Aidan will be celebrating his bar mitzvah on October 17, 2015. As part of his year-long preparation for his bar mitzvah, he is undertaking a mitzvah project to help others called “Lids for Kids.” He wanted to do a program that he could have a personal connection with. Since he loves to collect baseball hats (and play baseball), he thought it would be a great idea to collect new snapback hats to donate to children undergoing cancer treatment at our local Children’s Hospital at Sinai. . By providing children with cool new hats, he feels that these hats could make the children feel better about themselves, and maybe boost their self-confidence and resilience during their medical fight. His goal is to collect at least 75 new hats in a variety of styles for both boys and girls and present them to the hospital in early June.
UPDATED as of 6/15/15:  Last week Aidan personally delivered over 100 hats to the young children patients at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore.  It was an incredible afternoon where Aidan was given a tour of the Children’s Hospital and allowed to personally visit with six patients to offer them the opportunity to select a hat and talk with them briefly.  It was a very special experience that Aidan will never forget.

Aiden (pictured left) with his brothers.

Family and friends interested in participating can help out easily by following one of these simple steps:

— Purchase a hat for a boy or girl at your local store. We will come pick up the hat or hats can be dropped off at our home.

— Don’t have time to go to the store? No problem. Monetary donations can be sent to Aidan and he will do the shopping for you OR you can donate directly by using his gofundme page.

To date, we have raised close to $1,000 with a goal of at least $1,500. We have reached out to our local Lids store, and they have graciously offered to provide us with a 25% discount on each hat. We will coordinate an opportunity in early June for Aidan to deliver the hats directly to the hospital and, hopefully, he will have the chance to meet with a few of the patients.

Submitted to Themitzvahbowl.com by Sari Alperstein, Aiden’s mom.