Seeds Of Caring

Orchards Children's Services to fete Jewish founders
on its 40th anniversary.

ESTHER ALLWEISS TSCHIRHART
Special to the Jewish News

P

icture a time in Detroit more
than 40 years ago when chil-
dren with emotional problems
had few options for treatment.
National Council of Jewish Women lead-
ers Beryl Winkelman and Phyllis Akers
were disturbed by what they, learned from
conducting an NCJW study to deter-
mine the needs of emotionally challenged
children in local Jewish communities.
"We decided we needed a treatment
program for young boys who otherwise
would be put into mental institutions,"
Winkelman said.
Their findings provided the impetus
for NCJW to establish Orchards
Children's Services in 1962.
Starting as a small, Jewish-oriented, res-
idential treatment center for pre-adoles-
cent boys who could not stay in their
homes, Orchards today is a private, non-
profit, nonsectarian child welfare agency
that serves more than 4,000 children and
families in Wayne, Oakland and
Macomb counties. Based in Southfield,
Orchards has become Michigan's largest
private foster care agency and largest pri-
vate adoption agency.
In recognition of their contributions,
Orchards' first chairpersons, Winkelman
of West Bloomfield and Akers of Toledo
— along with the National Council of
Jewish Women Greater Detroit Section
— will be honored Saturday, Jan. 26, at
Orchards' second annual "Champions for
Children" gala evening at Detroit's
Atheneum Suites Hotel.
"I wanted Orchards' 40th anniversary
year to celebrate not only the agency's
beginning, but also what I believe should
be a long and continuing relationship
with our founders," said Orchards
President and CEO Deborah Dinco. In
1986, Orchards became independent of
NCJW, but its members continue to raise
funds and volunteer at children's parties.
The honorees will receive the Gerald L.
Levin "Champion for Children Award,"
named for Orchards' dedicated former
CEO. Mr. Levin died in 1999 on the
Michigan Miracle Mission to Israel. His
widow, Bloomfield Hills resident Randie
Levin, and Nancy Thomas Norris of
Bloomfield Township, are dinner co-
chairs.
Joan Binkow of Ann Arbor called her

mother Phyllis Akers, former owner of
WQRS-FM, and professional volunteer
Winkelman, "fabulous women" and 60-
year friends. They met through charity
work.

The Early Years

"I remember when they went for zoning
for the first Orchards house in Livonia,
going to city council meetings," Binkow
said. "Nobody wanted troubled children
[living near
them]. The
underlying
philosophy
then was that
there were no
Jewish children
with emotion-
al problems —
that's what the
world was like
then.
"The
Phyllis Akers
Orchards was
one of the
most impor-
tant things Mother created in her life."
In the early days, her mother would
bring the five or six boys from Livonia to
swim in a neighbor's pool and have pic-
nics and outings, Binkow said. "The
Orchards tried to be an extension of what
a strong family is like."
With the help of caring volunteers and
staff led by first director Ralph
Abramovitz, "The Orchards provided an
opportunity to really heal families," she
said.
Mr. Levin, employed at Orchards since
1962, was the agency's next director. He
was charged to relocate the boys when
the Livonia facility was running out of
funds. "Instead," said Randie Levin,
"Jerry managed to obtain government
funding to keep it open. In succeeding
years, he really expanded the program"
with separate facilities for girls and boys
in Southfield.
By 1995, all the homes had closed.
The state of Michigan decided it was bet-
ter and more economical for pre-adoles-
cent youth to be placed in foster care.
CEO Dinco said Orchards' emphasis
began changing to foster care and adop-
tion services in 1985.
Recalling the development of the foster
care program, former NCJW President

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