When Jason Mendelsohn first connected with The Jewish Pavilion as a volunteer, he didn’t realize they were already helping his family. His father-in-law was a resident in Brookdale Altamonte. Every week, The Jewish Pavilion would come to the community and visit him.
“They are doing things in our community that we don’t recognize,” he says. “When people get older, too often people stop paying attention to them. The Jewish Pavilion makes sure no one is forgotten.
“It’s our responsibility to take care of our seniors,” he adds. “I strongly believe in their mission to take care of the elderly.”
Today, Jason serves often as an ambassador for the organization, sharing the story of The Jewish Pavilion with friends. He’s brought several local business leaders to the organization’s board and volunteered to lead the very successful Cocktail Hour event in June.
“Volunteers help in so many ways to ensure we have the ability to reach our seniors and enrich their lives,” says Nancy Ludin, CEO of The Jewish Pavilion. “It’s important to have people like Jason helping expand our presence in the community and embracing our mission.”
Jason founded and is the CEO of Ashar Group, which works to appraise life insurance to provide financial assistance to aging individuals. He’s been married for 26 years and has three children, twins who are in college and his son in high school.
The Jewish Pavilion is one of several non-profits that he works with and all of them are because of a personal connection. A cancer survivor, he serves on the boards of the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance and the HPV Cancer Alliance. With a son in the Edgewater High School Orchestra, he serves on the Edgewater Foundation and on the Orlando Philharmonic boards.
His actions in taking care of others comes from remembering how his parents took care of his grandmother. She spent her last years at their Altamonte home and it deeply affected Jason.
“My parents taught me that I needed to take care of others because I saw firsthand the importance of caring for others through their actions,” he says. “It’s our responsibility to take care of them.”
His parents, who are turning 80 and 79 in July, still live in the family home in Altamonte.
He hopes he is teaching his children to give back much like his parents taught him.
“It’s part of our everyday life to see that it’s important to devote time to others,” Jason says. “I strongly believe that if you do what is right, you’ll be blessed with prosperity, wealth and family.”