PALs Spotlight

PALs All Summer Long

PALs Jed Appelrouth and Alec Stein will stay in touch during the summer.

Jed Appelrouth, a volunteer in Jewish Family & Career Services' PAL (People Are Loving) program, has snagged a dream job this summer. He's headed to France to tutor American ex-pats for the SATs, which is what he does professionally in Atlanta during the school year through his business, Appelrouth Tutoring Services. He gets room and board, does his SAT tutoring in the morning, and has the rest of the day free for painting, traveling and relaxing with Aix en Provence as his backdrop. Not bad.

Jed's PAL, Alec Stein, also has a fantastic summer ahead. Alec, now 17 and a rising senior at Northview High School, is going to Israel for the first time on a six-week BBYO Passport 2 Israel/TREK program. He just finished SAT tutoring in Atlanta with Jed and is anxiously awaiting his scores.

Whether tutoring, playing guitar or just hanging out, the time Jed spends with Alec, his PAL of nearly four years, often turns out to be "the best three hours of my week."

He and Alec became PALs at a tender time. The same week that Alec became a bar mitzvah, his father died. The terrible loss left a gaping hole, but over the years Jed has tried to fill in some important emotional pieces.

"One reason I became a PAL is that my father lost his father when he was 4. It was impactful on my dad, having no father, and on me. To me, it's important to be a voice of reason, an older guy for a younger guy," Jed says.

With 16 years at Camp Barney Medintz under his belt, Jed has a great affinity for kids and is a natural mentor. "I love the whole mentoring relationship. I'm in graduate school now. I just finished a master's in professional counseling two weeks ago and am starting a Ph.D. in educational psychology in the fall.

"We got paired up because Alec's artistic, I'm artistic, and we're both musical. We started off going hiking, seeing movies, going to the shooting range, stuff like that. But now Alec's going to be a senior, and he drives. We see each other less, but the relationship is great. Every year we still do a PAL service at the Jewish Home, singing and playing guitar. Alec's a terrific guitar player — loves John Mayer and Jimi Hendrix. He's considering doing music in college, and right now he's giving lessons and making money. He has a real entrepreneurial spirit." Their communication won't stop during the summer. Jed will have a computer, and Alec will be in Israel, one of the most wired countries in the world. "I figure we'll be doing some e-mailing when we're traveling," Jed says.

If you are interested in becoming a PAL or learning about the program, contact Erika Lang at (770) 677-9310 or elang@jfcs-atlanta.org.

If you are interested in becoming a PAL or learning more about the program, you can contact Lang at (770) 677-9310 or erikalang@jfcs-atlanta.org, or visit www.jfcs-atlanta.org.