Randi’s Care Event - Full Coverage

Good morning everybody. Whoever wants to stay and hear the greatest tearjerker event from one of the most wonderful young ladies in our community that I and Alice can truly call a friend. It's Randy Tamir. Ry's care. [applause] I'm gonna be brief. Randy. Randy, come in the front. >> Come next to Sarah. Randy, you know why? You know why it's easy? Whoever wants to sit down, that's my last time saying it. Please come sit down for 30, 40 minutes. Here's the point. It will enrich in your life. It will enrich in your life. >> You will be a more fulfilled person when you leave here. >> I promise. Now to you. You have enough napkins. Uh, could you get the box of Kleenex, please? I am not kidding. Get me the box of Kleenex. Sarah Elliot, I think it's our second annual event, if I am correct, but it is not the second year that your sister, who you adore, and your sister who you adore, Randy, I don't believe in this sister-in-law, brother-in-law stuff. I don't like it. If my mother-in-law is not my mother, I'm in trouble. and my wife's in trouble. So, let's change that for now. Let's change that narrative now. Randy, stay focused. A lot of a lot a lot of people in our community don't necessarily love you because more than love, you have inspired them. See, love, I love you. I love so many people tell me that you're the greatest. No, you are inspiring others in this community because the work that you're doing with the elderly with the work that you're doing with people that would otherwise might be left home. And I bet you want to be in Brooklyn right now. I know you didn't tell me. I know. Because you see, God gives all of us a heart. But the heart that you've been given is very unique. It is very special because it it's an out-of- body experience that you feel when you see something and someone else sees something. Not that we don't see the same thing. See, everybody sees Harry. But you look at that person, you see different. You see deeper. And then you go into action. And then you become the person that God made you to become the real Randy. and the organization that you formed, Randy's Care. Everybody is proud of you. I want us to hear from the people that want to not just inspire us before we hear from you, but to kind of tell us a little bit of an insight of what they see, what they believe, and we all tell the truth. I know that we're truthful people is going on in your world. And it's important that we expose that because you need money. And we don't give money just for the sake of giving money. That's not the way the Syrian community is wired up. We give it to the ones that deserve it. And we give a lot of it. And we give it to the ones that are utilizing it like you. Every penny, not dollar, that you get, you cherish to use for exactly the right things. And that's why we fill the backyard. People are running and grabbing my shoulder to want to give money and give support to Ry's care and it's all because of you. So, [applause] I want to move along, but I'm not going to introduce the next guest. I'm going to let the host for the most Elliot be brief. I spoke longer than I should have, but looking at you, I just get overwhelmed and inspired. So, um, let's move right along. Elliot Tamir, the host of this event, Ry's brother, it's his home. Uh, Elliot, we're proud of you. Please invite us back every year until the Mashiach comes. Then all those beautiful people. I know they'll they'll be holding on. And I want to hold on to you too because uh when we go only when the Mashiach comes otherwise you're going to be toiling in this field for the rest of your life because you're good at it. And the elderly of our community they depend on you. They rely on you because you're Andy. Thank you Harry. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone for coming this morning. Um I'm pleasantly surprised by the turnout. Really amazing. Thank you all for giving us your time, coming here, giving us your support. Can't tell you how much we appreciate it. This morning, I'm not going to be giving you the keynote. I'm going to turn it over to a young dynamic uh rising star in the community and another one uh as well. two young men that are going to speak to you today amongst uh many other things that you'll hear about um with respect to Ry's care. I want to just give a tremendous debt of gratitude to those who made today possible. Of course, first and foremost, Harry Ame. Harry, you are um a community treasure, a community legend. I don't know what the community would do without someone like you. Um you selflessly give yourself. You never say anything other than absolutely when asked um God bless you. May he give you uh long life, health, and happiness. You and Alice to do the work that you do for many, many more years to come. I want to thank Norma Cohen, who is always behind the scenes with everything. You don't even know that she comes in here, she does this, this, she I love the way she works. She'll come in, she'll point four fingers, everything gets done and then she goes and she goes on to the next one. So, Norma, wherever you are, thank you very much. I want to thank Jack man. Uh Jack is just a selfless human being. Again, under the radar, someone who is front and center of so many organizations and you know has helped so much with the fundraising. He's a just a selfless, incredible human being, a good friend of mine. Thank you, Jack. Wherever you you're here somewhere. I want to thank Vivian Darwish who's on the board. Vivian, where are you? Our executive director, our new executive director this year. She's handled so much for the organization and is an integral part of putting today together. Um Rebecca Herrari. We all know Rebecca. She is amazing. has founded so many of our treasured community um organizations and has uh selflessly helped out with so much of what she's what what we're doing here, what Ry's work is. Um she's also on our board. Thank you, Rebecca. Appreciate you so much. Uh I want to thank uh Bonnie Ael who helped us with the social media. She's everything you see all day with respect to social media. That's Bonnie. Um, Bonnie, you're amazing. Wherever you're here somewhere. Um, I want to thank Joe Mansour um for helping with the AV and the video. [applause] And uh, most importantly, I want to thank my wife Sarah. Sweet Pea. Sarah, you