YOUTH

A handful
of college
students in
East Lansing
have turned
a small
youth program
into a
rousing
success.

Danny Phillips leads GLTY members and friends in a song session.

New Kids
On The Block

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Assistant Editor

I

t isn't the movies. It
isn't hanging out at the
local pool hall. It isn't
driving downtown with
the car top down and it
isn't slipping quarters into
video games.
The coolest thing these
days for young, Jewish mid-
dle and high school students
living in the East Lansing
area is something entirely
different. It's called Greater
Lakes Temple Youth, GLTY.
Three years ago, GLTY
was functioning with six
high school students. They
planned one annual pro-
gram.
Today, GLTY has 80
members from places like
East Lansing, Okemos, Holt
and Lansing. They hold

several events — at least —
each month, in addition to
numerous major programs
annually. GLTY's success
recently inspired an off-
spring, GLTY Junior, for
middle school students.
One of the moving forces
behind GLTY and Junior is
Rob Nosanchuk, a senior at
Michigan State University
and GLTY youth activities
director.
"These are some of the
most active kids in the en-
tire state," he says. "And I
think they're some of the
best, too."
Two GLTY members serve
on the eight-member exec-
utive board of MSTY, Mich-
igan State Temple Youth,
and GLTY regularly sends a
larger contingent to regional
and national programs than
cities with bigger youth pro-

grams —including
metropolitan Detroit.
The reason for their
success is simple, Mr.
Nosanchuk says. He and a
handful of college students
have worked diligently to
make GLTY the place to be.
The first step is easy —
getting kids to GLTY events.
And for that, Mr. Nosanchuk
turns to the kids.
"I bring a list of names of
students who don't belong to
GLTY to our members," Mr.
Nosanchuk says. "And I tell
them, `Go get 'em.' "
Mr. Nosanchuk has a long
history of involvement with
NFTY, the National Federa-
tion of Temple Youth. He
grew up at Temple Israel,
where he and his brother
were both in youth groups.
His mother was a youth
group adviser.

flob-Nosanchuk: "I don't consider college a break from religion."

When he started school in
East Lansing, Mr. Nosan-
chuk sought out the local
temple youth group. What
he found was seven kids.
That was not acceptable for
Mr. Nosanchuk.
So he asked around, look-
ing for Jewish students who
never came to GLTY. He
found many with little in-
terest in GLTY because they
knew nothing about
Judaism.
"Some of these kids go to
schools where they are the
only Jewish student," he
says. "They know they're
Jewish, but they don't know
what that means."
In the small Jewish com-
munity of East Lansing,
which is estimated at 2,000
families, GLTY proved to be
one of their few oppor-

tunities to experience
Judaism.
Once convinced to come to
just one GLTY event, the
students often returned for a
second, third and fourth.
"We get a lot of new mem-
bers by word of mouth," Mr.
Nosanchuk says. "A kid will
say, 'I came because Brian is
always talking about this' or
`John just came back from
this great weekend.'
"It can be overwhelming
for kids at first. But then
they really get into it. GLTY
is the kind of place where
you can come and cry;
somebody will always be
there to talk to you."
Mr. Nosanchuk also
reached out to the students'
parents, whom he says were
eager to work with GLTY.
Parents are active as ad-
visers and financially sup-

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

109