Melissa Kloner and her partner Dain went on their Honeymoon Israel trip in December of 2019. When they returned home to LA, they had a newfound community in their HMI cohort.
After the coronavirus pandemic hit, September proved to be an even more challenging month in LA with poor air quality and wildfires. Melissa decided to spread a little happiness and do something special to brighten her HMI family’s day.
Melissa reached out to HMI Director of Community Engagement Jessica Gisondo to put together care packages for every single person from her HMI cohort. Melissa and Jess worked together to create the bags which included handwritten notes, a group photo from Israel, Israeli spices and snacks like zaatar and bamba, ParTea cocktail infusers, picnic wine glasses, shabbat candles, HMI matches, and more!
Once the bags were complete, Melissa and Jess split up and drove all over LA to hand-deliver the care packages. “When life gives you lemons, we make care packages. The combination of the pandemic and the wildfires had me feeling out of sorts. I imagined my fellow HMI-ers may be feeling the same and decided to create and deliver just-because care packages to lift our spirits. My hope is that it brought some smiles and let people know that they, too, are cared for as they work to care for themselves,” said Melissa.