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Ellen Ptalis received the November 2016 Volunteer of the Month Award from the National Council of Jewish WomenBergen County Section.
She was selected for her devotion to volunteering for the NCJW BCS and for programs they sponsor, said the announcement.
At Youth Consultation Services Holley Center, a residential treatment facility for emotionally and/or physically abused children in crisis, Ptalis co-chairs NCJW’s after-school arts and crafts program.
At Bergen Family Center’s Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, she teaches and plays with preschoolers while their parents learn to become their children’s first teachers.
In addition, Ptalis volunteers her time at the NCJW BCS Thrift Shop, raising funds for its programs and she helps the Center for Food Action, with mailings and participates in a NCJW BCS book group.
After earning her bachelors and masters degrees from NYU and the University of Pennsylvania, she taught in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn.
She and her husband then moved to Glen Rock, where they had two daughters and subsequently relocated to Hackensack. She returned to teaching, this time in the Bronx, and finding the commute onerous, became a mentor at Montclair University, from which she recently retired.
The National Council of Jewish Women is a grassroots organization of volunteers and advocates who turn progressive ideals into action, said the release.
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