always always with a smile open up our home to anything. Whatever asked, whatever it is, you open up our home. You do it with a big smile, a warm heart, and such grace and elegance. I love you. [applause] Okay, so I'm going to turn the mic over to a young, dynamic gentleman who, you know, when they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I think this apple is still connected to the tree. Not only does he embody everything that Randy does in terms of her heart, but he also possesses a very unique and entertaining personality just like Randy. Um, so I want to without further ado introduce Jackie Levy, my nephew who I love so much, who's going to give us today's keynote. Jackie, come on up. [applause] >> Good morning, everybody. Um, thank you so much for being here today. Your presence means more than you know. Um, I'm not really a big speaker, so this is going to be a first for me, but um, I'm really happy to do it. So, before I begin, I want to thank some very special people who made this morning possible. We have Vivian Darwish, Jack Man, Norma, and Lydia Cohen, and Rebecca Herreri. And of course, my aunt and uncle Sarah and Elliot Tamir for opening up their home uh, for this beautiful morning. Last year, we gathered in this very spot to what turned out to be a very magical and very emotional morning. My uncle Elliot stood right here and made this community face something that we've been looking away from. He spoke to us about a silent killer, being old and being alone. He told us the truth that our seniors are not fine, that over a thousand seniors in our community are living completely alone. That loneliness doesn't just cause suffering, it kills. um and being described what Randy does in four words I will never forget. Medicine for the soul. This year my uncle is passing the microphone to me and it's a little different this time because Randy is my mom. Most of you met Randy Randy and Ry's care two years ago, but I've had a front row seat my entire life. So, let me tell you what it's like growing up in Ry's house. My mother is up before the sun every single day. Music playing through the house, happy, full of energy. In my house, there was no such thing as sleeping in. No such thing as being lazy and no such thing as missing a day of school. Unfortunately, if I wasn't out of bed by 6, my mother would start vacuuming, mopping my room around me. She'd be spraying Windex on me sometimes while I was still in bed, and I really didn't want to get out. Um, trust me, you really do get up from that. Um, the energy you see in your videos, the music, the dancing, the joy, that's not a program. That's not a strategy. That's not a strategy. That's just my mom. Exactly as she's always been. And here's what most people don't know. Long before there was a Ry's care, long before there was a board, long before anyone called it Ry's care, my mother was doing this work completely behind the curtain. Quietly reaching into her own pocket for people in need, making sure families had food for Shabbat, carrying people through their hardest years, sometimes for years at a time, never telling anyone, never wanting any credit, never expecting any thank you because she didn't do it to be seen. She did it because when someone had a problem, she knew how she could solve it. She physically could not rest until it was solved. And nowhere did I see, you know, more clearly than with my grandpa Jack, which is, you know, my mom's my mom's dad and Elliot's dad. Many of you in this room knew my grandfather, a man loved and respected by everyone who crossed his path. My mother put time aside every single day just to make her father laugh. She would take him shopping at Century 21, so he'd be walking out looking like a GQ model. Every Friday he had his spot on our couch and my mother would serve him with coffee and tea like a five-star chef. She didn't just take take care of her father. She celebrated him every single day of his life. I know grandpa Jack is looking down right now at his daughter and his son bursting with pride. So two years ago when this community discovered Ry's care, you were discovering something I've known since I was a little boy. I just called it mom. Last year we stood before you with a vision and we asked you to believe in it. This morning, I stand before you with results. Because of your generosity, last year, Ry's care now reaches 60 to 70 seniors every single week. Think about that for a moment. 60 [applause] 60 to 70 human beings every single week who are no longer invisible. This year, we're expanding our program into Aayan Azar Senior Center and into nursing homes across the community. Minor Kha Solomon, King David, and Seagate. We expanded one-on-one inh home support, cognitive exercises, physical and occupational therapy assistance, and specialized work with stroke patients. But the numbers don't tell the real story. Here's what your donations actually did. Seniors who had nobody to talk to now wait by the door for their visit. Seniors who had stopped engaging in the world are now laughing again. People who felt forgotten are celebrating birthdays again. Men who hadn't put on tiffilene in over 20 years are now putting on tiffilene every single day. Seniors who thought life was over, you know, are going to music events now, bingo nights, holiday celebrations, and out to restaurants. And all above, they feel like they matter. Again, that might sound like a smart like a small thing, but when you spend months, sometimes years in silence feeling invisible, being seen again could really save your life. And I want you to know something else. We took your trust very seriously from day one. Every dollar donated to Ry's care was sacred. No waste, no unnecessary overhead. We stretched every dollar as far as human humanly possible to reach as many seniors as we could. And what shocked us this year was not whether we we you know not whether they um they need Sorry about that. And whether shock and what shocked us this year was not whether they need Sorry about that. We knew they existed. What shocked us was how massive it actually was. The calls come in non-stop day in and day out. I want to tell you about this moment when the mission became personal for me. I've supported Ry's care from day one. I believed in it. I donated to it. I watched the videos just like all of you. But for a long