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Teen Wins Award for Bat Mitzvah Project
L OCA L
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
FOR MANY JEWISH kids,
the bar/bat mitzvah project is
an obligation. But for Jemmi
Seeherman, it was a revelation.

Throughout 2020, she
raised almost $1,300 and
collected more than 600
care items for the PA Breast
Cancer Coalition. After the
Wyndmoor resident had her
bat mitzvah in November, the
coalition sent her parents an
email. It said that Jemmi had won
the nonprofit’s annual Shining
Light Award for grassroots
leadership. “I learned that I actually
have the power to make stuff
happen,” she said.

Jemmi’s project actually
started two years earlier when
her mom, Elisa Seeherman,
was diagnosed with breast
cancer. The daughter was 11 at
the time and scared, she said.

“It couldn’t have been easy,”
Elisa Seeherman said.

But after facing her fear,
the daughter started helping
her mother recover. She began
cleaning more around the
house and hanging out with
her mom just to talk.

“She was a shining light,”
said Michael Seeherman,
Jemmi’s father and Elisa’s
husband. Elisa Seeherman made a full
recovery in 2019. Near the end
of the year, she sat down with
Jemmi to discuss possible bat
mitzvah projects.

And the daughter had an
idea. She remembered her mom
reaching out to the coalition
and receiving a care package. It
was filled with useful goodies
like comfortable satin pillow-
cases, cooling towels for her
neck and adult coloring books.

“It provided her with stuff
that people might not know
they need,” Jemmi said.

The daughter wanted to give
other breast cancer patients the
same care package. She pitched
the project to Rabbi Saul Grife
at Beth Tikvah B’nai Jeshurun
in Erdenheim, the family’s
synagogue. He approved.

“He wants each project to
be meaningful for the kids,”
Michael Seeherman said.

Jemmi recorded a video
asking for donations and
posted it on social media. It
also went out through her
parents’ Facebook accounts,
the synagogue newsletter and
the coalition’s website.

Each post included two links:
one for making donations, on
the coalition site, and another
for shipping items to the
Seeherman house, through
Amazon. Donations and
packages came from friends
and community members alike,
Michael Seeherman said.

As COVID-19 pushed
Jemmi’s bat mitzvah back
from March to November, the
dollars and items kept coming.

“I was amazed at how many
people were actually donating,”
she said.

Now 14, Jemmi is starting into
her freshman year at Springfield
Township High School. And at
her temple’s Hebrew school, she
is going to mentor students with
special needs.

Jemmi is in the Reta
Emerson Fellowship Program,
which trains high school
students to work with children
with special needs. After
Jemmi Seeherman on the day
she dropped off care package
items to the PA Breast Cancer
Coalition office in Lebanon.

Photo by Elisa Seeherman
being recommended by Roni
Handler, Beth Tikvah’s director
of education, Jemmi wrote an
essay to apply and was accepted.

“She’s going to continue to
find outlets to make a differ-
ence,” Elisa Seeherman said. l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
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