When a woman I didn’t know in my neighborhood WhatsApp group asked for volunteers to launder blankets for soldiers, I immediately responded. In addition to the PR efforts I’m doing for Israel (but, frankly, who isn’t?), I’m always on the lookout for ad hoc projects to help out these days. There are lots of grassroots projects in every neighborhood in every city, but believe me when I tell you that there are more volunteers than there are tasks. Case in point: By the time I arrived to pick up the blankets 15 minutes later, most of them had already been claimed. But there were a bunch of pillows that needed a good wash, so I packed those up together with the last couple of blankets, happy to do whatever needed doing to support our soldiers.
And so it was that I found myself earlier this week with eight loads of non-standard laundry to do in less than 24 hours. Lots of people donated pillows, blankets, sheets, and pillowcases, and even though the soldiers would have been grateful just for that, there is something comforting about going to sleep, even for just a short time (soldiers don’t sleep much) on fresh-smelling bedding. Why not give the soldiers that small comfort?
So I washed and hung and washed and dried, and folded and packed, and then I delivered the freshly laundered pillows and blankets last night before the driver, another volunteer, arrived to pick them up. I was just a single link in a long chain of volunteers working to bring clean and fresh bedding to soldiers at a military base in the Golan Heights where it’s very cold at night. Lots of volunteers working to provide a small measure of comfort. But this is all we can do.
And as long as there was a driver heading to a base (it didn’t matter to me which one), I took the opportunity to add another small comfort — a big batch of cookies I quickly baked for the soldiers. They are all someone’s son, husband, brother, father, boyfriend and, to me, home baked cookies, maybe, bring a tiny bit of solace, inspire a vague feeling of home. I wish I could have done more. All of us here would like to do more.
For now, laundry and cookies will have to be enough. Until the next call goes out. And when it does, if it’s within my power to help, I will answer that call.
