space for the bag-packing events, which often feature a conversation topic of interest to young moms, including a summer camp consultation or a Q&A session on planning a b’nai mitzvah.
The group also holds community shopping fundraisers at local stores, an annual moms’ night out, OrangeTheory jazzercise classes, restaurant nights and a challah bake.
“It’s been a great way to bring people together and just get moms together in real life,” Van Grack said of MoCo Mitzvah Moms.
MoCo Mitzvah Moms was built from Cohen’s personal family experience and is also rooted in Jewish tradition, something that many of the moms in the group share.
“We’re doing a mitzvah,” Cohen said. “What we’re doing is such a connection to Jewish values and supporting the sick and helping each other out.”
Cohen said she has gotten positive feedback from the staff at Children’s National and Shady Grove Hospital, who receive and distribute MoCo Mitzvah Moms care packages. When Cohen visits the hospitals to drop off the packages, staff members tell her they’ve been waiting for more bags and hear from patients and families how much they appreciate the gesture.
At an event the group held at B’nai Tzedek Congregation, a teen told Cohen that she had received a MoCo Mitzvah Moms package when she recently had brain surgery at Children’s National and emphasized how much it meant to her.
“That kind of feedback firsthand is what keeps us going,” Cohen said. “Also, seeing the connections amongst our moms, recognizing each other from MoCo Mitzvah Moms events around the community.”
All five moms are juggling many responsibilities in addition to running their nonprofit organization.
“The five of us who are on the board, we have full-time professions; we’re all doing this on the side, and to know we’re making a difference is … just really gratifying,” Sudow said, adding that MoCo Mitzvah Moms meetings are “late at night” or on weekends.
“We’re taught from a young age that we can have an idea and see it through,” Sudow said. “This experience has been inspirational because I’m connecting with like-minded women, and from this small idea, we’ve been able to grow into this organization that’s making a direct impact on specific families.”
