TBC Connections

September/October 5782/2021
What's Inside
High Holy Day Thank You's
Return Your Prayer Books
Burn the Mortgage
Security
High Holy Days Thank You's
This year's High Holy Day Services brought different (and some unexpected) challenges. In spite of Hurricane Ida knocking out our phones and internet and our inability to have them looked at prior to Monday of Erev Rosh Hashanah, our service went on as scheduled for both in-person and virtual participants.

Thank you to our very dedicated congregants Steve West-Rosenthal and Simon Curtis, who worked at TBC all weekend to make sure everything was in place.
Thank you to:
  • Marlene Serby and Iris Busch for coordinating the distribution of prayer books
  • Bonnie Heft for her herculean efforts in coordinating the bimah move, the Sukkah build, ordering the break fast boxes, and so much more!
  • All of our Bimah movers and Sukkah builders: Steve West-Rosenthal, Moses Alexander, Bonnie Heft, Matt Siegel, Mac Nadel, Rachel and Juliette Langberg, Brooke Bernstein, John Dunkerley, Russ Robbins, Dara and Georgia Marceau, Stephen Davis, Jeffrey Busch, Valerie Rosenson, Todd Gordon, Stacy Barenberg, Allie, Ava and Dylan Rabinowitz and Emily Sauler
  • Susan Farber and Bonnie Heft for working together to help coordinate ushers and greeters and huge gratitude to all who ushered and staffed our ticket/membership table
  • Cindy Baulsir for filling in for TBC President, June Mara, who could not attend in person
  • All those who had Aliyot, chanted Torah, read prayers or English translations, opened the Ark or helped lift and dress the Torah. We are also so grateful to all of our congregants and families who attended in person or via Zoom. Your presence made our beautiful worship experience possible!
  • Denise Seccurra (TBC's office manager) who spent countless hours coordinating all of the details, from ticket preparation to the Book of Memory, organizing security, ordering flowers, preparing payments, publicizing our service schedule, setting up Zoom links and generally making sure we were all on track
  • Our technology team, Steve and Val West-Rosenthal and Simon Curtis
  • John Dunkerley for his help as Steve West-Rosenthal's House assistant
  • Sisterhood, for our Rosh Hashanah lobby display and our delicious Break Fast grab n go boxes
  • Pam Klem and Tom Dubin for setting up their tents in the courtyard for break fast and the beautiful lights and decorations
  • Gabi Cohn, our student rabbi for the High Holy Days
  • Andrew Gordon, our accompanist and choir director for the many hours spent with Cantor preparing our High Holy Day Quartet, and to the singers: Amanda Bloom, Natalie Kikkenbourg, Zachary Olmoz and Trish Hussey and our very own Russ Robbins who joined us during our Avodah service.

Sincere apologies if we inadvertently missed thanking anyone whose contribution helped to make this year's High Holy Day Experience so memorable.
Return Your Prayer Books
If you borrowed copies of Mishkan Hanafesh (our High Holiday prayerbooks) for use at home during the High Holy Days, please remember to return them by Oct 3. You can deposit the books into a box that will be provided for that purpose at the front entrance of the temple. Books not returned by October 3, will incur a charge of $50 to cover the cost.
Burn the Mortgage Campaign
Our largest monthly expense is the mortgage on our building. In an effort to reduce this burden, we began a campaign with the Board of Trustees this past spring to "burn" or significantly reduce our mortgage. A number of congregants have now generously contributed.

To date, we have raised more than $255,000 - more than half of our goal! We have already used these funds to pay down the principal, and in the next few weeks, we will be reaching out to our entire TBC Family to ask for contributions. Please consider donating as generously as you are able to this crucial effort.

The Finance Committee is currently exploring our refinancing options so that once the entire congregation has had a chance to participate, we can move forward to significantly reduce our monthly costs.
Survey Results and Next Steps
We thank all of you who participated in our Survey this past Spring! The Executive Committee and the Board of Trustees will be meeting with Whitman Insight Strategies, the company that conducted the survey, to review the results and develop a plan of action and next steps, which we will then share with our entire community.
Security
TBC has retained the services of Dark Horse Protection to provide a security guard when school is in session and at special events. Thank you to all who contributed the Security Fee with your membership packet. Your generosity makes this possible. It is not too late to add this contribution! Please feel free to send it what you can toward our Religious School and Event Security at any time.

In addition, we are in the process of planning wiring for our upgraded Wifi, and the cabling for and the installation of security cameras, as well as protective film for some of our windows - all of which will be paid for by the Security Grant we were awarded in June from the State of Connecticut.
 
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