Center Staff Stories

Steve Berman, Director of Administration
Frankly, I can't remember a time when I wasn't connected to the Center! As a youngster I participated in Center baseball and spent days and days at the pool. As a teen, I was very involved in BBYO, and my choice to become a Jewish communal service worker was based on this great experiences as well as the leadership training I received. And, yes, I'm one of those people who owe their wedded bliss to the Center. Although we knew each other previously it was while serving as a counselor at Barney Goodman Camp that Judy (Jacks) and I become great friends and started dating a few months later. The rest, as they say, is history.

We left Kansas City for many years, and when we returned to be close to family, the first place I looked for employment was the Center. I was hired as the Teen Director, and it was a blast working with the children of my friends and reconnecting with the community. Now I'm the Director of Jewish Community Programs. I work with a different audience, but continue to enjoy a sense of accomplishment and community afforded me by the Center.

Debbie Gaunt, Director of Center for Health and Human Performance
I have a new respect for the Jewish faith. I have learned a lot about the long history of the Jewish faith.

Donna Johnston, Production and Graphic Designer
I have learned a lot of Yiddish. Oy Vey was the first Yiddish word. I have made life long friends that are like family.

Mariame Kretchmer, Front Desk Administrator
I met my husband Bob at the Center on Holmes at a Young Adults party (dance). Some friends and I went to one of the dances and met our future husbands there, and most of us are all still married (40 years). I was a teenager in the 60's and all of us gathered at the Center pool all day - everyday for the entire summer. The Center was our place to gather and hang out. We were not old enough to have a driver's license, so our parents dropped us off and knew that we were safe at the Center.

Linda Salvay, Public Relations Dept. of Adult Jewish Learning
In the mid-1990s, when the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School was still new to the Kansas City community, my husband Craig and I signed up for the two-year course. Logistically, it was a perfect fit: Our two daughters were attending the Community High School of Jewish Studies, which happened to coincide with the Melton course schedule at the Center. Each Tuesday evening, the four of us "went to school together" to expand our Jewish knowledge.

The Melton course filled in so many "missing pieces" for me -things I wished I had learned in Sunday School (lo those many years ago!), but hadn't had the interest or maturity to really understand or pursue. With Jewish study now being so engaging, relevant and well presented, every tidbit I learned made me want to discover more.

After graduating from the Melton program, I took classes in Hebrew (which I had studied in an Israeli ulpan decades earlier, but largely forgotten). I have continued to attend Feed Your Mind sessions and scholar-in-residence programs, and have discovered much more than study for study's sake. Jewish learning is a journey of richness and meaning, and each learning opportunity opens the way to deeper understanding and connectedness - and the desire for yet another course or program. There is always something new to learn. Always.

So a couple of years ago, when the Center's Department of Adult Jewish Learning needed a communications professional to take over its public relations efforts, I had not a moment's hesitation in accepting the assignment. I already knew how dynamic the Melton program was. Now I could help to bring that message to the rest of the Kansas City Jewish community. I have found that the continually expanding variety of offerings and the extraordinary cadre of instructors make my job of publicizing and promoting the Department of Adult Jewish Learning an easy one.

In fact, you could say it's a perfect fit.