Following through on a pledge they made in late May, a dedicated cadre of volunteers from the central-Israel city of Modiin has organized a large, multi-city solidarity trip to rocket-besieged Sderot. Leaving on Friday morning, the convoy is expected to include hundreds of vehicles, with people coming from at least 16 different points around the nation to show their solidarity with the southern city. 
Participants in the convoy will be doing some "solidarity shopping" at local Sderot businesses.
The objective of the group trip is to provide the residents of Sderot with both moral and material support. Participants in the convoy will be doing some "solidarity shopping" at local Sderot businesses, which have been hit hard by the ongoing Palestinian Authority attacks on the city. In addition, the visiting shoppers will be donating food and basic supplies for those people in Sderot who have been unable to obtain them on their own.
According to Efrat Klein, one of the solidarity convoy organizers, "All the shop owners in Sderot know we're coming, and they're very moved. It looks like all of Sderot will be out there waiting for us."
Danny Dahan, the head of the Sderot Business Forum, said Thursday that he was encouraged by the initiative. He noted that many local businesses are literally on the verge of collapse.
Iki Elner, a resident of Sderot, told Arutz Sheva Radio, "This is a necessary initiative. The economic difficulties in the face of the Kassam rocket attacks are more and more serious. Trade in the city is becoming more and more infrequent. Residents of towns in the region around Sderot used to come into the city for shopping, but now they don't come anymore and the economic hardship is getting worse. This is a blessed initiative. And I am now myself trying to promote a wandering bazaar of Sderot merchants that will travel to the surrounding communities."
Friday's solidarity shopping trip is actually the second of its kind. A previous convoy, like the current one, was a completely private initiative by Modiin native Ilan Cohen. It took place on May 29, initially included approximately two dozen cars, and was just a single-city project. However, at the end of that excursion, Cohen committed himself to organizing a bigger follow-up trip, adding, "If Modiin has succeeded in doing this, then other cities will do this, too, until it becomes a mass event." It appears that Cohen's determination is about to pay off for the residents of Sderot.
The vehicular caravans, heading out in the early morning from their various points of origin, will converge in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, south of Ashkelon. From there, they will join together in one long convoy, with a police escort, for the entry into Sderot. Once in the city, according to trip organizers, "We will drive through the streets and show the residents that all of Israel is Sderot."
Sderot Business Forum chairman Dahan said that, aside from
"All of Israel is Sderot!"private initiatives such as that of Ilan Cohen, he and his fellow forum members have called on the government to help. The state funds provided in the past, Dahan explained, were inadequate to provide real assistance.
Elner agreed: "We need more than hugs and support from Ra'anana, Ramat HaSharon and other towns. We need a guiding hand for all this support. If there was a local committee for rebuilding the city, then further shopping trips and sympathetic support would be more properly carried out."
As for the team behind Friday's solidarity shopping trip, they told Arutz-7, "We are not giving up on Sderot!"
For information on where, when and how to join the caravan, see http://www.lamama.co.il/sderot or call Efrat at 052-896-7117.