The Zone September/October Activity Report

Opening/Club Nights
Club re-opened on September 15th. We had two open events to accommodate all those who wanted to visit with over 400 people attending. There was a fantastic atmosphere and everyone seemed really impressed and very happy with the work that had taken place over the summer.
Since opening we have had over 900 children attending club – ranging from
ages 5 to 18.


Karate
Class began the first week of re – opening. We have some new members and are attracting up to 25 children a week. Many have their Yellow Belts and are working their way through the colour chart!

Junior Football (Mini Maccabi)
Boys football is still very popular 2 full classes running on a Monday Night feeding into the Maccabi teams. Simon Brown still running the club with help from our Leadership volunteers. Our brand new football for girls also started this term and we now have 8-10 girls regularly attending. The class is run by two new A’level student volunteers Hannah Schiffeldren and Holly Harris.

Dinky Drama & Art
Classes on Wednesdays attract up to 10 5-8 yr olds. We were joined recently by a new volunteer in the art class and 2 more A’level student volunteers will be joining us after The Yom Tavim. The children have used the new iZone mac suite to make videos of them reading the news! Other activities have included making ‘big’ glasses and flags.

Art & Culture
Poland trip planned for February half term. We have 15, 15 year olds signed up for the trip and only 5 places left. We are delighted to have joined forces with Makor again to offer this trip and that Arik Hersh is joining us on the trip.

Raina and Rabbi Kleiman have been discussing various Chag activities and are looking at hosting a ‘Chanukah family day’ to be held at The Zone.

The Maccabi Torch Relay will also be running Chanukah activities on
December 8th at The Zone. Please let us know if you would like to host any Israeli teenagers for a couple of nights!

Gymnastics
Gymnastics is back on Thursdays! 3 full classes run by Estelle. Generation Zone, our Grandma’s committee are raising money at their next coffee morning to raise money towards new gym equipment. The older advanced class are going to be working towards entering competitions.

Intercity
Plans are underway to re-start the intercity sports competition; “The David Clayman Trophy”. Suggestions for this year’s sports are Football together with Leeds Maccabi, Gymnastics, Golf and Table Tennis – in partnership with Leeds Judean Table Tennis. The competition will be run jointly by The Zone and Manchester Maccabi Center. There is a possibility of inviting Liverpool to join in and an invitation has been sent to the new Harold House manager Steve Simpson to join discussions..

Leadership
25 New Year 10’s have joined the Zone Leadership Course this year. Sessions scheduled include Disability, Drug addiction, Theoretical Leadership, Child Protection and Zionist/Israeli issues. Getting to know your community will be our central theme.

Our older volunteer group, made up of previous Leadership students continues to grow in number. Their help with activities and club nights is invaluable. Some of them are hoping to open Café Chai for adults on a Wednesday afternoon during which adults will be able to learn to use an apple mac and receive extra internet/computer coaching.

Streetsound
Participants have started to make adverts for Zone led activities. More and more of our members are getting involved in the project as we now have 3 volunteers leading programmes from Leeds College of Music and we are working with Radio Jcom.

DanceAthon
This is an in-house fundraiser being organised with The Parents Committee;
24hr non stop party involving our Young People; Toddlers to OAP’s, Volunteers and Staff. Event scheduled for Sunday 21st and Monday 22nd December – and will be part of our Chanukah programme.

LJYC – Leeds Jewish Youth Council
First meeting was held at The Zone and plans are in place to move forward with a communication programme dedicated to youth. Further details later in the year.

Fashion & Culture
We began this new activity in September and it is proving popular with our 15/16 year old girls. The aim is to design and produce their own clothes using the art room and the iZone suite whilst discovering what really is important when it comes to fashion and why is it so important in people’s lives.

Zone/Youth Movements
Entering another year in partnership with all youth movements who would like to use The Zone as a facility.

Zone/Habonim
We have established a fantastic working relationship with Habonim – They will be hosting a Summer camp reunion at The Zone in November and Leeds Ken begins on October 19th at The Zone.

Zone/FZY
Discussions had about bringing the FZY Ball to The Zone in 2009/ FZY meetings will be held at The Zone once a month.

Zone/JSOC
The Zone will be hosting a meeting for The Shaliach and other UK Shlichim together with members of Jsoc to introduce them to the club and offer Jsoc the opportunity to use our newly re-furbished club as a venue.

Café Chai
We hope to open the café eventually during the day and are looking for volunteers to run it. If you would like to run the café once a week/fortnightly or monthly please let us know.
On that note, one of our Grandparents would like to start a Jewish Book Club once a month at Café Chai to read books by Jewish Authors or with Jewish content. If you are interested or know anyone who may be please get in touch with us.

Entertainment
Some of you may have seen in the paper last week that we had a visit from former Xfactor contestants The Dolly Rockers earlier this month. Many members enjoyed seeing the band perform 3 songs from their album including their new single. The band stayed behind to talk to members and sign autographs.
Finally: