At a garden party held for Raanana volunteers, Val Kantor was awarded the Alan Katz Raanana trophy for outstanding volunteering for the year 2009/10.

Val, together with her husband Bobby and four children, made aliyah directly to Raanana from South Africa in 1979 where she was an active volunteer. She first became active in ESRA in 1996 after completing an ESRA training course to run a hotline, and by 1997 she had become the ‘Befriender’s’ coordinator. A year later she was elected to the ESRA executive and was very active with the ‘Befrienders’ until an official English hotline was started by Milev.

The ‘Befrienders’ evolved into what it is today – volunteers who make home visits to the sick, lonely or housebound. Over time another three courses have been run to prepare volunteers to become befrienders. Today, Val runs these courses whenever there is a group of 10 interested volunteers.

In 1998 when Val was volunteering in the ESRA office in Herzliya she was asked to work full time for a “short while”. This “short while” became five years, before Val retired and returned to volunteering. It was a difficult decision; however, at that time with family and grandchildren living all over the world, she wanted to be free to travel whenever possible.

Still, we always say a busy person always has time, and Val, despite the fact that she is a very hands-on grandmother, still found time to coordinate the ‘Befriender’s Group’ and the Support Services.

During the Lebanese War, Val, on behalf of ESRA, became very active in coordinating help for the families who moved down to Raanana during this difficult time. She visited them and got whatever help was needed at the time to make their stay more comfortable. She also helped find volunteers for Mishan, a retirement home, which took in 60 wheelchair patients from the north. ESRA received an award from the municipality of Raanana for its efforts.

Val is currently also heading up the Raanana Committee and the Emergency Committee which ESRA is setting up in case of another state of emergency.

In 1993 Val was given an award from Nitzan for helping advance children with learning difficulties. In 1998 and 2000 she was given awards from ESRA for her initiative and devotion to ESRA’s vital projects; volunteering and membership and for accepting tasks, in addition to her official responsibilities, enabling the offices to function effectively and fulfill the growing needs of ESRA.

Today, Val has taken over as the head of ESRA’S volunteering and is a member of the executive committee as well as all the other committees I mentioned above. She is also very actively involved with the distribution of the ESRA magazine.

Val is indeed a true volunteer in every sense of the word. Whenever she is called upon to help, she is always there – whenever asked for advice, she is always there – whenever ESRA needs an extra pair of hands for whatever is going on, Val is always there and for this we thank and honor her.

Val well deserves the Alan Katz award as Raanana’s outstanding volunteer for the year 2009-2010.