time, that's what it was for me. Support from a distance. Then this past year, I hosted a bingo at Aiair. I set up $100 a game. Let me tell you, I never seen a room get so competitive so fast. bit like Ry's care, [applause] >> but somewhere. All right. >> You I think you won a hundred bucks. If not, next year you'll win it. No, you didn't win. You didn't win. Okay. But somewhere >> but next time. But somewhere between the games and the prizes, I stopped and I really looked around that room. Without this day, most of these seniors would have spent that Sunday doing nothing. Sitting alone, quiet, maybe depressed. But not that Sunday. That Sunday, they were together, laughing, teasing each other, fighting to win bingo. And standing in that room, it hit me. There's a difference between funding this mission and feeling it. For years, I supported the mitzvah. That Sunday, I did the mitzvah side by side with my mother, with my own two hands, and there's no comparison. But the story that touched my heart more than any other story this past year is not mine. It's about a woman from the community named Joyce and her husband. Joyce and her husband were married for over 50 years. They never had children. And one day, his medical condition became so severe that he had placed in been placed in a nursing home. And as the years passed, they lost contact. She didn't know where he was. She didn't know how long, you know, how long, you know, he was alive or she didn't know what he was doing or if he was still alive. For nearly 20 years, she lived with that heartbreak, wondering every single day what became of the man she shared her entire life with. Now, before I wait here one second. Okay, great. When my mother heard the story, she refused to let it end that way. She and Randy, the Grandy's care team, searched nursing home after nursing home until they finally found him at Seagate. The day they reunited after nearly 20 years, they looked into each other's eyes, held each other's hands, and embraced the tears streaming down their faces. There was not a dry eye in that room. Today, because of Ry's care, they can see each other every single week. They share meals. They laugh together. They enjoy the one thing they thought they'd lost forever. Time together. That's the power of Ry's care. Now, before I ask for anything from you this morning, I get to give you something first. We have a very special announcement. I know this entire community is going to be very excited about it. As many of you know, Ry's, you know, has a special place in her heart for all the seniors living at Azar housing. She's constantly visiting them, always planning events in their community room. So this morning, Ry's Care is proud to announce we're launching a full Sphartic adult day program at the Aayzar building on East 7th and and Avenue S, right across the street from the Sphartic Community Center. The same building where I hosted that bingo day. So I can tell you firsthand that room knows how to have fun, guys. A daily program Monday through Friday. arts and crafts, dance parties, birthday parties, bingo and brain works games, you know, programs, you know, on on a lower level and a higher level. Lunch served every day and yes, nail and hair days, too. A safe, joyful place to send your mom and dad in the heart of the community. And this is an addition to the home visits Randy makes every single day, not instead of them. The program begins right after high holidays, and we're opening up the best way we know with a Suka party in mid-occtober. But listen carefully. Space is limited to 80 people. So please sign up. Your mom and dad's early contact us and we'll send you an application. We're also working on transportation for those who need it. But I have to be honest with you this morning. This can no this can no longer be about one one woman. As extraordinary as my mom is, one person cannot carry this mission alone anymore. It's the need is simply too big. We need more caregivers, more companions, more volunteers, more more programming, more transportation, and more outreach. We need teams of many Randy's throughout this community. People trained not just to care for our seniors, but to love them. So, we're blessed to have and Lena Wingor uh help us out with this mission. [applause] Thank you guys. Kim, you're the man. And we're also looking for more. If you know someone who might be a good fit as a volunteer or somebody you know as an employee, please speak with my uncle Elliot or any of our board members at at at this morning's speech. And if you know a senior sitting alone or living behind an apartment door, please send us their name. One phone call could save their life. And yes, we cannot expand without funding. But this morning is not just about donating money. It's about deciding what kind of community we want to be. Do we want to look away from elderly elder elderly suffering because it makes us uncomfortable? Or do we say together no senior will be forgotten? No senior will suffer alone and no senior will spend their final years feeling abandoned. One day if Hashem blesses us, every single one of us in this room will grow old. Every single one of us. And when that day comes, what kind of world do we want waiting for us? A world of silence and isolation? or a world of love, music, laughter, dignity, and people who genuinely care. I believe that years from now when people look back at what Ry's care became, they will point to mornings like this one and say, "That's when the movement began, or that's when the community stopped looking away." Mom, before I finish, I want to say something directly to you. You are my superhero. Not because what you do is glamorous. It isn't. Not because you ever wanted attention. You never did. because you're exactly the same person standing in front of this crowd today as you were all before those quiet years behind the curtain. Everything I am, the way I treat people, the way I give love, whatever good is in me, I learned it from watching you. It's in my blood because you put it there. May Hashem bless you with long life strength to continue this incredible mission for many, many years to come. I'm so proud to be your son. [applause] To everyone this morning that's here, thank you for believing in this mission. Thank you for caring. Thank you for helping us to prove that love still matters, that