By Eric Nusbaum, JTNews Correspondent
The Stroum Jewish Community Center will be hosting overnight guests Friday — and no, that doesn’t mean it’s launching a new initiative to become a hotel. The guests will be the fathers, daughters, and sons of the SJCC’s J Explorers participating in the program’s second annual Sleepover in the Sukkah event.
The J Explorers program brings together dads and kids between kindergarten and third grade for planned Jewish activities. The Sleepover in the Sukkah is the annual kickoff event. Last year, about 25 kids slept over. This year, sign-ups are underway with organizers expecting a much larger turnout.
“About 70 kids have expressed interest,” said Craig Fisher, who helped found J Explorers.
Fisher saw an opening for the J Explorers program when he was participating with his daughter in the YMCA Princesses program. He had arranged for a group of his daughter’s friends from the JCC’s early childhood program and their fathers to participate in the Y program — then realized that it might as well be a J program.
“There was no Jewish connection even though it was all Jewish friends,” said Fisher. “So I looked into why the J didn’t have a program like this and explored other Js that had father-kid programs.”
The program is anchored by two campouts: the Sleepover in the Sukkah and a spring overnight trip to Camp Kalsman in Arlington. In between, J Explorers participate in structured activities such as a food drive in coordination with Jewish Family Service and events for Hanukkah and Purim. The fathers and children also break into smaller groups based on gender and grade level for dad-planned activities.
For children who live in different neighborhoods but went to preschool and kindergarten at the JCC, J Explorers provides an opportunity to keep in touch and make new Jewish friends. The foundation of the program has been those groups of ECS graduates. But organizers are beginning to see J Explorers expand.
“They have a blast,” said steering committee member Paul Rosenwald, whose daughter is in the program and goes to school in Bellevue. “A lot of her girlfriends are friends she doesn’t see a lot. Plus at the Kalsman sleepover, she made some new friends with girls in other age groups.”
The program also provides a Jewish anchor in the lives of the participating children that goes beyond Sunday school classes. At last spring’s campout, one father conducted a Havdalah service that incorporated the weekly Torah portion. For Sukkot, there group will sings songs and eat a meal in the Sukkah.
“We’ve incorporated a Jewish element to all the activities, said Fisher, who hopes the J Explorers can be the start of a bridge between early childhood programs and teen activities like BBYO.
J Explorers has also been a new-found Jewish element in the lives of the fathers who are participating and bonding with other Jewish peers right alongside their children — though their activities might look a little different.
“We’ve started to do dad planning nights where we’ll met in a tavern and plan the schedule and talk about what we’re doing for the kids,” Fisher said.
The program is also expanding beyond the SJCC’s Mercer Island campus. The North Seattle JCC is sending participants to Mercer Island for the sleepover and is in the process of building its own J Explorers program.
As for what happens when the students graduate past the third grade? Fisher and the other dads of J Explorers are already on the case.
“My son is a second grader so we’re still into it,” he said. “But next year we’ll have to figure out what to do. We’re currently tying to figure out what that [a future program] looks like third through seventh grade.”
If it connects fathers and their kids, kids to kids, fathers to fathers, and everybody to Judaism, it will be a success, Rosenwald said.
“That’s the premise of the program,” he said. “To keep the community going, to keep the kids with their friends.”