Students on Vacation Decorated Rocks to Raise Money for Food Bank Danny Schwartz - The Jewish News
go to original January 20, 2022

LEFT: Oliver and Alice Hybl and Emeri Charlip are proud of the rocks they collected, designed and decorated
RIGHT: Emeri Charlip delivered the money to the food bank and was given a tour (Jill Sherman-Marx)

A holiday vacation taken by a family in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, turned into a vehicle to help those in need.

Ten-year-old student Emeri Charlip, along with her two friends, Oliver and Alice Hybl, raised more than $400 for the Vallarta Food Bank by collecting, decorating and selling rocks.

It began when the kids decided to do an art project when they were on the beach one day, and Jill Sherman-Marx, Emeri’s mother, asked if they were interested in making it into a fundraiser to benefit someone. The kids were thrilled at the idea.

That morning, Sherman-Marx gathered art supplies to decorate the rocks with and a table for them to sell the rocks.

“They got busy — boy, did they get busy,” Sherman-Marx said. “They took it very seriously.”

Sherman-Marx was familiar with the Vallarta Food Bank after having traveled to Puerto Vallarta for more than 20 years. She knows how crucial it’s been during the pandemic.

“It was so incredibly touching to me how one man started this operation in Vallarta and, at the height of the pandemic, they were feeding a ridiculous amount of people, like 800 people. It was crazy,” she said.

The rocks were sold on a “give-what-you-can” basis. The largest single donation, Sherman-Marx recalls, was between 500 and 1,000 pesos, about $25 to $50.

“When I put the post on Facebook, I tagged the food bank in it and there were comments from people who bought them and they posted a picture of their rock, which was awesome and very sweet,” Sherman-Marx said.

At the end of the fundraising, Emeri and her family delivered the money and were fortunate to receive a tour of the food bank operation.

“The woman who runs the food bank was in tears,” Sherman-Marx said. “For Emeri, I think it was really eye-opening. As we were leaving, we saw people lining up for the afternoon meal. For her to visualize and see people lining up … it was just really heartwarming.

“My husband, Josh, and I teach her how fortunate we are. We get to go on vacation and do this stuff, and these people don’t even have food. It’s good for her to see and experience it.”

Sherman-Marx believes this will be a yearly tradition, and Emeri agrees.

Read the rest at The Jewish News

  Learn about Vallarta Food Bank