compassion still matters, and that no one, no matter how old they are, should ever feel forgotten. Thank you very much. [cheering and applause] >> Silverman, >> Joyce Silverman, where are you? [cheering] >> She's here. Where's she at? >> You look gorgeous today. A lifelong friend of mine. I mean, I hope to be a lifelong friend of mine, but of my mom's, we want to juice uh introduce Joyce Silverman. Thank you everybody. [applause] >> Good morning everybody. This is my favorite house in Deal. You all know why. Anyway, I want to thank Elliot and Sarah for the opportunity to having me come and speak up here. And uh yes, Jackie, you said it right. Rando has been my lifelong friend since little kids. And she told me that her mom and Sher also told me that their mom, may she rest in peace, used to take them and hold their hands and go visit people and ask for money for charity. for other people and she taught them kindness and she instilled that in her children and that's why we are here today and I want to tell you that um my dad and my mom are here in the audience and my mom works tirelessly to keep my dad impeccably kept and beautiful and um it's amazing to see the love that my mom instills in my dad. And you all know my father as a wonderful businessman, a globe trotder. He used to he is always in a three-piece suit and a tie tack and he's so such an amazing man. But now today, hi dad. Say hi. Today he's in his twilight years and he gets to enjoy his family and see what he's built. But sometimes, you know, he could be chilling in his house in his den and there's we're all busy. I'm working. My brother, my sister lives in Palm Beach, everything. And um you know, he's alone, right? He's not alone. My mom has daycare, the housekeeper, everybody's there. But then comes in Randy, Mr. Daba, let's go. And she puts on samba and they start to dance and she and haim wraps his teilim. You know h my father has a zillion grandchildren. Mashallah they should live and be well. All my sons, my brother's kids, my sister's son is great with him. But Haim actually gets him to wrap his teilim. And it's amazing. Haim, you're right there. You do so well for my dad. I'm so grateful for you. [applause] And and and Randy so smart. She knows that that the old people, they need to open their hands and use their their h, you know, use their motor skills, their fine motor skills, their large motor skills. And Randy gets them to rock and roll. And she's the best person for this job. And I'm so proud of you, Randy. And I know you could have taken this the road where you could feel sorry for yourself and all that, but instead you channeled it into making people be seen, the unseen. The elderly are unseen. And we have so much to thank them for. They they gave they paid for our tuitions. They paid for our college. They made sure we had camp. They made sure we had everything fabulous. I had the best yellow Reebok shoes when I was like six years old. My dad brought him home for me. I had a Walkman. I had everything. My mom killed herself in school for me. Clap Shiva only kept me there because they felt bad for my mom. So, [laughter] and [snorts] my mom fought and she made me go to college. And this is what we have to be grateful for. These old people. They put their life and soul for us. And Randy, I want to thank you what you do for my father and mother, all the elderly, for my auntie Glattis, for the seniors of this community. We are so blessed to have you in our lives. So everybody donate to Randy. [applause and cheering] Yes. And I would like to have the honor to introduce Rebecca Herreri. Thank you. [applause] >> Good shabas. >> Oh, Randy wants to tell you you better not leave because she has a movie to show you. >> Let's keep moving along. Okay, I'm gonna make this uh very quick because um we do have an incredible show, you know, things to show you. And I just want to say that coming from I have a I had a wonderful grandmother, Victoria Hannon. Many of you might have remembered her. Um she was unbelievable. She was my life. She was everything to me. I I was her Randy. And um I know I know what it did for her to have somebody love her so much and be with her all the time. Cook with her, take her for man a manicure, just play with her, watch TV with her. Everything that I did um made made her her days better and I think she lived longer because of it. She died well into her 90s and she was um she died literally died in my arms. I was pregnant with my daughter and I named my daughter for her and um I feel like my daughter has a little bit of her because my grandmother was an incredible chef and now my daughter is uh is a chef. In fact, she she donated the cookies here today. So, she's uh she I [applause] just know that everything that Randy does truly is is really it's it's easy to say it's from the heart, but it's really from her soul. And so she's really truly inspiring so many people to do it and and to be with her. In fact, today the reason I'm up here is to honor a couple of our volunteers. Um the first one is Lena Wingort. Lena, are you here? [applause] Lena, come on up. Every organization has that one person who just lights up the room the moment they walk in. And for Ry's care, that person is Lena. Lena brings a kind of infectious energy that our seniors respond to instantly. You could see it in their faces. They come alive when she's there. Whether she's leading an activity, sitting with someone oneon-one, or just bringing her genuine warmth into the room, Lena reminds us all of what of why we do this work. It's volunteers like Lena who make Ry's care feel a like a true community. Please join me in recognizing her with this award. [applause] Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Um, so take a picture. Okay. [applause] >> Oh, here comes everybody. >> So, Randy, [cheering] you have to come up. >> Come on, Randy. >> Okay. Come on, Randy. [applause] >> I just want to say I know Harry, don't worry. We're I'm gonna move it along, but I just want to say first of all, thank you Randy for this amazing opportunity to be with such special special people that I met so many people this year and I feel so blessed that I got to meet them, but I saw firsthand how necessary this organization is. Honestly, I want to just be very honest. Last year when I came to this event because I'm good friends with Elliot and