3 minute read
‘Right Guy, Right Job Right Time’
SPORTS
MICHIGAN JEWISH SPORTS FOUNDATION
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Don Rudick
The Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation has a new executive director.
He’s a familiar face.
Don Rudick, a foundation Pillars of Excellence honoree in 2016 and active volunteer at foundation events, was named the executive director in December.
The West Bloomfield resident replaced Sari Cicurel, who resigned as executive director to devote more time to her busy public relations business.
Cicurel had been executive director since 2018 after serving for six years as the foundation’s community relations director.
Rudick retired in September from his job running a financial services company. But he’s not the retiring type.
“I didn’t want to sit around after I retired,” he said. “I wanted to be productive, and hopefully do something that promoted Jewish values and history.”
He jumped at the opportunity to run the philanthropic foundation’s day-to-day operations after being offered the executive director job by the foundation’s board of directors.
“I didn’t apply for the job. The job applied for me,” he said. “This is a great job for me because I’m a sports guy and I’m an organizer. I like to be in charge of things.”
Foundation board president Stuart Raider is happy Rudick, a longtime friend, took the job.
“Right guy, right job, right time,” Raider said. “Don’s a solid guy with great organizing skills. The best part about Don taking the job is he’s so excited, and his excitement is contagious.”
Rudick’s organizing skills have been put on display many times when Detroit has hosted the JCC Maccabi Games.
He was the operations director in 2019, in charge of areas ranging from transportation to medical services to signage to making sure there was water and ice at venues.
He was the transportation chair in 2008. His task then was to ensure that 3,500 teenage athletes and coaches got to where they needed to go on time.
He ran the softball venue in 1998.
Rudick coached Detroit Maccabi softball teams for eight years — earning gold, silver and bronze medals — and table tennis players for five years, and he also was a delegation head for three years.
Longtime Detroit Maccabi delegation head Karen Gordon said the foundation executive director position is “a wonderful fit” for Rudick.
“Don is a good guy who is passionate about sports and the Jewish community,” she said. “He’s a great listener and will do whatever needs to be done.” Rudick’s organizational acumen is being quickly put to the test in his new job.
He’s organizing the foundation’s next fundraising event, the 31st annual Hank Greenberg Golf and Tennis Invitational, contacting vendors and sponsors and attending to myriad other details ahead of the June 6 get-together at Franklin Hills Country Club.
“It’s like putting together the pieces of a puzzle,” he said.
Some of the pieces are in place.
Southfield High School graduate and 2021 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Ted Simmons will receive the Hank Greenberg Lifetime Achievement Award.
CBS News and 60 Minutes correspondent Armen Keteyian will receive the Dick Schaap Memorial Award for Media Excellence.
Keteyian was supposed to be honored at last year’s Greenberg Invitational, but he couldn’t travel from the East Coast after it was battered by Hurricane Ida.
Still to be announced by the foundation is the recipient of the Barry Bremen Memorial Inspiration Award.
The Greenberg Invitational wasn’t held in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was moved from its usual early June date to August last year when there was a lull in COVID infections.
The Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet, the foundation’s other major annual fundraiser, was canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.
It could return in 2022 at a date and site to be determined.
“We’re planning to have a Hall of Fame banquet this year,” Rudick said. “Of course, COVID will dictate that decision.”
The banquet holds a special place in Rudick’s heart because that’s where he received his Pillars of Excellence award in 2016.
There’s more information on the 2022 Greenberg Invitational at www.michiganjewishsports. org and the foundation’s Facebook page.
Rudick can be reached at (248) 390-5981.
Don Rudick hits the ground running after being named executive director of the Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation.
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Send sports news to stevestein502004@yahoo.com.
