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FUN page 10
ketball convention will travel to
the sectional contest in Mil-
waukee, with the possibility of
a national BBYO showdown this
May in St. Louis. The AZA vic-
tors of the oratory and story-
telling contests also advanced to
the national competition in Mis-
souri.
Although lasting only five
days, the convention was the
culmination of months of
preparatory work by the chap-
ters. Since October, they have
turned in newspapers, pho-
tographs, arts and crafts, liter-
ature and videos to be judged.
Add in sleepless sleepovers,
meetings and weekend retreats
at Milan Conference Center in
Canada to practice and plan for
the big week.
All chapters worked in hopes
of getting the most points and
receiving AZA/BBG Most Dis-
tinguished Chapter/Honorable
Mention award certificates at
Thursday's closing ceremonies.
All-Out Effort awards also are
distributed to the chapters who
successfully entered every con-
test.
"With all the competitions, a
real sense of fraternity comes
out within the chapters," said
co-coordinator David Rochkind,
a member of Marx AZA.
Mr. Weiner agreed. "Conven-
tion brings the chapters closer
together by making them corn-
pete in a friendly way," he said.
Another aspect of the con-
vention's popularity is the op-
portunity to meet so many other
members of the region. This
year, 410 BBYOers attended —
more than half of its total mem-
bership. Each of the 26 chapters
had at least one delegate, in-
cluding 20 delegates from Wal-
lenberg BBYO in Ann Arbor.
"It doesn't matter how many
delegates your chapter has," Ms.
Weiss said. "Everyone just
hangs out and has fun."
Despite the appeal, Ms. Weiss
admitted that a frustrating part
of coordinating the convention
was convincing freshmen to stay
in town for the event.
"Most freshmen get an idea
from the older members of
what's involved," she said. "But
no matter how much you say
how great it is, sometimes they
just don't have a choice in going
away."
Still, with more than 400 del-
egates, Mr. Weiner said that
some adults are constantly
weary of teen-agers running
amok in the Center.
"There's very little supervi-
sion because we have wonder-
fully trained leaders," Mr.
Weiner said. "It's the youth who
really run the convention
is."
❑
Affording Israel
Federation's Women's Division offers fiscal assistance for students through a
new "Israel Dream Lottery."
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER
S
o you want to go to Israel,
but you can't afford it.
Well, if you happen to be a
student under the age of
30, you may be in luck.
Thanks to an "Israel Dream
Lottery," set up by the Women's
Campaign and Education De-
partment of the Jewish Fed-
eration of Metropolitan Detroit,
area students can apply for cash
prizes of up to $2,000 toward
a study-abroad program in
Israel.
Jeff Kaye, the community
shaliach, says the new program
came about for a number of rea-
sons. For one, the Women's Di-
vision of Federation felt it was
"important for their donors to get
involved in something which is
seen as very important — the
Israel experience for young
people."
That idea, coupled with the
desire to "make Israel more af-
fordable," led the Women's Di-
vision to allocate part of its
campaign toward study abroad
options for young Jews, he says.
The Women's Division saw a
proliferation of scholarships for
such programs, but most are
available only on a needs basis,
says Mr. Kaye. "There was a
feeling that this should be avail-
able to all students who are in-
tending to go, and it wouldn't be
necessary for them to demon-
strate need."
A trip to Israel often is seen as
an integral building block for sol-
id Jewish identity. Combined
with submergence in Jewish his-
tory and culture, "all of that has
an effect on young people's Jew-
ish identity, which is one of the
goals of our Jewish education,"
he says.
The lottery will award at least
20 cash prizes of $2,000 for a se-
mester-long program or as much
as $1,000 for shorter programs.
Metropolitan Detroit area stu-
dents, age 30 or younger, who
have completed one year of study
and are enrolled at a college may
apply.
Application deadline is April
1, 1997, with the drawing to take
place on April 6. Applications are
available at Michigan campus
Hillels, the Michigan/Israel Con-
nection office, synagogues, Fed-
eration agencies, libraries and
bookstores. Prizes must be used
by Sept. 1, 1998.
The cash prize is good for any
program approved by the Fed-
eration's Michigan/Israel Con-
nection. That said, Mr. Kaye
notes there are few, if any, pro-
grams that are not approved.
The Michigan/Israel office has
a laundry list of study-abroad
programs — through Federa-
tion, universities and Jewish or-
ganizations — that qualify for
the grants, he says.
"One of the reasons that we
have that stipulation is so we
can steer young people to the
right programs," he says. 'There
is no likelihood of them finding
a program that we don't know
about and which is not recog-
nized."
❑
COLORWORKS STUDIO
Of INTERIOR DESIGN
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