JFS of Metrowest is pleased to announce that Barbara and Ellis Morris of Natick and Karen and Michael Tichnor of Wayland will be honored at the 25th annual Seize the Dream Gala event on May 3rd, 2015 at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel and Conference Center.
Seize the Dream honors area leaders and volunteers who have demonstrated an unfailing commitment and personal dedication to supporting vulnerable children, families, and senior adults in the local community. This year’s honorees have made it their life’s work to stand up for those left behind and it is a privilege to recognize these exceptional individuals.
Barbara and Ellis Morris have focused their activism on Jewish education and their concern about alleviating hunger. Early advocates of JFS nutritional programs at Framingham’s Wilson School, they are the founding sponsors and long-time supporters of the Natick Service Council’s program that provides Thanksgiving dinners to hundreds of Natick families each year.
Active at the Metrowest Jewish Day School and at the Solomon Schechter Day School, where their daughter Ashley attends sixth grade, they have sponsored a program to bring innovative educational technologies to middle school classrooms.
An Executive Board member and financial officer of Temple Israel of Natick, Ellis is a partner at Morris and Morris, P.C., CPA’s, which he co-founded with his brother Michael. Ellis is a former JFS Board member and Barbara is an active volunteer at the Solomon Schechter Day School and at the Metrowest Humane Society.
Karen and Michael Tichnor have been leaders of the Jewish and broader communities in Boston and Metrowest for over thirty years. Ardent supporters of JFS, they care deeply about the agency and its mission and role in the community.
A past President of American Jewish Committee in Boston and current member of its national Executive Council, Michael has also chaired the Wayland Board of Selectmen and served on the boards of the Metrowest Jewish Day School and CJP’s Metrowest Committee. He is President of Tichnor Properties, a commercial real estate company based in NH. Karen is an elementary school special educator for the Wayland Public Schools. She has been a Board member of the Bureau of Jewish Education and served on the CJP Commission on Jewish Continuity.
