Boots
on
Sale;

Face Lift Planned

The Maple/Drake JCC is starting to plan
for a multi-million dollar renovation.

LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer

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1997

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he Maple/Drake Jewish
Community Center is plan-
ning a renovation with an
unconfirmed price tag of
$15 million.
The proposed facelift follows recom-
mendations made in the Bloom
Report, which was released last June.
The wide-ranging study, which was
based on focus group surveys and inter-
views, was commissioned by Executive
Committee Chairman
Douglas Bloom and his wife,
Barbara.
"Instead of the Bloom
Report being something
where an outside consultant
told us what we need to do,
we went to the public and
asked what they thought,"
JCC Executive Director
David Sorkin said. The lead-
ership of the JCC learned
that people think the
building is too big, the
parking lot is too far
from the main entrance,
the building is not mod-
em cosmetically, and it is
not user-friendly, espe-
cially with regard to the
American Disabilities
Act.
"The report gave us
the impetus to move for-
ward with what we need
to do," Sorkin said.
"This is a 350,000-
square-foot building, in
which most of it is in
need of renovations."
Since the report's
completion, the design
and renovation, business, campaign
development and marketing plans are
all underway.
"The goal is to find how the Center
can have relevance to the Jewish peo-
ple," said Bob Slatkin, head of the
United Jewish Foundation and past-
president of the JCC. "Now a Center
needs to be built that can bring it into
the 21st century."
At the moment, new entrances are
being planned at the north and south

ing, and we were losing members."
Phase I of the makeover was an
emergency stop-gap that replaced much
of the equipment at the health club.
Phase II of the JCC's renovations began
with the Bloom Report.
"People started coming back to the
JCC when the equipment was
replaced," Sorkin said.
The new work is scheduled to begin
in early 1999, with fundraising efforts
starting next spring.
"We're in the beginning process of
putting together a fundraising commit-
tee," said Mort Plotnick, the JCC
director of development. "We've always
gotten great support when it comes to
fundraising, and we expect to get that
again."
The fundraising plan, according to
Federation consultant Michael Berke, is
being developed. "It may be done with-
in the next few weeks," he said.
Because of the Federation's
"Campaign corridor" — the time it
raises funds for the Allied Jewish
Campaign — its
agencies
are not
'O.
allowed to conduct
7.;
fundraising cam-
0
paigns between
Dec. 1 and March
0
31. The JCC
fundraising cam-
paign will likely
begin after April 1.
The JCC is also
planning an
endowment cam-
Top: A major face lift is planned.
paign to raise
funds to support
Above: JCC Executive Committee head
programs.
Douglas Bloom.
Sorkin said there is
Left: JCC Executive Director David
not enough quality
Sorkin.
or quantity in JCC
programming. The
programs that are offered were looked
built in 1975, the child development
at individually, and goals and objectives
center was five classrooms for 50 kids.
were laid out for the next two years.
Now there are 250 kids. There was no
"We wanted to build the programs,
`child care' then because, generally, kids
and work the redesigned building
stayed with their moms at home."
around those needs," Sorkin said. "We
The bottom line, according to
aren't starting from scratch. We are
Sorkin, is that the agency wasn't able to
redesigning the same mission but mod-
change as fast as society did.
ernizing our aim."
"There was no competition in the
"At least we have a great playing
areas of health and physical fitness
field to work on."
when the Center moved here," he said.
"We saw that the facilities were declin-

ends of the Center, and the current
entrance will be closed. The health club
will be relocated closer to the south
doors.
The entrances are only a start,
Sorkin said. The area where the execu-
tive offices are located will be turned
into a Judaic center. The library and
computers will be moved there. The
current library will be turned into a
member services area, and an upgrade
of Shiffman Hall is planned.
"The renovations will be massive,"
said Sorkin. "When the building was

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