Arts Life Jewish Stars Olympic Dreams ALAN HITSKY Associate Editor • • Free installation all our fireplace glass doors free standard install doors available in sizes and finishes to match our decor Fireplace Glass Doors Hearth Craft Raidowieluxe full frame full-fold bifold doors for your factory built fireplaces from Lennox, Superior, Majestic, Heatilator, Heat-N- Glo & more others-sizes even up to 43" wide includes custom sizes- most - 379.99 r Take an extr 1 0%o f in stock fireplace gas log set or fireplace grate- co u.pon valid to 12/9/04 Take an extra Ta e an extr 15%o 5off bar ecue cover coupons cannot he combined any fireplace tool set or log holder or basket- coupon valid to I 2/9104 L coupon valid to 12/9/04 Clearance beautifulgas log sets from $199_ includes: rate burner embers sand ravel & sa et ilot control 4 Seasons Fireplace & Barbecue 30903 Orchard Lake, Farmington Hills by the Gap, Open Sundays 10am to 6pm, Mondays and Thursdays 10am-9pm, Tuesdays & Wednesday 1 Oarn-7pm, Fridays 10am-4pm, Closed Saturdays 12/ 3 2004 70 sale ends 12/09/04 248-855-0303 Expert Installation & Service 916260 skater, does homework until her sessions start at 9:15. The Leggetts are home- schooling Rachel. Cheryl Leggett can spend more than four hours per day at the rink, between her two children, and works at the skat- ing club one morning a week as a "music monitor" — playing the skaters' music for their routines. Working as a monitor helps lower the cost of the chil- dren's ice time, as does practicing in the morning, rather than afternoons or evenings. "At the level they are at," says Cheryl, "the cost is $28,000 annually per skater." The Leggetts have reduced the cost to $38,000 this year because Joshua has 10 sessions per week, instead of the usual 11 or 12, and because of the music monitor job. "We just couldn't afford more," Cheryl says. oshua Leggett of West Bloomfield has an expensive dream. And, hav- ing just turned 9, he has found a lovely partner to help realize the dream. Joshua, of West Bloomfield, and his partner, Laura Perry, 8 1/2, of Bloomfield Hills, are among the youngest ice danc- ing couples in the United States. Paired as a team in October 2003, Perry and Leggett won gold medals at their level at the Ann Arbor Invitational last spring and at the Lake Placid (N.Y.) Ice Dance Championships in August. In Ann Arbor, they competed against two other teams; in Lake Placid, they competed against an older team. To get to this level, Joshua has been skating since age 4. He's now on the ice for approximately 20 hours over a six-day week, and his parents, Jim and Cheryl Leggett, have both taken on two jobs to pay the $38,000 annu- al skating bill for Joshua and his sister, Rachel, 11. Since she was little, Rachel has wanted to be an Olympic skater. Her mother began tak- ing her for skating les- sons at age 4, bringing 2-year-old Joshua along in his stroller. Joshua followed in his sister's "skates" two years later. The family has given Laura Perry and Joshua Leggett up a lot to follow their Olympic dream. Cheryl gets up at 4:30 a.m. most days to get She also works part time teaching Joshua and Rachel to the Detroit computer classes for preschoolers at Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills. His Temple Israel's Early Childhood Center. ten 50-60-minute sessions per week start Husband Jim, a video engineering between 6:15 and 7 a.m. and usually supervisor, works a full-time job and run back-to-back. moonlights with a second company. They include working with a personal Cheryl says the effort is worth it. "It is trainer on strength and conditioning definitely rewarding for me to see the exercises, a group ballet class one day per two kids trying to reach their dream. week, working with a freestyle skating From the beginning, my husband always coach and with, partner Laura, with an told them to quit if they decided they ice dance coach. didn't like it." Keith Elementary in Walled Lake It was Joshua's idea to find a partner Schools allows Joshua to be 30-minutes last year. "When are you going to get me late for school the one day per week a girl?" he told his parents and coaches. Joshua's practice session starts at 7 a.m. The coaches tried him with several Meanwhile, sister Rachel, a freestyle partners before he was paired with Laura Perry. "The look was there, their strokes