Ernesto (Ernie) Mandowsky Receives Prestigious Gelvan Award!

May 28, 2009 - PRLog -- More than 600 people were on hand on April 30 at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center located on the Sanford L. Ziff Campus – 18900 NE 25th Ave., North Miami Beach, FL, to cheer for Krop High School senior and long-time JCC member, Ernesto (Ernie) Mandowsky, who was awarded the 29th Annual Leo Gelvan Award.  This prestigious award is presented each year to a deserving JCC student athlete in recognition of his/her accomplishments both on and off the field, as part of the MAR-JCC’s annual Gelvan Sports Awards ceremony, an event where all children and youth enrolled in MAR-JCC after school sports enrichments and leagues are recognized for their participation and achievements

In a heartfelt speech, Chris Moltmann, Sports and Fitness Director, noted that Ernie is an industrious young man who has organized tutoring services for his peers in foreign language and math.  He is a member of the National French Honor Society, the Math Honor Society, the National Honor Society, and the Superior Honor Roll.  He also participates in several extracurricular clubs as well.

Ernie utilizes his fluency in French, Spanish and Hebrew to translate math tests used by his school’s Math Department, to determine new students’ abilities, to translate program guides for events at the Miami Jewish Home for the Aged, and create pamphlets illustrating the benefits of being multilingual.  He has received four academic awards. “Not only does Ernie share his love for language with his peers and community, he shares his love for kids and sports here at the ‘J’,” stated Chris.  Ernie was a volunteer coach for the Swish Hoops basketball program during its first year at the JCC and actively takes part in the JCC Hebraica Department’s Maccabi Tzair Youth Program.   Currently, Ernie serves as a Rosh Madrich (head counselor) in Maccabi Tzair, where he assists in the supervision of volunteer group leaders and works with them in the implementation of their weekly programs and activities.

Throughout Ernie’s high school years, Chris highlighted Ernie’s involvement with two teenagers with special needs, whom he has shared a common interest – basketball.   According to Chris, “They play basketball on Sundays and Ernie coaches them like a big brother.”  Through their hard work and Ernie’s devotion, these teens were mainstreamed onto one of the teams in the Hebraica Department’s 2007 Olympic Games (Maccabeah).

In concluding his remarks, Chris expressed that “Ernesto’s parents, Daniela and Jack Mandowsky, have raised an intelligent, caring, loving and devoted young man and the Jewish community is a better place for this.”

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The Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center/Sanford L. Ziff Campus is dedicated to the enrichment of Jewish life and fosters the spiritual, emotional, and physical development of its individual members through all of life’s stages and circumstances. The MAR-JCC represents a model of acceptance, understanding and diversity. As such, people look at the MAR-JCC as a center of excellence that epitomizes how shared Jewish values support a vibrant and evolving constituency. The MAR-JCC is a beneficiary agency of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and the United Way of Miami-Dade County, and a member of the Jewish Community Center Association of North America.