Sarah. Thank God I get this. But I want to just say that last year I was like, "Okay, Ry's care so sweet." Yeah. She, you know, goes to the seniors. It's good. It's a good organization. Then when I got to see firsthand how I'm shaking even saying it that these people that they're sitting alone sometimes in the dark and they don't want people to even come see them because they're not in the mood. Randy walks in and changes their mood and then changes them physically. starts dancing with them and then they want her to come back and the next day and they start living again and they have many more years to do this with Randy and we need volunteers and we need a lot of money this organization needs money please I know it's not about the money it is about the heart and Randy and I we have heart and we need more volunteers but we also need to support and's amazing God bless and we we need the support from everyone. Please, please, it's I see it firsthand and if you come on a visit, you'll see it also. You'll see how necessary it is. Thank you. [applause] Thank you so much. Uh my sister-in-law Susan Salamy couldn't be here today. We also were going to be honoring her as well. She's the one that um organized a whole bunch of women and they come together and they color the hair and do the nails of a lot of the women in our community. They go to them which is phenomenal. So the next person that I'm bringing up is Michael Tamir. Michael, come on up. He's Elliot's son and he has a few things to say. >> Thank you everyone for joining us today. Really appreciate everyone for coming out. It's not too hot though. It's not too hot so no one could tell me they're sweating too much. >> I won't keep everyone for long, but I just want to echo on to everything my cousin had mentioned and add a little more. I wanted to do a little exercise for a minute. Let's all take a moment to think about what we actually need to survive. Food, water, shelter. Those are the basic necessities of living. But there's one other crucial necessity, the human connection. That's the difference between a nurse and loving friends and family. You simply cannot live without them. In fact, studies have been done on this issue. Solitary confinement is considered torture, not because the room is uncomfortable, but because being alone, truly alone, destroys a person. Picture this. Think about a time when you were really sick. Maybe you spent a week in a room, barely leaving. People came to check on you, brought you food, told you to get some rest because you'd be back to normal within a week. Now imagine someone told you you're not leaving that room for the rest of your life. You lie there. You stare at the ceiling. The nurse is there, but she's got her phone out. She's handling other things. She's doing the bare minimum, aiding you. The TV is left on in the background while playing Wheel of Fortune. Every day of that, I promise you, you'd lose your mind. You'd be begging. You'd be grabbing people's arms on the way out. Please just sit with me five more minutes. Now tell me what changes when you're 80 years old from now and you're sick. Because the result is seniors just letting time pass away and it slowly destroys them. That's the raw truth that nobody really acknowledges. I've seen it with my own eyes. I'll never forget it when me and my aunt Randy walked into a senior's home and this lady was lying on the couch covered up in a blanket barely moving just existing and beside her a nurse sitting on her phone playing Candy Crush. And listen, I'm not bashing nurses. Nurses are simply angels. We need them and appreciate them. But there's a difference, a massive difference between the job of a nurse and someone making you feel alive. That's the gap nobody talks about. We've built all these beautiful senior programs, all these organizations, these centers, and they're great. Genuinely great. But you know who can't get to them? The ones who need it the most. It's the seniors. It's the seniors who can't stand up without assistance. Oh my god, there goes my speech. It's the seniors who can't stand up without assistance. The individuals with dementia who can't leave the house. The grandmothers with depression so severe that she sits on the couch. Thank you, Harry. That she sits on the couch. >> Take it all the way and make you ad li now cuz I know it's all coming from here. >> You want I could do it. I'll take you up on that. >> It's the grandmothers with depression so severe that she sits on the couch for days. For those reasons, they can't make it to these programs, the ones that existed before my aunt. So, what what does that mean for these seniors? That's it. They just miss out because of their illnesses. They're forgotten about. That's where my aunt Randy steps in. My aunt, she figured out something really simple that somehow nobody else was doing. She's a mobile senior service devoted to making a substantial difference in the quality of our seniors lives. Those are a lot of boring words, but I'll break it down. She doesn't wait for them to be able to come to the program. She brings the program to them. I always joke with my aunt Randy. I call her Ry's Eats, not Ry's care, Ry's eats. Because just like you'd order Uber Eats when you're starving, these seniors are starving for attention. They're waiting for a Randy. [applause] Thank you. They're waiting for a Randy. She walks through the door with energy, conversation, and a smile and enthusiasm. She's basically an Uber Eats for happiness. And here's what I want you to understand. She delivers what some seniors loved ones simply can't. Not because they don't care, but because life gets busy. We're all victims. You get caught up. Things get so heated. You think you're too busy for everything. She's not there instead of the I want to go back to the nurse point. She's not there instead of the nurse. She's She's not replacing the nurse. What she's doing is she's simply there in addition to the nurse. Both are extremely necessary. Both are saving lives and keeping lives at least lasting a lot longer. One is keeping the body physically and physically going and Randy is keeping the person going. That same woman on the couch that I was speaking about earlier with the covers pulled up staring into the abyss. My aunt spent time with her just time. She spoke with her, made her laugh, made her feel like she mattered. When my aunt left, that woman looked 15 years younger. I watched it happen. 