Friendly
League

Greenberg AZA has created a basketball
program where everyone's a winner.

. Clay Barbour of JARC keeps
the ball away from Max Shear
of Huntington Woods.

,

BARBARA LEWIS

Special to the Jewish News

T

ell a group of teenaged boys that their lives will be
changed by doing good for others and you're likely to
be met with a blank stare or a sarcastic rejoinder. But
members of Hank Greenberg AZA will not be among
the scoffers.
A year ago, looking for an ongoing community service project,
the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization members began playing bas-
ketball twice a month with developmentally challenged men who
live in group homes managed by JARC, the Farmington Hills-
based Jewish Association for Residential Care. The award-winning
project was so successful the boys decided to continue it this year.
Every other Wednesday evening, the gym at the Jimmy Prentis
Morris Building of the Jewish Community Center in Oak Park
resounds with the thuds and whooshes of basketballs as eight to
12 Greenberg AZA members and a similar number of JARC resi-
dents come together to shoot hoops or play informal games like
"horse."
"It's fun!" said Alan Bortman, 31, who lives in the Berlin JARC
home in Bloomfield Hills. "These guys are fun to hang around
with. I wish I could have one of them for another brother."
Other participants come from JARC's Grosbeck/Gordon and
Grand homes in Farmington Hills. They're all big sports fans.
The program was the brainchild of chapter president Gabe

Craig, 17, of Birmingham. Last year, he was a member of AZ.d's regional board
and looked for a way to get his chapter involved in BBYO's ongoing communi-
ty service program, Teens Actively Serving the Community. BBYO comprises
AZA_ (Aleph Zedek Aleph for boys) and BBG (B'nai B'rith Girls).
Gabe had volunteered for JARC before, helping out at a party, and had
enjoyed working with children with special needs at the Jewish Community
Center Day Camp. He
called JARC and sold them
on his idea for a basketball
league.

A Highlight

The AZA members "were
proactive from the project
inception," said Jodi
Sperling, a student in the
University of Michigan's Sol
Drachler Program in Jewish
Communal Leadership who
did her field work at JARC
last year and helped set up
the program.
"They developed genuine
and growing relationships,
with the guys giving high

Alan Bortman of JARC jokes with Mikey Noveck of
Birmingham and Benjie Klein of Farmington Hills.

11/9
2001

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