DOER
PROFILE
ALLAN \S 1
Home: Bloomfield Township
Kudos: Afghan Shoe-In
Allan Einstein, a teacher at Berkshire Middle School in
Birmingham and a Detroit Pistons photographer; cham-
pioned a drive that collected and sent more than 1,600
pairs of shoes to needy children in Ghazni, Afghanistan.
Allan Einstein (left, with beard) and
students send shoes off to Afghanistan.
How did the Ghazni project come to be?
"One of my students brought in photographs from
Ghazni for a current events assignment. The student's
father, Lance Waldorf, is stationed in Ghazni as part
of an army program that works with communities to
help rebuild cities. When we looked at the pictures,
we noticed that the basketball hoops in the back-
ground had no nets. So we decided to send Ghazni
children basketball gear and collected basketball
hoops, balls, nets, rims and Pistons T-shirts and caps."
So, where do the shoes fit in?
"Another picture had kids with no shoes on, and it
was winter. So we decided to also collect shoes, and it
skyrocketed. We collected 1,500 pairs of shoes and
also received some monetary donations. We were able
to buy another 140 pairs of shoes at K-Mart and 400
pairs of socks from Costco."
Are you planning any more collections?
"They need school supplies and have other needs
as well. We're hoping to receive pictures soon."
How did the experience affect you?
"Not all teachers' lessons are taught out of books.
This taught self-esteem. The kids don't want to stop
now They loaded the boxes and saw them being
taken away. To hear the kids talk about it is great.
They want to keep helping other people." ❑
— Illana Greenberg, IN marketing director
REPORT A DOER...
Know a Doer — someone of any age doing interest-
ing, meaningful things in their life-outside of their
job? Share suggestions with Keri Guten Cohen, story
development editor, at (248) 351-5144 or e-mail:
kcohen@thejewishnews.com
4/30
2004
10
Terror At The Corner Mall
hen I bid a fond
shalom to daily jour-
nalism, I felt that
one of the upsides
was that I would no longer have to
make the 50-mile daily round trip
downtown.
This was by far the most danger-
GEORGE
ous thing I ever did in my newspa-
CANTOR
per career. I was convinced that the
laws of probability
Reality
would overtake
Check
me eventually,
and I would be
turned into bone and gristle by
a random truck.
Either on the Telegraph
Road entrance to the south-
bound Lodge or around
the dreaded Wyoming
curve.
What a misled fool I
was. Navigating the perils
of the mall right near my
home is scarier by far.
All the rules of the road,
and of common decency,
are abandoned when one
enters mall space.
The marked parking
places are regarded as sug-
gestions rather than actual
repositories for a car. It's much
easier just to leave it at the curb and
avoid the tough 20-second walk. So what if that
presents a traffic obstruction? If you're just going to
be in the store for five or 10 minutes, who could
possibly mind?
Shopping carts are simply shoved out of the way
when you're finished with them; and if they wind
up rolling for a while and blocking a parking space
for someone else, hey, tough luck.
There is a drive-up mailbox in my mall.
Unfortunately, it is placed adjacent to a dance stu-
dio; and the parents who come to pick up their
kids invariably choose to wait, oblivious, right in
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor@thejewishnews.corn
front of the mail chute.
Younger drivers feel that the 35-mile-an-hour
speed limit on Orchard Lake Road also applies to
the mall roadways. While some elderly pedestrians
apparently cling to the theory that those same road-
ways are to be used as an extension of the sidewalk.
There is nothing I ever encountered on the free-
way more dangerous than being head-in parked
between a pair of elephantine SUVs and trying to
back out of the space with your sight lines totally
blocked. That is truly an act of blind faith.
There are two "No Left
Turn" signs (the bent
arrow with a red line
through it) at one of the
mall entrances. If West
Bloomfield ever wants
to perk up the town-
ship budget, all it has
to do is station a
squad car there all
day and ticket driv-
ers who ignore the
signs. But they've
only been there
for about 10 years,
so maybe they just
take some getting
used to.
And while the cops
are at it, maybe they
could flag down the smart guys
who bust through the red light on Orchard
Lake Road, panic stricken at the thought of being
held.up for 20 seconds. But I digress.
No, the downtown trek doesn't look so bad any-
more. Besides, all that painfully accumulated com-
muting knowledge is going to waste.
Like knowing that you have to get into the right
lane of the Lodge as soon as you pass the Meyers
Road entry ramp because it will move you 20 car
lengths ahead of everyone else before you reach the
Davison interchange. And the surface escape routes
on those mornings when the Lodge is backed up all
the way to Seven Mile Road.
I miss the soothing voices of Paul W. Smith, Dick
Purtan, Roberta Jasina and Joe Donovan — my
former companions on that long, strange voyage.
I listen for them at the mall but they are silent.
Maybe that's because I'm sleeping in later, too.
❑
Shabbat Candlelighting
"When I light Shabbos candles, I think about how lucky I am to have such wonderful family."
— Tali Wendrow, West Bloomfield
Candlelighting
Candlelighting
Friday, April 30, 8:14 p.m.
Friday, May 7, 8:21 p.m.
Shabbat Ends
Shabbat Ends
Saturday, May 1, 9:20 p.m.
Saturday, May 8, 9:29 p.m.
7i, submit ,7 candlelighting message, call Miriam Amzulak of the Lubauitch 1,Y/omen's Organization at (248) 548-6771 or e-mail• nramzalakeYuno.com