Recognizing students who make a difference

The Nancy and Robert Eskow NCJW Community Service Award is bestowed annually on graduating high school students from Essex County who have demonstrated a commitment and dedication to making life better for others locally or globally. The award winners reflect the mission and values of The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) through their commitment and dedication to community service. Students recognized as award winners are honored with a check for $500 and an award certificate.

Applications for the Eskow Award can be submitted beginning in March and have a due date in April of each year. Watch our home page next spring to find out when the 2012 application becomes available!

Read about the 2011 winners of the Eskow Award

Three Essex County Students Win the Nancy and Robert Eskow NCJW Community Service Award

Students' Fundraising and Awareness Efforts Aid Children and Adults in Need – In the Community and Around the World

Jason Levine, Meagan Koch, and Isabel Abraham-Raveson are three young people on a mission.

Moved by hardships facing individuals and families locally and across the globe, these recent high school graduates were not content to sit idly. Teaming up with school or community groups, each student separately spearheaded successful community service programs, and in recognition of their commitment and dedication to community service, each was awarded the Nancy and Robert Eskow NCJW Community Service Award – which is bestowed annually on graduating high school students from Essex County who have demonstrated a commitment and dedication to making life better for others locally or globally. Winners receive $500 and an award certificate.

Jason, a 2011 graduate of Nutley High School who is attending Drexel University, organized the "Stuff-a-Bus" event, a holiday-time toy-collection drive, on behalf of the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program, with the goal of amassing enough toys in one week to fill an entire bus. He arranged to get the bus, secured a parking lot to stage the event, and, along with his friends, decorated the bus to resemble a winter wonderland – with a Christmas tree on the roof, lights strung in the windows, and inflatable decorations all around. He also committed to sleeping in the bus for the entire week of the toy drive. Radio station 92.3 NOW publicized the event and broadcasted live from the site every day.

By the end of the week, Jason had collected 10,000 toys, filling the bus six times over.

Meagan, a 2011 graduate of James Caldwell High School who is attending Rutgers University, was an active participant Key Club International, the world's oldest and largest student-led community service organization, for all four years of high school. She rose to the office of Lieutenant Governor, one of only 21 in the state. In this capacity she served on many Key Club state board committees. Her job was to facilitate service to the six clubs in her division. One of the major benefactors of her work was the Childrens' Specialized Hospital, where she volunteered for four years. She also organized a fundraising concert called Generosity Rocks to benefit the hospital.

Isabel, a 2011 graduate of Montclair High School who is attending Williams College, has been an active volunteer in her community since seventh grade, when she volunteered, through the organization Kids Who Care, with children living in a shelter for victims of domestic violence. She also founded a string quartet that performed at charity events, and served on the board of Kids Who Care. Isabel was co-president of the MHS Save Darfur Club, for which she organized fund-raising events that raised close to $4,000. She also founded the Darfur Cookie Project, whose aim is to raise awareness of the conflict in Darfur by baking 400,000 cookies – representing one for each person killed in the genocide.

In addition, Isabel was chairperson of the Department of Education of the MHS Civics and Government Institute, through which she organized a Darfur Awareness Day and a fundraiser that raised more than $1,200 to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

The Nancy and Robert Eskow NCJW Community Service Award was established to reflect the mission and values of The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), a nonsectarian, grassroots organization of volunteers and advocates who turn progressive ideals into action. Inspired by Jewish values, NCJW strives for social justice by improving the quality of life for women, children and families and by safeguarding individual rights and freedoms.