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Jewish Family Services
awarded Penny Zappacosta and Stephanie Parisi with its Mensch*
Award. Ms. Zappacosta is the Agency’s Director of First Impressions.
She is the first person the public sees when entering the JFS office
in Wilmington; she is the first voice they hear when requesting
assistance. Ms. Parisi is one of the Agency’s care managers. She
assists those over 60 years old in identifying resources to promote
healthy aging-in-place. She also provides Medicare options
counseling. Together these women spearheaded JFS’s Community Giving
program. Working with the staff to identify beneficiaries and the
community to identify donors, they coordinated all the efforts to
ultimately support more than 100 individuals through the Agency’s
Thanksgiving Giving and Adopt-A-Family programs.
*A mensch literally means "a person" in Yiddish, but figuratively it
means something much deeper. A mensch is a person with whom you
would be happy to befriend and associate with, because you feel
genuine in a mensch's presence. A mensch is a highly evolved human
being. Menschlichkeit (the art of the mensch) has nothing to do with
looks, with wealth, with success or with intellect.
To be a mensch is to judge with equanimity, without preconceived
notions, renouncing preferences and remaining, at all times,
balanced. And the best part is—that as you learn to accept and to
listen to other people's suffering, while developing as a mensch,
you learn to accept yourself as well.
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