“The word (mitzvah) means commandment and connection,” said Allyson Segall, daughter of Rachel and Scott Segall of Chesterfield and a student at Parkway Central Middle School. As part of her bat mitzvah studies, Allyson conducted a service project to connect to the community around her. What follows is her first-hand account of her mitzvah project:

For the beginning of my mitzvah project, I decided to help an organization called HavenHouse St. Louis.  HavenHouse is a non-profit organization that allows families to stay in their welcoming facility for a very low cost. They stay there while one of their family members is in a hospital in the St. Louis area. This way, they can be near them and visit frequently.

I chose HavenHouse because I had taken an art class there several years ago.  The art class was just using the space at HavenHouse; it did not have anything to do with the organizations itself. But it gave me a chance to see what HavenHouse was all about, and I never forgot about it.

 Instead of receiving birthday presents last year, I asked for donations of art materials for this organization. I collected enough supplies to fill a 60-quart Rubbermaid container. The art supplies were much appreciated by both the kids who used them and the leaders of HavenHouse, and it made me feel good to know I was helping.

 This inspired me to do what I consider to be the most important part of my mitzvah project, doing art projects with the kids. This was a great way to help out the families staying there, while doing two things I love most – playing with kids and making art projects.

The goal of the art project was to allow the kids and their families to get their minds off the rough times in their lives and be creative. I hope the families that participated had as much fun as I did.  I am planning another evening at HavenHouse to play games and am going to ask a few of my friends to come with me.

 Seeing how happy my collection and art project made the families at Haven House feel made me feel amazing. I always knew that performing a mitzvah was a good thing to do, but I didn’t expect my feelings to be so overwhelming.  To me, it was a win-win.