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Maccabi Games 2008

ON THE COVER

www.2008detroltorg

Ready To Roll! from page A17

Alissa

Graff, 16, of
Huntington

Woods

Madame Director

You're about to be stranded on a des-
ert island for two years and you're
only allowed to bring one item. Take
plenty of fresh water. And if you're
only allowed to bring one person, bring
Karen Gordon.
As director of the 2008 JCC
Maccabi Games in Detroit, Karen has
a seemingly impossible job: organizing
hundreds of volunteers, thousands of
athletes, dozens of sporting venues,
working with lay leaders and profes-
sionals, overseeing everything having
to do with the Games from securing
the location for opening ceremonies
(the Palace of Auburn Hills) to making
certain athletes have enough water.
So she's resourceful and organized.
She's also direct and generous with
her compliments. And she loves cook-
ing.
Gordon's introduction to Maccabi

came in 1984, when her parents
hosted athletes at the first Games to
be held in Detroit. Two years later, she
was coaching a girls' volleyball team
and, in 1989, she was a juniors chaper-
one with the USA Maccabiah team in
Israel. In 1999, she became a Detroit
delegation head and now she's Games
director.
"Karen had shown herself to be a
very successful staff member, running
the Center's charity golf tournament
and the Maccabi team," said JCC
Executive Director Mark A. Lit. "We
were thrilled to have the opportu-
nity to expand her responsibilities to
include hosting these Games."
"Karen is really the perfect person
for this enormous job," added JCC
Assistant Executive Director David
Stone. "She's committed to JCC
Maccabi, plus she's organized, inspir-
ing and she's got a great sense of

SPECIAL EVENTS THE VENUES
Geoff Kretchmer
Jesse Polan

IN-KIND HELP
Mort Plotnick

In-Kind Help
There are very few people in the United
States who have been involved with Maccabi
longer than Mort Plotnick, former executive
director of the Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit.
He helped put the idea together for the
inaugural JCC Maccabi Games in Memphis
in 1982. He pushed to bring the second
Games to Detroit in 1984 and pushed again
for 1990, when few cities wanted to host
the Games. Hugh Greenberg, active at the
Detroit JCC and with the national Jewish
Community Centers Association, was the
first continental chairman.
'At that point:' Plotnick says, "the Games
were held every two years, and Chicago in
1998 had lost $125,000 hosting the Games."
Plotnick created a fundraising model for
1990 that has been adapted and used by
every Maccabi host city since. He reached an
agreement with Coca-Cola to be a continen-
tal sponsor, which the company continues
annually, and has recruited other national
and local corporate sponsors.
Financial and in-kind contributions total
$2 million for next week's Games.

Plotnick says Jewish communities host-
ing the JCC Maccabi Games have found a
common experience: "It brings in people not
normally part of the organized Jewish com-
munity. That's the strength of the Games."
The JCC Maccabi Games have changed
over the years. Multiple sites now serve as
hosts — including San Diego last week and
Akron this week — and participation has
grown. Detroit alone will host teens next
week from 59 communities, including Israel,
Great Britain, Hungary, Mexico, Venezuela
and Canada.
"There are so many kids, no one commu-
nity wants to take it on," Plotnick says:And
school schedules are different in the North
and South. By breaking it up, smaller com-
munities can hose.'
Travel expenses have made the Games
costly for participants today. Last year, before
fuel expenses rocketed skyward, it cost close
to $1,000 to send Detroit athletes to the Los
Angeles Maccabi. Plotnick says the teens get
a lot for their money, "but it's very expensive'
On the other hand, the Games provide
a mutt-million dollar boost to the local
economy.

humor."
"I love what I'm
doing," Gordon says. "I
love watching Jewish
kids from all over the
world meet. For some,
it will be the most
exposure to Judaism
they have. The fact
that the kids are social-
izing and working with
each other is so much
more important than
who wins. Once you
Karen Gordon
experience the Games,
you're hooked.
"So I love what it stands for – but
it's also really fun."
As Maccabi nears, it's pretty much
the Games 24 hours a day for Karen.
A month ago, she had lost 25 pounds
despite her office in the JCC being
piled with boxes of water bottles, pret-

JEWISH INPUT

Sally Krugel

❑

zels ... and volleyballs.
Except Thursday
nights. Don't ask Karen
for Thursday night;
that's when she plays
softball. And Friday
nights are reserved for
Shabbat dinner with her
mother, husband Vernon
and their two children.
Gordon also likes fix-
ing weekday dinner:
Mexican food and fish
sticks (from scratch) are
favorites. She'll often try
recipes from her favor-
ite magazine, Cooking Light. But not
lately, with Maccabi.
"I've got a few issues to catch up
on," she says.

- Elizabeth Applebaum