Starting next week, Milwaukee will be host city to the 33rd JCC Maccabi Games - one of the largest youth athletic competitions in the world. The competition will have roughly 1,000 Jewish youth from around the world competing in over 15 various sporting events over five days.
"It’s about an exciting, engaging event for five days, with kids from all over the world," says director of the Jewish Community Center Maccabi Games, Jesse Rosen.
However, with that many kids coming to Milwaukee from all over the world to compete, an issue the JCC faces is where to keep them for the week. “The biggest challenge with the way that our games are structured is all of our athletes don’t stay in hotels. They stay with families…and so recruiting 1000 beds out of peoples homes, we knew would be the biggest challenge and we’re there," Rosen says.
"On Wednesday, all the athletes, and coaches and delegation heads will do a half a day of competition and a half a day of community service," says Rosen. "The JCC in Milwaukee is all about partnering to build a healthier Milwaukee, so...we've come up with four projects that we’re going to send kids out simultaneously during the day."
One of the service projects the athletes will participate in is working with the Hunger Task Force and the MCFI to pack 25,000 snack packs.
The free opening ceremony takes this Sunday evening at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
