Over 17 years ago, Mr. David Bagan, along with a few peers and the guidance of mentors, founded Chaverim of Baltimore. An organization built on chessed to “lend a helping hand,” where calls would be far from glamorous but truly appreciated by each community member.

Chaverim of Baltimore launched with just three volunteer responders, each doubling as a dispatcher, using Nextel phones to put out the few calls they received. David, with the support of his wife Bracha, and a team of truly amazing volunteers, worked to build Chaverim into a real community resource, dealing with much more than just “car trouble.” Today, Chaverim’s 50 dedicated volunteers, using both radios and a specialized Chaverim app, regularly respond to over 15 calls a day and sometimes as many as 40! David’s true joy is knowing that the Dispatch Coordinators arrange for every phone call to be answered by one of the 15 dispatchers and each of those calls has a responder on location in 15 minutes or less!

The following is an excerpt from a letter from a newly trained Dispatcher:

“It’s 3:45 in the morning, and I just received my second call ever to dispatch. The woman has a flat tire and is stuck about 20 minutes out on 695. I am totally at a loss on how to deal with this. Not wanting to wake all the responders by putting it out on the radio, I text Mr. Bagan. I wasn’t even expecting a response at that hour. He texts back within a minute, he texts it out to the Units, and I call back the scared caller to update her. Surprisingly, one of the responder units says he’ll take the call and be there in 25 minutes. I’m surprised because I’m new at this. But the dedication of the responders, wives of the responders, and dispatchers is beyond the expected. I’ve come to learn that this community of people will go out of their way time and time again to help another person in need.”

Now, after many years, the leadership in Chaverim is changing and we wish to express our deep hakaras hatov to David. He led by example with a clear vision of what Chaverim should be - an organization that goes to any length to help ANYONE in need. Whether it be 3 in the morning, a family stranded on 95, or someone calling frantically to help take a snake out of their bathtub, he pushed himself and others to help until the problem was resolved.

It is with much appreciation that we wish David and his family mazel, bracha, and hatzlacha for the future and with his continued support, we welcome Mr. Daniel Levy as the new President of Chaverim. Daniel has been an active Chaverim volunteer responder for many years. He has shown great leadership qualities in his role as Unit Coordinator, along with demonstrating sensitivity and possessing the same characteristic of chessed that is the foundation of Chaverim. We thank him for accepting this position and we look forward to his leadership and guidance in this next chapter for Chaverim of Baltimore.

We know many in the community would like to join with us in expressing their appreciation to David Bagan and his family for all they have done. Please send any stories or words of thanks to chaverimbaltimore@gmail.com. If you would like to make a donation in the Bagan Family’s honor, please go to www.chaverimofbaltimore.org and click “donate now”, or Zelle to 410-486-9000.

Thank you,

The Board of Chaverim of Baltimore
Moshe Abramson, Sarah Don, Daniel Levy, Tzvi Hefter, Zev Weiss

http://www.chaverimofbaltimore.org