Ingredients for a successful morning for a very heterogeneous group:

A good idea = a walk along the Alexander River http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahal_Alexander which is wheelchair-friendly

A volunteer to worry about the logistics = Bish (Henry) ben Ezra

Attracting participants = announcing at our Netanya lecture morning + emails to all

Result = 30 people ranging in age, country of origin, singles, couples

A convenient meeting place = Yona Apartments, Netanya, on Sunday morning. About 15 minutes before the appointed time, everyone was there. Drivers were given a map and off we went in convoy to start our walk on a lovely paved path, also wheelchair-friendly for one of our members.

Luck = weather on Sunday March 22 being a perfect day for walking, not too close to Pesach.

Luck = everyone came on time, more cars available than needed, no rain fell during the morning.

More luck = the participants were very friendly and chatty with a lot of mixing and meeting new people

Even more luck for some of us = we saw a few of the famous soft-shelled turtles.

Flasks and sandwiches for lunch and (below) enjoying the Turtle Walk

Lunch = at the shady picnic spot where people intermingled and chatted and got to know different sides of one another. There was a sub-crowd that chose to sit on benches with no tables, but in the sun - probably a sign they were Brits!

Enough said! When Barbara Kliner, our new ESRA Netanya chairperson went around to introduce herself, the feedback showed a tremendous interest in having more such outings. It also gave us a chance to advertise our lecture series which got a lot of positive feedback from all who are addicted to the Tuesdays at Yona Apartments with our exciting choice of lectures and lecturers.

Thanks to our Netanya Cultural Committee for being open and daring enough to try something new.

Keep it simple, it works!

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Joan Weisman

Joan (Stein) Weisman came to Israel in August 1972 and two weeks later started teaching. She lived in Jerusalem but traveled to Kiryat Malachi to work in two elementary schools. After four years of...
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