Canadian
Carpool
For seven
Windsor families,
Jewish education
knows
no boundaries.
T
JULIE WIENER
Staff Writer
bird-grader Richie Kamen
gets his allowance in
loonies, but every day his
parents make sure he has a
few American dollars before he leaves
for school.
Along with the other children in
his carpool, Richie is a regular interna-
tional traveler, crossing the Windsor-
Detroit border twice a day in order to
attend Hillel Day School in Farming-
ton Hills.
Each weekday morning, the carpool
nine children, two parents and two
minivans — assembles at 7:30 a.m. on
a quiet residential street just a few
miles south of the Ambassador Bridge.
Armed with cell phones and full
cups of coffee, the parent drivers rev
their cars for the 45-minute-each-way
trip.
This is just one of the three weekly
trips required of each family, and most
log additional mileage traveling to par-
ent-teacher conferences and weekend
birthday parties of classmates. It's a
schlep, but the parents say it's well
worth it.
And the kids? "All I can say is it's
tiring," says third-grader Leo Schnay-
er. Nonetheless, Schnayer and his fel-
low passengers seem to enjoy sharing
war stories of delays at the border and
of the inevitable flat tire and running-
out-of-gas adventures.
B
ecause Windsor's Jewish
population of 1,300 cannot
support its own day schools,
for years
a handful of fami-
lies has crossed the
river for day school
education at Hillel,
Yeshiva Beth Yehu-
dah and Akiva
Hebrew Day
School.
This is the first
year there have
been enough Hillel
students to merit two cars. And with
younger siblings approaching elemen-
tary-school age and satisfied parents
spreading the word to friends, contin-
ued growth is likely.
"When we started out, only one
other family was going to Hillel, and
we did five drives a week," recalls
Susan Orman, mother of 8-year-old
Alexander and 5-year-old Blake. "In
two years, we'll have 13 people."
A West Bloomfield native who is
married to a Canadian, Orman is a Hil-
lel graduate and thrilled that her chil-
dren are continuing the family tradition.
"Windsor has a very small Jewish
community and I wanted to maintain
my children's Jewish identity," says
Orman. "[Driving] is really not an
effort for me. My car is on complete
auto pilot down the Lodge [Freeway]."
The route is simple, the carpool
highly organized (parents meet each
summer to plan the year's schedule)
and the trip through the border usual-
ly uneventful. Most of the border
guards recognize the Hillel carpool —
"the Jewish bus," as one guard refers
to them — now and wave them
through. But every now and then, a .
new guard demands to see everyone's
papers.
Reuben Schnay-
Above: First grader Jared Guttman
er — a native of
yawns as the group starts off
Montreal whose
children, Leo and
Left: Dylan Liebman (left), Sandy,
Stuart and Meghan Plotnick (red coat)
sixth-grader
wait for the others in the carpool to
Gabrielle, are both
arrive.
Canadian citizens
— says border has-
Below: Approaching the border.
sles are rare.
"Only two or
three times have
we had trouble
and been pulled in
by a customs offi-
cer," he said.
"We've had more
problems getting
our 1-20 forms
validated each
year."
In addition to
their birth certifi-
cates, the Canadi-
an children must
carry 1-20 forms,
which prove that
12/19
1997
9