15 years, one visit. That is everything. Everyone in this room has someone, a parent getting older, a grandparent, someone you someone you love who is on that road or maybe not on that road slowly or maybe not so slowly. And I'm telling you, the difference between them staring at a ceiling and actually living their last years with joy, it could come down to whether someone like Randy shows up at their door. So yes, we need to keep this going, not for strangers, but for a community seniors. Right now, there are seniors staring at a ceiling just waiting. And with your help, we can change that. Thank you guys very much. Harry, [applause] >> I told you next year he's making his speech without this here. But your point is so unbelievable, so incredible. You know why? the truth. Without her, without people like her, this small army that Randy has developed, they would be sitting there waiting for the daughter and no one comes. Before we wrap up and do our fundra, I've been walking around. I felt like I was in charion with the cards. You know what? Harry does that, too. So, whoever wants a card, just give me a little nod. I'll bring a card over to you. And I'm going to do the fundra if there's time for a few minutes afterwards to see whoever wants to give an open um donation to Ry's care. It gives me tremendous honor, tremendous pleasure to introduce a man that is a rabbi in our community that his uh his gift besides the Torah, besides the Torah that he has been learning and studying and teaching to us is his ability to connect to everybody around the world, every Jew, but especially our community. And I am always inspired by him. My wife is inspired by him. The community runs to listen to his speeches. The woman, the classes that he gives. And Sharetion here in deal. Rabbi Joey Haba. We are honored for you to be one of the leading rabbis of our Syrian Jewish community. Everybody in this room should stand up for this man. You know why? Because he's not doing it for himself. He's doing it for us. He wants to enrich in our lives and make us better people. Rabbi, I'm so honored to give you the mic. >> Thank you, Harry. >> Thank you, Harry, for those wonderful words. Our community is lucky to have our rabbis, but our community is very much lucky to have Harry Amev involved in every single thing that's happening in this community. Thank you, Harry, Ellie, and Sarah, thank you so much for opening up your home for a wonderful cause. It's beautiful. It's beautiful out here. It's a gorgeous day and it's a gorgeous home and it should always be filled with happiness and blessing and success and joy. So Randy, I want to tell you a gim and man, I'm going to be short three, four minutes if I could have your attention. I'm going to share with you a gimmar that it's a little hard to fully understand, but its message is so clear. The Gimar says that there was a man in the marketplace and he asked and he met Ali Navi. I don't know what that means. And he asked Alia Navi, "Could you tell me someone who has reward a great portion of the world to come?" And Alan Navi pointed someone out who was doing extreme things, saving people's lives, saving the Jewish world, um saving girls, saving people in jail, saving it's literally working with the government to save the nation. The next day he saw Ali Navi again and he said, "Ela Navi, can you tell me today who in this marketplace is going to the world to come?" Ali said, "Those two people." So he went over to those two people. He said, "What do you guys do?" He's waiting for some crazy exotic story that literally they're Supermen. is that what we do is we are joyous people and we make other people happy. That's what we do. Nothing else more than we're happy people and we're other people. That's what we do. Which is >> exactly >> There you go. That is really Randy what you do is every day you wake up and you say how do I make people happy? How do I elevate their lives? How do I bring them joy? How do I make them a smile on their face? And there are a lot of stages in life that might be easy. You take a demographic that at times has had a long life. At times maybe their families are not nearly as responsive as they should be. And you're there and you lift them up again. Ladies over there on the side. Could we have two minutes of your attention, please? Ladies by the bar. You lift them up. You make a smile on their face. You make them laugh. You make them happy. You make them feel like somebody cares about them. And there's no greater thing in the world that a human being could do. I can show you the page in the gim. Everyone reads this and says once again, what else are they going to say? Does this person finish open? No. We're happy and we make other people happy. And today is a chance for us to bring that happiness to that older generation to bring happiness to our parents. You know our bat mikdash was built and I'll conclude with this and it's in Jerusalem which is in the portion of one of the 12 tribes. I don't know if you know which tribe it is that has the bam micdash built in their portion. The answer is it's the tribe of Binyamin. He's the youngest of all brothers. Why is Mdash built in his tribe? And the commentary is right because his older his all of his brothers, they sold their brother down to Egypt and didn't care enough of the respect of their father. And Yseph was in Egypt and could have come back to his father and he didn't. He also didn't care enough about the respect of his father. Been out of all 12 was the one who cared about respecting his elders and that's why our beta mcdash was built in his portion. Randy, what you're doing deserves every one of our support. It diver deserves our encouragement. I wish we could celebrate you every Friday. And I'm not exaggerating because what you're doing is something all of us should be doing. There was one point in my life where I was asked as a rabbi, they wanted to get a few rabbis to visit older people and every Friday for about two or three years. I visit a man, his name was Mr. Shrem. He lived on East 7th in a building on MUT. And I would visit him every Friday. And just the fact that I showed up made him feel so great. Eventually he passed away. I only knew him the last two, three years of his life. And he passed