Josh Leibman didn’t have to think hard about what community project to pick to mark the celebration of his upcoming bar mitzvah. And so, on Friday, March 25, the West Hartford teen camped out at the Mandell JCC’s Beatrice Fox Auerbach Early Childhood Center (ECC), selling water bottles and wrist bands to help raise money for the Debbie Levy Caring and Kindness Fund. The fun was established in memory of his aunt who passed of pancreatic cancer this past October.

Levy was a beloved teacher in the ECC preschool for 22 years. The fund established in her name is intended to help Mandell JCC professionals continue their work in early childhood education.

“This is a project that means a lot to me because I think that it is important to bring awareness to this awful disease,” says Leibman.CAP:

CAP: Josh Leibman and Debbie Levy’s daughter, Emily Levy, at the Mandell JCC Early Childhood Center.