Mazel Tov Kate and the Wood Family

Kate Suzanne Wood, daughter of Shira and Adam Wood and younger sister to Max, will be called to the Torah at Midbar Kodesh Temple. Kate's Midbar Kodesh Temple grandparents Judie and Neal Lewis will attend in person and her Australian grandparents, Sarah and Peter Wood, will participate remotely from Australia. Family and friends from California, Georgia, Minnesota, Virginia and locally will also attend in person and remotely as well.

Kate, a 7th grader at a local middle school, studies in accelerated classes. She also takes tennis lessons. She is interested in the medical and teaching field and may think of mixing both professions.

Kate has been to Australia three times as well as the Cook Islands near New Zealand. She has also traveled to Washington DC, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Her favorite places to visit are Brian Head, Utah and San Diego, California. Snow and water sports are her passion!

Kate has attended Camp Alonim and looks forward to returning to the Jewish summer residence camp post Covid-19. She is a MKT USYer and is enjoying the newly refurbished youth lounge. As a bat mitzvah student, she is part of the David L. Simon Jr. board, who will decide on how a gift of $1000 will be distributed as a Tikkun Olam class project.

Kate has selected Doctors Without Borders, French Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as her mitzvah project and will be encouraging people to read about the work that they do and to donate to help with their causes. (https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/who-we-are). Doctors Without Borders is an international humanitarian group dedicated to providing medical care to people in distress, including victims of political violence and natural disasters. The populations the group assists typically lack access to or adequate resources for medical treatment. The group was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize for Peace. Doctors Without Borders was founded in 1971 by 13 physicians and journalists.

Kate says it feels good and is important to give back to those that are less fortunate. She saw that first hand, buying and wrapping gifts for students, when she recently participated in a memorial tribute to Sue Goldman at Midbar Kodesh Temple in support of CCSD students at the holidays.

Kate shared that "Life is like Warhead candies – it is both sour and sweet." Midbar Kodesh Temple and her family look forward to sharing Kate's sweetness from the bima and in the years ahead.