Maccabi athletes flex their muscles at park cleanup

An electric-blue roly-poly bug inched its way along 13-year-old Olivia Zacks’ work glove.

Accustomed to seeing the creepy crawler strictly in hues of subdued gray, a group quickly gathered around Olivia to gawk at the creature.  

“Let’s name it,” one girl shouted.

“It’s gotta be something that sounds Jewish,” another added. 

And so Olivia returned “Jim Bugstein” to the soil, and got back to work June 18 pulling weeds in Golden Gate Park with fellow Maccabi Games athletes.

Roughly 80 members of San Francisco’s delegation trudged through the Angler’s Lodge area and mud-soaked trail surrounding Middle Lake to participate. Arriving at 9:30 a.m., they were promised a hearty barbecue lunch after completing three hours of work.

The mandatory event was a practice run, of sorts, in preparation for the kids’ “Day of Caring and Sharing” during the Maccabi Games Aug. 2 to 7, hosted by the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. For that event, athletes of all stripes will ditch the baseball diamonds, tennis courts and soccer fields in order to spend time on local community-service projects.    

Lindsay Gelb (from left), Leila Brandt and Abby Kostukovsky help rid the Angler’s Lodge area of weeds. photo/amanda pazornik

John F. Kennedy Drive separated the athletes from a pasture where five buffalo relaxed and grazed under a Thursday morning fog-filled sky.

“I expected to play with the buffalo,” joked 12-year-old Abby Kostukovsky, who will be reporting on the games from the sidelines for the Maccabi daily newspaper. “But it’s important as Jews to help give back for everything that the city is giving us.”

The games will be played out at a number of sites around San Francisco, with University of San Francisco serving as the hub for athletic events. Other sites include St. Ignatius High School, City College of San Francisco and Golden Gate Park’s polo fields.

But before they lace up their cleats, grab their gear and fill up those aluminum water bottles, the athletes had some more bonding to do.

Over at Middle Lake, a group of teens lifted boulder-sized tree pieces onto the flatbed of a truck. The logs, which were sawed off a fallen tree, were then composted at a different site.

Cushioned by the large piles of wood shavings beneath their feet, the athletes lugged the huge pieces of wood, some taking more than three people to get them off the ground. A few workers resorted to rolling the disks before hoisting them in the vehicle.

“I guess this is part of the Maccabi experience,” Ben Schneider, 14, said. “Although I’d rather be at home sleeping.”

Others were a happy to be outside, though the warming temperatures caused beads of sweat to trickle down the faces of some participants.

One was 13-year-old Ian Scheiman, who pulled weeds to the music of Kanye West and

T-Pain on his iPod. “I didn’t expect to be doing this during my summer vacation,” he said. “But at least we’re getting out and doing something.”

In essence, that was the goal of the morning, according to the JCC’s Carly Mangel, one of the event organizers. She added that many of the kids frequent Golden Gate Park but often fail to recognize all the work that goes in to preserving the grounds.

Ask any one of them if that’s still the case, and the answer most likely would be no. As for the early-morning wake-up call, well, that’s a different story. 

“It’s too early,” griped Avi Rosenblum, 16. That’s when 13-year-old Caleb Chertow chimed in: “It’s not like it’s 6:30.”

Staff intern Michael Lazarus contributed to this report.