Youngsters donate baby items

Danielle Blitzer (l), Layna Fromkin (c) and Justin Belasco with Liz Donahue, director, CentraState's Family Medicine Center, and gift bags containing baby items that their fourth-grade Bet class at Temple Beth Shalom, Manalapan, donated to the center for their tzedakah (charity) project.

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP - The fourth-grade class at Temple Beth Shalom, Manalapan, recently donated gift bags filled with baby items to CentraState Healthcare System's Family Medicine Center.

The gift bags were presented to the center by Justin Belasco, Danielle Blitzer and Layna Fromkin on behalf of all 36 students in the class.

"This was the class's tzedakah project, which is an act of charitable giving," said Nancy Shechter, education director at Temple Beth Shalom.

"The students donated the funds to purchase diapers, bibs, pacifiers and other baby goods, and they packed and decorated the gift bags themselves," Shechter said.

"We are grateful to Temple Beth Shalom and the students for their generosity and impressed with how lovely the gift bags are. Our patients will certainly be delighted as well," said Liz Donahue, director of the Family Med-icine Center.

The Family Medicine Center has provided primary health care in Freehold to patients of all ages since the early 1990s. It also serves as a training site for resident physicians in family medicine through CentraState's Family Medicine Residency Program.

CentraState Healthcare System is a nonprofit community health organization consisting of an acute-care hospital, three senior living centers, a health education and activities center, a Family Medicine Residency Program and a charitable foundation.

CentraState Medical Center is a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Health Network and a clinical research affiliate of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, a National Cancer Institute-des-ignated Comprehensive Cancer Center.