Let the Games begin

The 2016 Jewish Community Center Maccabi Games in St. Louis may be five months away, but the push is on to sign up local volunteers and host families.

For the uninitiated, the Olympic-style Jewish sporting competition is held each summer in North America and features more than 4,500 teens ages 13 to 16 competing in individual sports such as bowling, tennis, track, dance, golf and swimming, as well as in team sports including basketball, flag football, soccer, lacrosse, softball, volleyball and baseball. 

This year, St. Louis, as well as Columbus, Ohio and Stamford, Conn., are serving as host cities. That means  more than 1,000 Jewish teen athletes from all over North America and Israel are expected to be in St. Louis from July 31 to Aug. 5, when the games get underway here. Of course they will need lodging –- a home away from home, if you will —  which is where you come in. 

“We’re hoping to secure 400 to 500 homes that can serve as host families for the athletes coming here,” explains Stacy Siwak, who along with her husband, Greg, and Helene and Phil Frischer, are volunteer co-chairs of the housing subcommittee. 

“And we’re hoping to have 60 percent of these homes and hosts registered by Passover,” she adds, which is at the end of April. 

Stacy, who has been involved with Maccabi for 20 years, literally gets goose bumps when she talks about what the games mean to her. A former Spanish teacher, she served as a team manager and translator for the Pan American Maccabi Games in Buenos Aires in 1995 and again in Mexico City in 1999, and helped with the foreign delegations when the games were played in St. Louis in 1996. (St. Louis also hosted the games in 2003 and 1993.)

This year, her 13-year-old son, Sam, will be competing for the first time in baseball. 

“Maccabi has been one of the most gratifying experiences of my life,” said Stacy, who lives in Clayton and belongs to Central Reform Congregation. “I love everything it stands for. There aren’t many experiences in life where most everyone involved is Jewish, and that creates such a special bond. While the focus is on the competition, that almost becomes secondary to the connections everyone makes.”

Families of the local Maccabi participants are required to house at least two visiting athletes of the same gender. However, in order to accommodate all of the athletes coming to St. Louis, organizers hope other Jewish families will do the same.

“As families register, they will be asked questions as to whether they have pets, keep kosher, are vegetarian, if there are any food allergies to consider, so we can match them up with the right kids,” says Stacy. “We will take into account requests for certain athletes because families know them, or if they want to host males or females.”

Host families need to provide dinner on Sunday, July 31 before the game’s opening ceremonies; dinner on Aug. 5 (Host Family Night), and breakfasts throughout the week. A list of requirements and frequently asked questions, as well as sign-up and other information is available at maccabistlouis.org.

In addition, at least 1,000 volunteers are needed “to help ensure the games here are successful,” says Lawrence “Bud” Wittels, who along with Marc Wallis are the volunteer co-chairs of operations for the games. 

In case you’re wondering, Bud is married to Lynn Wittels, President and CEO of the JCC. When asked if his wife railroaded him into taking on such a mammoth responsibility, Bud laughed and explained that he’s been a Maccabi coach and lay delegation head much longer than his wife has been at her job.

“I’ve been to 18 different games, mostly as a coach, and in the last 10 years, as a lay delegation head,” says Bud. “I was involved before my kids were involved. I continued to coach after they were both done playing soccer (for Maccabi). Now my daughter Alison is the girls’ soccer coach.”

Like Stacy, Bud also feels that participating in the Maccabi Games — as an athlete, co-chair, host or volunteer — is an experience like none other. 

“I connect with Maccabi because it’s a Jewish experience that isn’t clubbing the kids over the head with being Jewish,” he says. “Here we will have nearly 1,200 Jewish kids doing some things that are Jewish in the traditional sense, but just the fact of being Jewish together is what makes it really special. 

“Many of these kids spend a lot of their lives competing with non-Jewish kids. Most of their teammates at school and on select teams probably aren’t Jewish. Here all of their teammates are Jewish and everyone they compete against is Jewish. It’s kind of like that spirit you feel at the end of summer camp, that sense of belonging, that really resonates.”

What also resonates, at least to me, is the large and robust JCC Maccabi Games steering committee. In addition to six honorary chairs, there are six overall co-chairs, and 50 other sub-committee members responsible for everything from fundraising to overseeing volunteers to food to transportation to hospitality. Talk about it takes a village!

(On the staff side of planning the games, Fanchon Auman is the Games Director, Sarah Leister is Assistant Games Director and Sheree Werner is the JCC Maccabi Coordinator. All three work at the JCC.)

When I asked Bud why so many lay leaders are involved, he explained that preparing for — and executing — the Maccabi Games is like “throwing a charitable gala five nights in a row.”

“Along with all the athletic events during the day, there is a community service project the athletes work on in the middle of the week, and there are nightly activities as well. That’s why we need so many volunteers. Everyone should volunteer.”

Volunteers can work for just a few hours, or most of the games if they like. They need to be at least 17 years old to help out during the day, and 21 at night. Jobs include greeting athletes at the airport and transporting them to homes, serving meals and supervising evening events, to name a few. More information, including a list of volunteer job descriptions and FAQs, is on the maccabistlouis.org website.

Oh, and one more thing you might consider: donating. Hosting the games is not a cheap proposition. The ones here have a budget of $1.5 million, of which more than $700,000 will hopefully come from donations, organizers say. The other half or so comes from participation fees. Once again, go to maccabistlouis.org if you’d like to contribute.