away and I was the keynote speaker at his funeral. It wasn't even Brooklyn. I said, "Wow, look what you could do just by visiting someone." Randy, what you do is magic and we're here this morning to support it. Thank you, [applause] >> Elliot, with your permission because you're the host for the most and you have woken up one day and you said, "I can write a check. I can give my money. I can support my sister, but I need the community to know what she's doing. And you young man, you did that and you exposed her to us and she's ours now. We will continue to help support her. Thank you, Elliot. [applause] I mean, if you can help me to move this, we have a short video and then the reason why we came. I make her do it last year. She's going to do it this year. My friend, you are going to come up and you're going to tell everybody thank you. Okay? So, I'm giving you advanced warning so you don't say later to Elliot and Sarah. Harry didn't tell me. Move this. Put the video on. >> [applause] >> I don't want to sit. I don't want to sit. When I look back at Ry's care, I am so humbled and thankful to Hashem for all the help our community has given to take care [music] of our seniors. The phone rings. What are we doing tomorrow? When are you taking me to the movies? Could we go to a Broadway show? I come in with a team. I come in with a van. >> We drive into the house. By the way, they see Randy. It's like they see the mashia and you see them from outside waiting by the window. >> Then Randy walks in and the eyes light up and the smile starts and nothing even happened yet. >> Where were you? I was just here. You were? No, you weren't. When I see Randy visiting my dad, his favorite thing is to just chill out in his chair. Once Randy walks in, he becomes another person. >> She would walk in the room with all these toys, all these balloons >> and tons of balls and nets and singing with her Ry's care hat and blast [music] Juan Tara. His mind starts working again. Haim will come in and wrap the film for him. >> When I come to him, he's not so happy. When I put the fine, his eyes just slide up. I get the mitzvah and he get the mitzvah. >> I see how my team is so connected to the seniors. They're forming a very special bond and they just want to go back every [music] single day. My name is Lena Wangor and I volunteer at Ry's Care. I went up to Randy and I said, "Please, I need to volunteer with you. Okay, come meet me Wednesday. We'll get started." We walked into a house, Randy and I. I saw one of the ladies basically [music] slouched on the couch. Couldn't open her eyes. She said, "Okay, just follow my lead." 10 minutes later, we were dancing with her. Her eyes opened. Color came into her face. She physically got better. Randy awakened her. And she asked, "When can you come back?" I had the best day of my whole life. So, I am the hair stylist [music] at Ry's Care. I color and I style the hair of the seniors. >> Susan is styling their hair. She's talking about their life. They're giving her advice. [music] They just start to sit up. They start to feel better. She brings a mirror to show you like it like this. It's a real spa treatment. There was a woman. She started to say her every day she wakes up with a headache. Today she feels beautiful and she doesn't have a headache. The woman just started crying. [music] They want to be seen now. You're actually seeing the senior come to life. And it is extremely effective for their mental health, their physical health. my aunt who can't move her hands or her fingers. Randy got her to throw a ball into a net. Randy changes the station for her. All of this together brings happiness, brings energy. One afternoon could change their day, their feeling. She gets them to use their mind and [music] laugh and smile. At Ry's care, the seniors just want to keep coming back. They really love it. >> We are living in a city where [music] our seniors are caged into their apartments. Lights are closed, shades are down, [music] and they're not getting the attention that they need. >> They don't have family or their families are busy with their families. They're just alone. >> The seniors are amazing. They're people that can offer us so much wisdom [music] and knowledge and they have so much more life to live. It's our job to bring that out [music] of them. >> Seniors need Randy to keep their cognitive skills moving. >> We are helping these seniors feel [music] vibrant again, feel young again. We are bringing them back to life every single [music] day. >> Randy wakes up the nishama of these people and she breaks through the barrier. She actually [music] turns them into people again. When we speak to the children, they said, "What? How'd you get her to do that?" She actually restores their dignity and makes them come alive. She makes [music] each person feel so important. We are helping the seniors in a way that their families just cannot. They feel loved. They feel seen, cared about. [music] You can't imagine the amount of enjoyment these seniors get on a dayto-day >> after you leave the house and you see how she's happy or he's happy. Make you feel happy yourself. >> You see it happening in front of you. This is really making a [music] difference. >> I didn't even know that I could feel this way. Just the most amazing experience. >> So I have so much gratitude [music] for Randy for waking up my dad and my aunt. >> Ry's care needs the community [music] support. We have too many families that are calling in need. It's so important to get involved, to be a part of it. You changed this person's day. Added years to her. This is full-time care. [music] I can't tell you how necessary this all really is. It is so fulfilling. It is amazing what we do at Ry's Care. Please join us. >> You should realize how important this organization is, [music] and we should all support her. >> Help our seniors feel renewed with Randy by their side. And I said, "You're not crying yet. >> CNN, you like him. You don't like him. I shut sports." whatever they have once a year their 10 heroes in the country and I don't know how your name was not submitted to them to be one of the 10 heroes but I am going to now I am going to now officially initiate that the 2026 hero in the sphartic Jewish community Brooklyn deal the city and Florida is Randy. [applause] You are our hero. I have this saying that I've been