A treasure trove of Nintendo Wii’s, video games, cards and books will finally be making its way from Elko to the rocket besieged Israeli town of Netivot Sunday.
“All in all it takes up about half a large suitcase,” said advocate Publisher Howard Copelan. “But considering all the trouble Jeni-Lei Powell went through to organize it we are more than happy to cut down on our own things for the children of Netivot.”
Advocate Publishers Howard and Corinne Copelan will be flying to Israel this week to visit their sons, daughter and grandsons in the wake of the war with the terror organization Hamas.
In an amazing display of the power of the internet and the power of compassion a collection of video game players and books will be heading from Elko to the beleaguered residents of southern Israel next month.
“Guys. We are trying to arrange for some activities for families in Netivot. Basically they are living in public bomb shelters. If anyone has old play stations or any gaming consoles that they are prepared to donate together with games please let me know,” wrote Barry Cohen a Realtor from Ra’anana, Israel on his Facebook page last week.
Netivot was founded in 1956 as a Negev development town. The first residents were immigrants from Morocco and Tunisia. In the 1990s, they were joined by immigrants from Russia and Ethiopia. For many years, Netivot suffered from high unemployment. Since 2008, Netivot has been a major target of missile attacks from Gaza. In the current conflict with Hamas terrorists well over 300 rockets have been fired at Netivot and residents have 15 seconds to make it to a bomb shelter.
Cohen’s post caught the eye of Facebook friends and Advocate Publishers Howard and Corinne Copelan. The Copelans who have three children and two grandchildren living in Israel and were planning to fly out this three weeks earlier. While having no used gaming systems themselves the Copelans knew someone who might, Jeni-Lei Powell of Ruby Mountain Pawn in Elko.
“I just wanted to see how much she would charge me but before I could even ask a price she said she was donating the two Wii’s she had in her store and would round up at least one more,” Howard Copelan said. “She is really quite amazing to be so charitable to people she has never met in a country she has never been to.”
The amazement did not end with Powell. Rachel Aue a member of the LIVE RUDE GIRLS heard about Ruby Mountain Pawn’s donation of game systems. She went home and asked her daughters Emillie, Dezi, and Brittanie if they were forced to be someplace like a bunker what would they like to have with them to keep them occupied?
“BOOKS!!!” They answered. The three girls then spent the last three days going through their books deciding which ones they would like to share with the children of southern Israel.
The actual donation was however postponed. Just b before the Copelans planned to leave Federal Aviation Administration ordered the cancellation of all commercial flights to Israel for 36 hours and Wednesday extended the period to another 36 hours.
“We simply could not get a flight in,” Copelan said. “We had to postpone and were finally able to book one for this week. Hopefully by then things will be better and more hopefully by then the children of southern Israel will never have to go to bomb shelter again.”
As of press time the question of a cease fire is still up in the air. At the same time Hamas members declared another cease fire Wednesday in Cairo, Egypt, the group unleaded another barrage of rockets some landing in the City of Netivot. Israel responded with air strikes.
