Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday April 16, 1999

Brandeis Hillel student philanthropists hand out $14,000

JOSHUA SCHUSTER
Bulletin Staff

Elliot Scher loves the musty smells, shaggy beards and thunderous hoofbeats of the dozen bison that roam a fenced-off section of Golden Gate Park.

The 13-year-old San Franciscan wanted to somehow help the animals. So earlier this year, he turned to his Brandeis Hillel Day School classmates, hoping to impress upon them the need to care for the local herd. The class was in position to help with more than $14,000 to give away.

Last year, the classmates' parents, instead of buying b'nai mitzvah gifts for each of the 33 students in the seventh grade, decided to pool $150 per student to create a charitable fund. The students serve as CEO and board members.

The Seventh Grade Fund totaled about $5,000 at first. But since then, several national charitable funds took notice and pitched in matching funds.

Michael Kesselman, program officer for the S.F.-based Koret Foundation, gave guidance and nudged Koret to contribute funds and expertise. He arranged for several charitable organizations to showcase their work before the class.

A parent of one of the board members, Kesselman saw the new philanthropy as a chance to establish "a sense of responsibility that a young person must begin to take on when they become an adult member of the Jewish community."

Scher -- now an eighth-grader -- was the only one in his class who personally took on the task of presenting a cause.

He had first come upon the bison in 1997 while cleaning weeds in the paddock for Congregation Sherith Israel's mitzvah day. Immediately taking a liking to the beasts, he also discovered their problems. The sole male in the herd, King Lear, had recently died, possibly poisoned by something he ate.

Scher spent six weeks researching the bison for a class report. The best way to help, he concluded, would be to buy a $10,000 holding chute -- used to hold the animals when they receive inoculations.

Currently, a zookeeper has to chase down the animals and shoot them with a tranquilizer-filled dart gun. But the tranquilizer makes the bison regurgitate and become ill.

Scher made a passionate pitch to his classmates. A one-man stampede, he roared off reasons why the bison need help.

"It's not just another drop in the bucket," Scher told his class. "It will be something you'll hear about, you'll see it carry on" in later years. He brought in a bison activist to help motivate the class. But the board voted down that plan earlier this year. Scher was crushed.

"The class just turned its head on the bison," he said. "I think the moment the class found out the park service had to cut down two eucalyptus trees, they became tree huggers and forgot about the bison."

Other classmates said they weren't sure the bison were such an urgent cause. "We only have so much to give out," said Erica Schoenberg, 13, of San Francisco. "I'm interested in something if it helps a lot of people rather than just one person. I also look at the long-term effects."

After a year of presentations and deliberations, the Seventh Grade Fund has made the following grants:

*$500 to the S.F. AIDS Foundation to sponsor a rider in a bike marathon.

*$1,500 to American Jewish World Service, for earthquake relief in Colombia.

*$2,500 to Dysautonomia Foundation. The 3-year-old sister of one of the board members died of this Jewish genetic disease.

*$2,000 to Horizons Unlimited, which helps at-risk youth

*$2,500 to Defense of Animals, an international animal rights organization

*$1,500 to St. Joseph's Village/Catholic Charities, a homeless shelter for San Francisco families.

*$2,500 to La Casa De Las Madres, a domestic violence and child abuse prevention program.

The fund had one final grant to make Wednesday. Scher planned to make one last appeal for funds.

But Scher already had a back-up plan to help the bison.

As a Seventh Grade Fund board member, Scher has absorbed lessons on "leveraging" for matching grants.

He plans to donate $500 from his bar mitzvah last year and then call Richard Blum -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, who donated the bison to the city -- and ask for a matching grant.

Scher will also rally for funds at the annual Native American "Blessing of the Bison," from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at the paddock in Golden Gate Park.

Even though the Seventh Grade Fund is nearly tapped of money, its influence is still spreading. Schools and foundations from Lafayette in the East Bay to Los Angeles, New York and Dallas want to do similar projects.

The fund's board will disband as the kids enter high school next semester. Schoenberg said she's learned that giving has huge rewards. "I got closer to my class since we all had to make decisions and could never get a unanimous vote," she said. "We do have a lot of power, even though most of the time we don't think so. This experience has taught us we are important people in the world."

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.