JCCA’s Pleasantville Cottage Campus is a special place. Once you get to know the oasis of healing and reprieve that lies beyond the front gate, it’s hard to forget. Countless volunteers tell a version of a familiar story: ‘I came here by chance one day years ago and...
Zoe Kleinman first volunteered on the Pleasantville campus in 6th grade. Her experience was a common one: she loved it and looked for opportunities to come back. She did after school craft activities with residents and joined a lunch bunch when she was old enough....
It’s no exaggeration to say that Sara Klein, a therapist working in New York City, wouldn’t be where she is today without having crossed paths with JCCA. Klein grew up in Westchester, not far from the Pleasantville Campus. “My parents always spoke openly with my...
In the summer of 2022, Craig Goldwasser and Andrew Chan reached out to JCCA. The longtime friends had launched their eponymous law firm a few months before, committing to giving 10% of their firm's earnings to charitable causes in the community. Less than a year...
The cherry blossoms were blooming again on the Pleasantville campus and it could mean only one thing: it was time for JCCA’s annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. The PCS dining hall had been outfitted with balloons, a tasty buffet, and at each seat was a booklet of...
On Sunday afternoon Pleasantville youth volunteers and residents streamed into a packed Edenwald rec building for JCCA’s first-ever Bingo Night Live. Emcees Sandi Rosenthal and Labe Eden called out the numbers as arms shot in the air and excited winners jumped from...
In September 2022, the Campus hosted 40 JPMorgan Chase staff, including executives and high-level staffers, for a barbecue on the quad, joined by many campus residents and JCCA staff. The social atmosphere was easygoing, convivial, and warm. An impromptu game of flag...
Summer is here and––with the help of some extraordinarily generous donors and volunteers––our Pleasantville residents are living it up. Before the pandemic, AFLAC reached out to us to ask if their employees could spend a day on campus. Though Covid delayed things a...
On January 23rd, 2021, JCCA hosted its first-ever virtual A Tree Grows in Pleasantville celebration. The annual celebration of volunteers, staff, and young people had moved online. Despite no canapés or open bar, nearly three hundred wildly enthusiastic attendees...
Jack Rosenberg, 15, is a rising 10th grader at Horace Greeley High School and was a tutor this summer as part of JCCA's Bridging the Gap program. He has been volunteering with JCCA since he was nine, along with his entire family, including his mother, Ali Rosenberg,...