Grades of good deeds

Rachel Rosenblum has always had a love of teddy bears. And at an early age she decided to make sure all kids have their very own teddies to comfort them when they sleep.

“I was 4 and had about $60 saved up in my piggy bank and I wanted to give to the hospital,” Rachel, 11, said.

But instead of simply handing over cold cash, Rachel asked her parents if she could donate stuffed teddy bears to kids living in medical care facilities.

For the first batch Rachel was able to give 12 bears with the money from her savings but did not stop there. Since that first donation Sara has contributed more than 1,000 bears to local Orange County hospitals.

She brought more than 100 of those to Mitzvah Day Sunday at Temple Bat Yahm Religious School in Newport Beach.

The entire school, grades first through seventh, donated time and materials to various causes in honor of Tikkun Olam, or, “repair of our world.”

Each grade worked on different mitzvahs — commandments or good deeds — showing that every person can make a difference in the world, school officials said.

The school’s sixth graders, including Rachel, made care packages for soldiers serving in Iraq. Each package included magazines, fruit snacks, candy, gum, beef jerky and a letter from one of the students, plus stamped and addressed return envelopes.

Rachel said she was eager to write to one of the soldiers, even though she did not know who would receive her letter.

“I thought it was easy to write,” Rachel said. “I just told stories about my grandpa who fought in WWII. He earned a silver star.”

The school’s seventh graders baked cat and dog treats from scratch using flour, corn meal, eggs and tuna.

The students plan on selling the snacks to pet owners in two weeks and will donate the proceeds to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach. This nonprofit animal rescue mission medically treats and rehabilitates injured sea animals.

One of the 613 mitzvahs is kindness to animals, but since the students were not allowed to volunteer at the animal shelters for legal reasons, Barry Koff, the school’s assistant director and seventh grade instructor, got creative.

“They’re learning by doing rather than reading,” Koff said. “In this way we bring the Torah to life.”

A few of the students tried the finished product despite the strong odor of fish, and some even enjoyed the snacks.

Cutting the dough for the cat snacks, 11-year-old Sara Cohen said she preferred making the treats over tasting them.

“At first it was kind of disgusting with all the tuna,” Sara said. “but then it got kind of fun.”

Other projects from the school included collecting pairs of shoes for donation to Soles4Souls from the third grade class.

The group hands out paired shoes to disaster victims, the poverty stricken, homeless, and Hurricane Katrina victims.

The fourth grade class packed lunches that will be taken to Costa Mesa-based Serving People in Need and the Friendship Shelter out of Laguna Beach. There the meals will be handed out to the homeless.

The fifth graders collected items for Sports Gift, an Orange County group that refurbishes lightly used sports equipment and distributes it to underprivileged children.

KELLY STRODL may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at kelly.strodl@latimes.com.