By Judy Yuda, Partnership Director

Over one hundred pounds of first class baseball equipment was delivered to the Yokneam JCC in mid March. The equipment was donated by members and non-members of the St. Louis JCC in December, 2007. The JCC in St. Louis also found a donor who paid for official baseball T-shirts and hats for the new Yokneam team.

Lori and Joel Abramson, who together with their children made Aliya to Yokneam from California in the summer of 2007, promised their sons that they would continue to play baseball in Yokneam. They approached to local JCC and proposed to jointly coach a new little league baseball team – everything was ready to go, but getting the right equipment together proved to be a challenge. Thanks to this generous donation, the team is now ready to play.

Simon Alfassi, Yokneam Mayor, Shimon Yifrah, Yokneam JCC Director, Yael Shapira, St. Louis Community Liason in Israel inaugurated the equipment and the new baseball team at the presence of the St. Louis Botanical Garden Delegation led by Nancy and Al Siwak who visited Yokneam on the same day.

Now the only thing the team needs is a real baseball diamond.