BUFFALO N.Y. (WIVB) — Local boy and girl scouts are doing what they can to help people in need in Israel. The WNY Jewish Committee on Scouting is collecting funds and supplies to ship overseas by Thanksgiving.

“This is something we can actually do to help right now,” said WNY Jewish Committee Scouting co-chair Leah Romeo.

Romeo and co-chair Susan Beiter, are rallying their troops and putting together medical supply packages to help people affected by the Israel-Hamas war.

“Right now I don’t think there’s anyone in the Jewish community that this has not personally affected,” Romeo said. “This isn’t 7 degrees of separation for us, maybe one or two.”

Romeo’s son is a Boy Scout and had a hard time accepting what is happening in the middle east. Romeo says putting together the packages gives people, like her son, a way to channel any negative thoughts or frustrations about the war in a productive way.

“My son has spent time in Israel and his dear friends are there, and it’s been frustrating for him to sit on his hands here,” Romeo said. “So finding something that he’s able to do from a distance, that effects real change and will affect a real person, it has been healing for him.”

“They need an outlet for the energy they have around world events and I think it’s a matter of finding an action they can take that’s meaningful that’s really tied in with scouting and being a Jewish scout,” Beiter said.

The organization is collecting items including, cold medicine, aspirin, Band-Aids, burn ointment, hydrogen peroxide and eye drops. The items can be dropped off at their location on 2860 Genesee street.

“It’s a meaningful way to be able to feel like you’re helping so far away from what’s going on and you just want to do something rather than sitting and just kind of agonizing,” Beiter said. “To know that you’re doing something that’s going to reach people and give them the help that they need.”