Metro

YOUNG ADULT TEAMWORK / ON THE COVER

Stepping Up
To The Plate

Duo organizes Pitch for Israel
charity softball tournament to rally
Detroit's young Jews.

Robin Schwartz
Special to the Jewish News

T

-

Pitch Fror Israel Detroi

1---fotthders Adam Blanck.

of•West Bloomfield and
Benjy Gordon of Detroit

here's something magical about a
night at the ball park: the energy
of the crowd, the crack of the bat,
the simple pleasure of sitting under the
stars in the open air. Such was the case on
a carefree summer evening in June 2009
when Adam Blanck and Benjy Gordon,
two good friends who were college room-
mates at the University of Michigan,
headed to Comerica Park to cheer on the
Detroit Tigers.
They don't remember much about the
game itself, who the Tigers were playing
or the final score, but a conversation they
had in the stands sparked an idea that will
soon bring together dozens of their peers
to raise money for charity and generate
excitement about Detroit's Jewish com-
munity.
Pitch for Israel is an end-of-summer
charity softball tournament for 20- and
30-somethings that originated in Toronto
(see sidebar). Blanck and Gordon have
organized the first-ever local event, with
10 men's teams and 4 co-ed teams. It's set
for Aug. 29 at Drake Sports Park in West
Bloomfield.
"We were talking about how much we
love living in Detroit and how the area
has such great potential that's not being
realized because young people are moving
away',' Gordon recalled. "People our age
who are sticking around don't seem to have
a cohesive sense of community. We wanted
to do something to change the
Blanck and Gordon, both 23, are exactly
the kind of vibrant, enthusiastic young
professionals community leaders are try-
ing so desperately to retain.
Blanck grew up in West Bloomfield
and is a graduate of U-M's Ross School
of Business; he'll attend law school at
3 U-M in the fall. He recently interned in
Washington, D.C. as part of the White
House Internship Program and volunteers
t as a member of the White House Advance

team, traveling ahead of President Barack
Obama or Vice President Joe Biden to help
plan logistics on domestic and interna-
tional trips.
Gordon was raised in Huntington Woods
and now lives in Detroit. He studied film,
communications and American culture at
U-M and is an aspiring film producer who
has tapped into Michigan's growing movie
biz. He's currently working on this third
feature film. When the two met several
years ago through a mutual friend, they
just "clicked." Now, they're working together
to reinvigorate the community
"We think now is the time not only
to encourage young Jewish Detroiters to
return to Michigan, but to aggressively sell
it',' Blanck said. "Losing talented young
people is fast becoming a serious threat to
the local Jewish community's future."

The Wind Lip
Long before they met in college, Blanck and
Gordon both attended separate children's
summer camps in Ontario. They kept in
touch with childhood camp friends across
the border and that's how they first learned
about Pitch for Israel in Toronto. Last sum-
mer, they traveled to Canada to take part in
the softball tournament and figure out how
to bring the event to Detroit. They say get-
ting the ball rolling turned out to be easy.
"We both went to our parents and were
met with encouragement and enthusiasm','
Gordon said. "Then we contacted YAD
[the Young Adult Division of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit] and,
from the start, they thought it was a great
idea. The positive feedback we were getting
kept energizing us."
Through YAD, the duo met Jordan
Wolfe, director of CommunityNEXT, a new
Federation initiative launched in January
that also has the goal of attracting and
retaining young Jewish professionals.
Together, they came up with a game plan,
selected a date and location, recruited team
captains and players, solicited sponsors and

Stepping Up on page 18

August 12 2010

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