using more recently than in the past. [applause] And it's about the side of the road. And we have an obligation. We have a responsibility. WE'RE 80,000 STRONG. And nobody should be left on the side of the road. And I don't mean the side of the road. Every one of them >> should be taken and brought and delivered to their destination, whatever wherever that is. >> And this young lady, she went from the side of the road. Could you imagine right now if we lined up all of those elders, their wheelchairs, and their beds with slumped down and we left him there. This young lady didn't wake up one day and said, >> "I will take you from the side of the road. I will bring you to your destination." And what did they ask? Where is their destination? A little smile, a little iced tea, a hug to play with them, to dance with them, something they haven't probably done in years. I can promise today. >> They probably haven't done that in years. [applause] [cheering] >> Come on up. Come on up. Our 2026 HERO OF THE SPHARTIC JEWISH COMMUNITY WORLDWIDE, RANDY, [applause] >> your special to us. Give her a chair. Don't let her sit on her back. >> Thank you so much for coming. >> Turn around. >> Thank you everybody. >> Turn her around. I I love I love I wake up every day with a smile and I go to sleep every day with even a bigger smile. I do wake up every morning and the after I pray and I say all I care about is where am I going, what I'm doing and how I'm going to target the day to tailor every one of our seniors needs. Whether they're a stroke patient, whether they have Alzheimer's, whether they have dementia, where they're just too thin and they're just too fragile, whatever their situation is, I make sure that I tailor their life to my life. My life is only for their life. And >> if one side of their body works, we bring in an air hockey table so they can play air hockey. If one leg works, we bring in all activities. These activities are tailored for young children 17, 18 years old that want to just throw a ball and the ball comes back to catch. But guess what? They could throw the ball because when the ball comes back to catch, all they have to do is open up their arms. So before I even even open up the activity for them, I exercise their arms. I exercise their legs with with music in the background. I make sure that their hands work. I make sure that they warm up like you warm up when you go to a gym. I warm them up with my own hands and I bend down on the floor and I lift up their legs and I massage their feet and I massage their hands and I take their brace off their hands and I make sure that they get a warmup and I actually introduce opening your hand, closing your hand. If they're going to use a racket that weighs absolutely nothing or a weight that looks like a weight from a gym but it's actually empty, they're doing it because they want to do it. Our community is a competitive community. Mahjan and all these games that our community seniors play that they can't play anymore. I found a new way for them to compete. I have them compete with activity, with movement, where they're playing a game that you have to throw the ball, but you are competing because there's going to be a winner at the end of the game. And that's all of our community is wired. We are wired to compete. We are wired for our blood to flow. We are wired to exercise. We are wired to move. And I make them move and I make them smile and I make them happy. No matter what I buy, I buy everything. Everything I see. Yes, I buy it. I saw yesterday little tiny little strainers that people would use for pasta. I bought a dozen of them and we're playing pingpong. You got to get the pingpong ball into the strainer. whatever it takes to stimulate them so the day doesn't look the same as yesterday. And we have a lot of parts of our body that work that when they're sitting on a couch and they're covered and you take the covers off, you open the shades, you shut the TV, and you turn on the music, the music turns around, they turn around, they turn the beat around, and they want to make me happy because they want me to come back. They they want they want our our seniors don't just wait for Randy to come. Ry's coming. I need to get my hair done. She's not going to be happy. Ry's coming. You got to clean up. They tell the aid. Clean up. Clean up. Ry's coming. Where are we? Move the table. Ry's. So, they have to prepare their morning for the time that I'm coming. So, if I'm coming at 12, they start at 8. If I'm coming at 11, they start it at 7. So, everybody has a system and a schedule. And I love to merge them together. When I find a friend, oh, I grew up with her. I make sure that I merge them together so we could have a group session. Even if they're homebound seniors, there's no such thing as a homebound senior that should be sitting home and doing nothing. It's a very long day. There's a day that doesn't end. And TV should not be their day. They should be throwing balls. They should be learning. They should be talking. They should be discussing. I was in the war. I made the best samboo sack. I have the best children. I want to show you pictures. I want to have coffee with you. I want to have tea with you. And then when they're done, they say, "Please don't go." So I always make sure that my stay to each and every one of our community seniors is a minimum of 45 minutes to an hour. Sometimes it drags longer. If it's a group session, it could drag for two hours. My heart and my soul is with all of your parents because all of your parents are my parents. I love them all. Thank you so much for coming. [applause] [cheering] [applause] [cheering] Thank you, Randy. Now everybody that's here understood what I meant an hour ago. Now everybody that's not here that's going to get to see why she has become our hero of 2026. You know I was thinking of something too Randy uh give me the stage. It doesn't matter who the woman or man is and how old they are and who their children are. We all have lives and lonely is lonely. And even though their children don't mean for it to be that way, it turns out that way. And in some cases, even more so than that, where the children are not around or whatever may have been their life's journey. But you don't leave anybody out. You don't leave them out. Keep going. You have our support. You have our full full support, young