'Macca bi
You've Got
A Friend
Competitors strike new friendships
at Maybury Night Picnic.
ROBERT A. SKLAR
Editor
I
t was an old-fashioned barbe-
cue — replete with kosher hot
dogs, hamburgers, veggie burg-
ers, chips, Coke and all the
trimmings.
Other attractions for the 3,200
JCC Maccabi Games competitors on
Aug. 20 at Maybury State Park in
Northville Township included inflat-
able games, hayrides, a DJ and live
music from the Teen Angels.
"I liked it the best of all the
evening events because there were
lots of things for us to do," said
Elise Kahn, 13, a soccer player from
Rochester, N.Y.
"It's great. I don't want it to end,"
said Dann Suissa, 16, an in-line
hockey player from Montreal.
"Everyone is so nice. I love the peo-
ple and the ho-spitality."
Joanne and Michael Bellet of
West Bloomfield and 50 volunteers
oversaw the barbecue. "I thought it
was terrific," Joanne said. "The kids
were well-behaved and kept busy.
And we got a lot of cooperation
from the volunteers. The only com-
plaint I got was that the
were
too long."
From his vantage point, Jeffrey
Fox, a Detroit soccer coach, thought
the night went well until the busing
problems at the end. "This is all the
kids want — to be together and
hang out," he said.
"We're having a fantastic time,"
said Joel Roodun, table tennis team
manager for the 53-member Great
Britain delegation. "Detroit has
been a fantastic host."
Igor Simin and Ronit Vishnia,
both 14-year-old basketball players
from the 20-athlete Israeli delega-
tion, liked socializing at the barbe-
cue. "People here are much nicer
than in Israel," Igor said.
Ronit saw the barbecue as an
opportunity "to meet new people
our age from other countries."
8/28
1998
28 Detroit Jewish News
Kevin Kay, 16, a baseball player
from the 173-member Los Angeles
delegation, was attending his third
Maccabi Games. The park setting
was ideal for making friends. "I'm
still talking to friends I made two
years ago," he said.
Not everyone gave Maybury Park
Night a glowing review, however.
Moira Kessler, 14, a volleyball player
from Farmington Hills, said, "The
polo games were fun, but the
hayride was boring, the dinner
choices were too limited and the bus
situation at the end was horrible. It
was the most unorganized event —
and not very fun."
She and the three dancers from
Long Beach, Calif., her family was.
hosting didn't have dinner until
midnight, when everyone finally got
back to the Kesslers'.
Moira much preferred Israeli
Night the evening before at the
Kahn JCC. "That was really great. I
met a lot of people that night,
which was well-organized both out-
side and inside the JCC. I met a
bunch of people I want to keep in
touch with."
The long delay in getting the
teen-agers back on the homeward-
bound buses from Maybury clearly
took some of the luster off the
evening. "If we were to do it over
again, we'd have bused all the kids
hack to the JCC right away, instead
of first trying to gather them by bus
stop," said Dr. Alan Horowitz, gen-
eral chairman of the 1998 JCC
Maccabi Games Organizing
Committee. "We also would have
started shuttles back to the JCC
beginning at 7:30 for the kids who
wanted to leave early." 171
Top right: Two athletes
relax at the barbecue.
Right: Pittsburgh ath-
letes arrive at Maybury
State Park.