Student Helps Tarzana Homeless

Rachael Rosenberg, 13, has made a name for herself as a young philanthropist. The seventh-grade homeschooled student has been reaching out to the homeless through her organization, Rachael’s Bundles of Kindness. Rosenberg created the project for her Bat Mitzvah, with the help of her family and Temple Aliyah in Woodland Hills. “Not enough people have done enough about homelessness, so I thought I should take it into my own hands and do as much as I can,” she said. Rosenberg’s efforts to help the Valley’s homeless is echoed by the Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center, one of 35 local businesses and organizations to donate supplies to Bundles of Kindness. The Tarzana center hosted a blessing ceremony at the end of April, where sleeping bags, umbrellas, bandage kits and socks were blessed and presented to Rosenberg. Rabbi Stewart Vogel with Temple Aliyah, as well as Rabbi Avi Navah at the Tarzana hospital, led the ceremony. Providence donated Du Coeur bags, which means “from the heart” in French, to Rachael’s cause. The bags are made up of two blankets, formerly used to wrap surgical tools in, sewn together to provide a mat for a homeless person. “They retain heat and they’re weather resistant. The person that comes through here that is homeless, they get one of these if they want one to use, rather than cardboard,” said Shawn Kiley, director of Mission Leadership at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center. Rosenberg is still accepting supplies for packages geared toward homeless men, women and families; she hopes to have the packages ready for distribution in June. Hats and flashlights are still needed, said Deb Rosenberg, Rachael’s mother.