COMMUNITY

JEWFRO

To Summer In The City...

On the occasion of your bar mitzvah.

By Ben Falik

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I

azel tov, Summer in the City. Dur-

it this, your 13th year of making
l it fun, flexible and fulfilling to paint,
plant and play in Detroit, I am honored
and humbled to share my blessing, to
brag briefly about your contributions
to our community and to invite every-
one to take part in your
continued growth.
Before I had Judah and Phoebe,
before I tried to save a ferocious turtle
and met my substantially better half,
before I had the good sense to know
better — I had you, Summer in the
City, an organization born, prema-
turely it seemed at times, to three dads
in a moment of audacity and naïveté,
while the country was still mourning
those lost on Sept. 11, and we were
looking for a way to turn our values
into value.
Your organizational adolescence
has been equal parts thrilling and
maddening for me. There's bound
to be angst when you're trying to (1)
lower the barrier to entry for service
while raising the bar for what it can
accomplish, (2) empower people from
far and wide to be"Detroiters"and
empower actual Detroiters to lead,
(3) draw thoughtfully on the past to
seize urgently on the present to build
sustainably for the future.
Even though I don't run the show
anymore — been so long, it's hard to
imagine when the organization wasn't
in someone else's good hands — I
have the privilege of providing you
with (generally good) guidance and
still getting to get my hands dirty
whenever they get objectionably
clean. A few personal points of pride:
1. Service and Learning. This is
my third year teaching a Wayne State
service-learning course in which my
stellar students not only get to engage
with Detroit pros who know a lot more
about the city than their absent-mind-
ed adjunct professor, but they also get
to work alongside the JVs, an indefati-
gable group of middle-school Junior
Volunteers who have graduated from

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our youth programs in Northwest and
Southwest Detroit and have stuck with
us to be the change they wish to see
in Detroit.
2.The Collaboratory. Even though
I'm the only one who calls it that and
I've only stayed overnight once in
three years, having a literal and figura-
tive home for Summer in the City — in
Detroit's most diverse and dynamic
neighborhood — has given Summer
in the City leaders the opportunity to
be year-round neighbors in Mexican-
town and stakeholders in Clark Park.
3.Jewish Community-Centered.
In my capacity as the Detroit director
for Repair the World, I get to bring the
Teen Service Staff — more than 60
"Jewish stars"over the course of the
summer — to the Northwest Activities
Center (formerly the Meyers-Curtis
JCC) and they, in turn, bring the thun-
derous energy of Camp Tamarack to
the Project Healthy Community youth
enrichment program where they can
learn about the area's history and its
assets.
Of course, Summer in the City has
never been about me; it has always
been about you. And it has never
been about you; it has always been
about the people you can serve and
grow with. And there's still time! Go
to summerinthecity.com for more
about the 3Fs and 3Ps and mark your
calendar (Yes, you!) to join volunteers
and friends from all over our Greater
Detroit community (including J-Serve,
the JCC and Teen Mission) for
Finale Friday on Aug. 15 at 7 Mile and
Wyoming — directly or by way of one
of 10 carpool sites.
If you would like to help commemo-
rate Summer in the City becoming
bar mitzvah, consider the
Backpacktacular, outfitting more
than 400 K-5 campers with backpacks
and school supplies to carry (them)
into the academic year ahead:
summerinthecity.com/backpacks.
Questions? Email me: ben@
werepair.org or call 313-3388-BEN.

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itth TIMID I August 2014 27