Wednesday, June 7, was a serendipitous occasion for the members of Kappa Guild, Inc.
The nonprofit women’s organization, which raises money to purchase resources for children in need, celebrated both its 70th anniversary and 50th donor event on that day. The original 50th donor event was meant to occur in 2020 but was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, causing it to coincide with the special anniversary.
Those specific numbers are also important in the Jewish religion: 50 and 70 add up to 120, which represents longevity as Moses lived to 120 years. It’s a coincidence that Sheila Mentz, current Kappa Guild co-president, acknowledged in a speech at the event.
“The number 50 is symbolic of new beginnings, a golden year and a time to celebrate all that we have accomplished,” Mentz said. “The number 70 is symbolic of wholeness. Anything that’s lasted 70 years is an achievement, a platinum jubilee year. And we are platinum ladies.”
Kappa Guild was first founded by ten former members of Kappa Sigma Tau, a Jewish high school sorority, in 1955. They had all lived through the Great Depression, and by that point, many of them had children.
While it started out as a social club, Kappa Guild’s members started focusing on nonprofit work after Sally Rifkin, their first president, visited her son in the hospital. She noticed that they had no toys for him to play with while he was there, causing the initial members of the organization to start raising money to buy toys for local hospitals.
“When you lived through the Great Depression, you sometimes didn’t get breakfast or lunch or dinner,” Rifkin explained. “So your mother would give up hers.” She spoke about how even during this time of economic struggle, the women in her family such as her mother and aunts were still dedicated to helping others, which heavily influenced her work for Kappa Guild.
In the 70 years since, the nonprofit has expanded and now supports over 25 organizations dedicated to helping children. These include local hospitals such as the Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, University of Maryland Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the Herman and Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Sinai; programs for children with special needs or chronic illnesses like the Rose of Sharon Equestrian School and Horizon Day Camp; and groups that support abuse and trauma survivors like the Center for Hope.
Rifkin added that Kappa Guild’s beginnings as a nonprofit were especially humble — when they first started collecting money for their charitable contributions, they did not even have a lawyer.
“We all had small children, and we were all exhausted. We joked that if one of us went to jail for operating a nonprofit without a lawyer, they would be able to finally get a good night’s sleep,” Rifkin quipped.
During the time since the last donor event, even despite health-related restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic that prevented them from hosting in-person fundraisers for a while, Kappa Guild raised over $10,000 to purchase equipment for their partner organizations. Their contributions for the year included specialized wheelchairs, swaddles for infants, baby scales and MamaRoo swings.
Also attending the donor event were three legislative guests: state Sen. Shelly Hettleman; Del. Dana Stein and Erica Crouch, the District 7 community outreach and engagement coordinator, who spoke on behalf of County Executive John “Johnny O” Olszewski Jr. Hettleman presented Mentz with a special citation from the Maryland General Assembly in recognition of Kappa Guild’s 70th anniversary.
“I know that [Kappa Guild] has made an enormous difference to so many,” Hettleman said. “Too many children in health care organizations are seeking assistance and need extra help, and you guys are there for them.”
Stein also spoke about Mentz’s propensity for giving.
“There is no better advocate for any nonprofit in the Jewish community or Baltimore area than Sheila,” he said.
Mentz, on the other hand, said that Kappa Guild is a group effort and that they would not be able to help children in need of assistance without the generous support of their many members.
“Dolly Parton once said that ‘We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails,’” Mentz quoted. “Kappa Guild definitely couldn’t direct the wind these past three years, but we adjusted the sails of Kappa to keep sailing, keep going and raising funds to help children in need.”
