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Mostly Cloudy Friedberg JCC receives $1M donation
Legacy gift will expand programs and building
Earlier this month, the estate of Nat and Muriel Glanz made a $1 million legacy donation to the Barry and Florence Friedberg JCC in Oceanside.
The money will be used to expand the JCC in every way with a new building, with new programs and with new equipment.
“These were some of the kindest, most giving people you could ever meet,” said Arnie Preminger, president and CEO of the Friedberg JCC. “It was one of those things where the amount is staggering, but when you put it next to the personality of the person, it’s almost inconsequential. He was millions of dollars worth of a person.”
Nat Glanz was a member of the JCC’s Board of Directors, serving from about 2003 until his death in 2010. Muriel would always attend board meetings with Nat, and everyone loved her so much that she was made an honorary member of the Board of Directors. She passed away shortly after Nat, in 2011. The two had lived in the same house in Oceanside since they bought it in 1952. It was where they raised their two daughters, Ellen and Andrea.
Together, the Glanzes set up the Glanz Challenge — for every two dollars raised for the JCC’s special needs programs, the Glanzes would donate a dollar of their own money, up to $10,000.
“And every year they succeeded at it,” Preminger said. “Every year was an extra $30,000 for these great programs, so it was $15,000 additional for Sunrise Day Camp and $15,000 additional for our special needs programs. So in some ways, the legacy they left will replace that.” Sunrise Day Camp is a special camp run by the Friedberg JCC. It is the only camp in the country specifically for kids with cancer, offered free of charge.
“I think they loved the sense of community, they loved the mission of the place, they loved the range of programs that were run there, from the camp for kids with cancer to the programming for seniors and children,” said Ellen Glanz, Nat and Muriel’s daughter. “I think the range of what they do there really touched my parents and they felt that it was a really important part of the community. And I think it felt almost like an extended family to them, in truth.”
