March 21, 2008 / 13 Adar II 5768

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for teens by teen

0
, a junior at the Frankel Jewish Acad-
emy, and Erica Sachse. a sophomore at Berkley High
School, head the teen steering committee.

a place of their own

JCC's new teen center will offer state-of-the-art fun

by Blake Orman

Staff photo by Angie Baan

y the time the JCC Maccabi Games hit Detroit in mid-August, the Jewish
Community Center in West Bloomfield expects its new state-of-the-art teen
center to be open for all Jewish teens to enjoy.
The JCC board decided to convert the space that once housed the Holocaust
Memorial Center into an interactive center for Jewish teens. The HMC now is on
the Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington Hills.
Once a sacred museum filled with artifacts and memorials from World War II's
Holocaust, the vacated space offers 10,000 square feet that can hold more than 100
teens at one time.

The idea for the teen center started about a year ago with a group of adults on
the JCC board who were thinking about the future of Jewish teens in Metro Detroit.
They expect the teen center will help bring a new, young energy to the JCC.
"The vision of the board and Mark Lit, JCC executive director, is to create a hip
place for the youth of the community to hang out at the West Bloomfield JCC," says

.

JCC President Todd Sachse of Huntington Woods.
Teens all know the JCC is a great place to see familiar faces, but that was not
good enough for Sachse. He decided to make a change for the future of local Jewish
teens and is very involved and very passionate about this project, which he will head
with Lit.

"We believe that the teen center is the future because, with the synergy of the
Frankel Jewish Academy, BBYO and JCC's youth programming department, the
JCC can become the centerpiece for Jewish youth in our community," Sachse said.
"If we expect teens to come back to Metro Detroit, they have to have fabulous
memories here," Lit said. "This is a way of tying them to the community, of having
the Center be the center of their lives. This is a high priority for us."
The board decided to create an environment where teens in Detroit will have
a place to congregate with friends in a safe, enjoyable environment. The idea is to
make the center very inviting and comfortable.

The budget for this project is $900,000, with major funding corning from the
Prentis Family Support Foundation. The youth center will be named in honor of

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