I never met Maxie
Leviss. Maxie's mom, Abby Leviss, is the JNF staff person dedicated
to Team JNF on the Israel Ride. She took on that responsibility
earlier this year, bringing amazing new vitality to the team. Abby
made plans to ride with the team for the upcoming 2011 Israel Ride.
She offered a constant flow of great new ideas for the team, JNF, and
the ride. Woven through every conversation, however, was talk of her
adorable infant son, Maxie.
That all changed on July 20th, when we received news that Maxie had passed into a coma.
The next day, July, 21, 2011, young Maxie died. He was nine months old.
As a father of four, I can't begin to imagine the pain that Abby and her husband, Ted, have suffered, or the void that Maxie's loss leaves in their lives. There are no words for it.
Abby and Ted have a deep connection to Israel. They hope to honor Max by planting a JNF forest in his memory. Hopefully it will grow to be a place where they can someday find some solace.
In order to help Abby and Ted realize their dream, I have committed to make a donation to Maxie's forest in honor of each donor to either Team JNF (http://arava.kintera.org/2011israelride/teamjnf) or my 2011 Israel Ride (http://arava.kintera.org/2011israelride/davidleisenberg). If you've already contributed, there is nothing more that you need to do, I will contribute to Maxie's forest in your honor. If you have not already contributed, please do so today by clicking on either of the link's above. Your contribution will go directly to supporting the outstanding work of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, and I'll honor it with a contribution to Maxie's JNF forest. Also, if you'd like to contribute directly to Maxie's JNF forest, please follow this link: http://support.jnf.org/goto/teammaxie.
I never met Maxie Leviss, but I hope to someday visit the forest bearing his name. Please join me in helping to make that forest possible.
David
