A Bar Mitzvah On A Farm In Troy, New Hampshire: Farmitzvah

This family from Natick, Massachusetts, celebrated their son’s Farmitzvah at the Inn at East Hill Farm in Troy, New Hampshire.

All the guests arrived on Friday for Shabbat dinner and stayed through breakfast on Sunday morning. The Inn at East Hill Farm is a resort as well as a working farm so all of the guests had a fun-filled weekend.

Pictured L-R: Bar Mitzvah boy Evan, Mom Kira, Brother Milo and Dad Steve.

The photographer was Kristen Lenox Photography and the rest of the vendor information is listed at the end of the spotlight.

The family bought a Tree of Life invitation on evite.com. The front of the invitation was laser cut to show the Bar Mitzvah boy’s name on the front

 The inside of the invitation

RSVP and Schedule of Events

The intimate and personal service with family and friends was held in the dining room of the Inn.

Carrying the Torah through the dining room that transformed into a synagogue for the celebration

Guests listening to the prayers

A wonderful photo of everyone including family and friends after the serviceMom Kira created the siddur/program herself. The family’s favorite part of services at home revolve around the songs, so that is what they focused on. 

Looking handsome in his red kippot and tie.

The family belongs to a Sunday school only, so they needed to find a non-temple location to have the service. On a recent trip to the farm they asked if they could host their family and friends for the weekend celebration and the innkeepers were very accommodating. 

The family belongs to a Sunday school only, so they needed to find a non-temple location to have the service. On a recent trip to the farm they asked if they could host their family and friends for the weekend celebration and the innkeepers were very accommodating. 

The beautiful Inn at East Hill Farm

 The gift bags were given to guests upon check-in and included a schedule of events and scavenger hunt information. The gift bag goodies included New Hampshire-made chocolate covered pretzels, popcorn, salt water taffy, gourmet salt, maple syrup, a jam or jelly, soap, and a pencil for each family. Plus, a fun silly putty for each child

Mom Kira had buttons made for each guest so everyone could see what their relationship was to Evan. They were color coordinated based on side of the family or friend.

Red for the Bar Mitzvah boy since that was his party color

The family are big board gamers, so games were chosen carefully for the group including Bananagrams, Dominion, Telestrations, Apples to Apples, and Evan leading the group for Werewolf. Additional fun activities included: horseback riding, ping-pong and dodgeball.

Friday night bingo

 Evan relaxing on a horseback ride after the ceremony Saturday morning 

The guest of honor with magician Jason Purdy performing a trick that assigned each guest a board game to play that “amazingly” was the right game for that person 

 Tables with board game centerpieces and popcorn to enjoy while playing

Dodgeball on the lawn

Friendly ping pong tournament

The game Telestrations was fun for guests of all ages

Lots of specialty drinks from Espresso Dave who customized the menu. Life is Sweet baked the delicious mini-cupcakes.

The menu of hot drink options

Six flavors of mini-cup cakes

Evan donated to the Life Straw project to enable third world countries easier access to potable water. Each project helps a community of as many as 3,000-5,000 people get clean, safe water and significantly improves their quality of life. 

Some advice from Mom Kira:
“Plan early and often. We had everything planned to the minute prior so during the event itself, we were able to simply enjoy.”

The following vendors helped to make Evan’s Bar Mitzvah special. If you give any of them a call, let them know you read about their services on MitzvahMarket.com.

Venue/Caterer: The Inn at East Hill Farm, 603-242-6495
Photography/Videography: Kristen Lenox Photography, 603-703-2626
Invitation: evite.com
Games/Amusements: Jason Purdy, 603-352-1080
Beverages: Espresso Dave, 888-221-9029
Cakes and Desserts: Life is Sweet, 603-352-0900
Buttons: Wacky Buttons: 585-267-7670

Mitzvah Project: M.E.S.S. Flag Football Warrior Bowl

Mikey Espinosa and Stefen Shapiro of Plainview, New York are doing a great Bar Mitzvah Project together that we wanted to share.

Mikey’s Bar Mitzvah will be held on April 9, 2016 and Stefen’s Bar Mitzvah on February 6, 2016. Both boys are video game and football fanatics so for their joint Mitzvah Project, they decided to host a flag football event Sunday, October 18, 2015, in Plainview, New York.

The clever name, the M.E.S.S.(for the boy’s initials) Flag Football Warrior Bowl.

Pictured L-R: Mikey and Stefen.

The organizations that will benefit their project are: Wounded Warriors, Rangers Lead the Way; and Building Homes for Heroes.

We asked the boys for more information:

MM: Can you give us details of your Mitzvah Project?
ME/SS: We are both avid video game players and football fanatics. We decided to raise money for wounded soldiers and their families by hosting a community flag football event.

MM: Does your project have a start and end date, if so what are they?
ME/SS: The event is on Sunday, October 18, 2015 in Plainview, New York.

MM: Why did you decide to take on this particular project?
ME/SS: We both love the Call of Duty game on Xbox and it inspired we to create a “call of duty” in helping our service men and women.

MM: In your own words, what does it mean to you to do a Mitzvah Project for your Bar Mitzvah?
Stefen: “Doing a Mitzvah Project for my Bar Mitzvah makes me feel good that I am helping others in need. I hope to continue to raise money and volunteer my time to help.”
Mikey: “I really want to help support our military and the soldiers in need of help.”

MM: If it involves a donation, what are you doing to spreading the word?
ME/SS: We have handed flyers out at school, at sports event and around the community. We have elected team captains to help organize and recruit players. We have also solicited local businesses for donations from the community.

MM: How long can people donate to this charity?
ME/SS: We are collecting money on www.gofundme.com/warriorbowl up until the day of the event. We just reached over $7,000 which was our goal but we want more donations!!

MM: Anything else we need to know about your Mitzvah Project?
ME/SS: The community really supported the flag football event. We created t-shirts and have a 9^th grader, who is a DJ, helping with music. We also have food trucks coming to the event.

For registration and location information on this great Mitzvah Project, contact Mom Heather Shapiro at 516-445-4588 or Danielle Espinosa at 516-993-0610.

We wish Mikey and Stefen good luck with their event!