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A special PULL-OUT
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in the Jewish News
Friday,
MAY 26, 2000
JN
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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•
HARRY KIRSBAUM
StaffWriter
s metro Detroit Jews prepare
to celebrate Israel's 52nd
anniversary with entertain-
ment and food during
IsraelFest in Oak Park on Sunday, May
21, one thing they can leave at home are
their walking shoes. .
Steadily dwindling numbers of par-
ticipants over the past few years, and
being at the mercy of the weather, are
two reasons the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit decided to cancel
the usual three-mile walk this year.
"There was a sense among the lay
leadership that the attendance has been
declining," said Mark Myers, communi-
ty shaliach and one of the organizers of
IsraelFest through Federation's
Michigan/Israel Connection office.
'As someone who is new to the com-
munity, I had to be attentive to what
seemed to be the local conventional wis-
dom and this time it said it might be
time for a change."
The concept of the walk was to
express solidarity with Israel, explained
Leonard Milstone, the Federation senior
staff associate who coordinated the walk
for about 15 years until 1995. "We
would walk hand-in-hand with our
A
Related story: page 99
brothers in Israel."
The last 20 years has seen walks of
different dimensions, he said, ranging
from taunting by 30 neo-Nazis in
1981 at the Southfield Civic Center,
to 5,000 walkers in 1993 at the -
Applebaum Jewish Community
Campus in West Bloomfield.
Penny Blumenstein, Federation presi-
dent, said she felt the walk proved to be
an incredible experience •and a big com-
munity event. "Other people saw how
enthusiastic everybody was, and it was
inspiring," she said.
However, Milstone said with each
successive year, the walk became less of a
draw. "You have a walk, and you try dif-
ferent things to attract people," he said.
"We tried various games for the kids
— musicians, clowns — anything to
make it more entertaining. Whatever we
did, a walk is still a walk. When you
gear something to families, and they
have little kids, unless it's the most beau-
tiful, perfect day, they might not walk."
Blumenstein said she believes the
decision to cancel the walk is for a -
good reason — "and the future will
find some other form where the com-
munity will respond."
Myers, Blumenstein and Milstone all
agreed the walk might be revived in
years to come. "If there's a huge outcry
for the walk, who knows?" said Myers.
"Never say never." 0
Run For A Cause
HARRY KIRSBAUM .
Staff Writer
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5/19
Federation nixes Walk for Israel
as _part of this year's IsraelFest.
Local couple holds race for a cure for juvenile diabetes.
888-479-5900
-
No Walk
Formica.
ormica.
Woods
Stones
Glass
Lucite
S
cott and Karyn Grodman
have two sons with diabetes,
but it no longer holds them
back. It makes them run.
When their sons, Jared, 7, and
Adam, 4, were both diagnosed at 15
months, the Bloomfield Hills couple
were stunned.
With Jared's diagnosis, "at first it was
total disbelief and uncertainty, because I
didn't know anything about diabetes,"
said Karyn. "I didn't know how it was
going to affect his life — our lives —
and it changed everything."
Giving Jared two or three shots of
insulin and checking his blood-sugar
level four times a day soon became
routine.
"After things settled in, we kind of
got back to a normal life," she said. "It
was turning into springtime and
Scott's a runner," so they came up
with the idea to hold a fun run "as a
way to get family and friends more
aware of the disease."
The first event in 1994 began as a
race around their subdivision. It raised
about $500.
When Adam was diagnosed with