Overcoming challenges and leading authentically with Andrea Alcabes of the I.J. & Jeanné Wagner JCC.
The I.J. & Jeanné Wagner Jewish Community Center is a second home to many in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in 1925, the JCC has served as a vibrant community center that welcomes people of all ages, faiths and family configurations, and provides a place to come together in peace to strengthen minds, bodies and spirits.
Led by chief executive officer Andrea Alcabes for over 18 years, the JCC has an extensive history that includes relocation, renovations and additions to keep up with its growing community.
In 2001, the JCC moved to its current location — formerly a country club that did not accept Jews as members — and was transformed from a “mom-and-pop” JCC with a preschool, summer camp, gymnasium and swimming pool to a full-service JCC with a health and fitness center, indoor and outdoor pools, spa, running track, group fitness studios, reception space, preschool, summer camp, and gymnasium.
Furthermore, leading up to the JCC’s 20th anniversary at its current location, the JCC took on the journey to renovate its existing facility and add new amenities to the campus. “We just completed an $8 million project updating our building after 20 years of being loved to death,” said Alcabes. “We redid our locker rooms, moved the fitness center upstairs — creating the most bright and beautiful fitness center anywhere with a stunning view of the Salt Lake valley — added new group fitness studios and a new activity center.”
Formally known as the Jerry J. Kaufman Family Activity Center, the 9,200-square-foot addition provides an all-weather, permanent space for kid’s activities. Karla Pardini, the chief programming officer at the JCC, said planning and building the new Activity Center had been a dream for a long time. “We’ve grown recently and desperately needed space for our youth who join us all year round,” said Pardini. “The Activity Center fulfills the need to give our youth a space to call home. It has a multi-purpose room with a stage, an arts and crafts room, a teen lounge, a galley kitchen, and lots of storage.”
The space also includes a big plaza area for basketball, four square and Gaga ball, plus an outdoor turf area for sports, lawn chairs and a friendship circle at the end of a camp week. Pardini added the community also uses this space for concerts, plays, lectures and performances. “The open-ended space allows our entire community to benefit from the reality of our dream,” she added.
Specific to Utah weather, the Activity Center addition also accommodates summer campers by providing open air dens and water misters to beat the heat. This is especially beneficial to the JCC’s Refugee Scholarship Program.
“The JCC Movement is rooted in the settlement house movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” shared Alcabes. “Recognizing that and the fact we’re all children of immigrants at one time or other, we felt it was appropriate to give back to some of the 65,000 refugees who have been resettled in the Salt Lake area. We created a program in which we collaborate with local organizations serving refugees to identify school-aged children interested in attending summer camp.”
At no cost to their families, children are picked up from their neighborhood and brought to the JCC where they fully participate in the Bernie Solomon Summer Camp. The program is supported in part by an endowment known as Dave’s Fund established in memory of JCC board member, Dave Littlefield, who was an immigration attorney.
“During camp, they swim, participate in arts and crafts, learn about Israeli culture, sing songs, perform in a lip sync show, hike, and go on field trips,” explained Alcabes. “The JCC provides food and lots of new friends, and we take them home at the end of the day.”
Alcabes said this year’s group of children represented six different countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ukraine, South Africa and Eritrea. “We think our refugee campers benefit from coming to camp at the JCC, and we know our other campers and counselors also benefit from this experience,” she said. “At the end of their summer, the refugee campers receive a new backpack filled with school supplies, and we hope they will come back next summer.”
In addition to the new Activity Center during the JCC’s most recent renovation, the new fitness center has also made a difference for the Salt Lake community. Barrie McAlister, the chief operating officer at the JCC, shared the new center has done more than just expand the square footage. “It’s created a more functional space with room to move and with an abundance of natural light,” she described. “It allowed personal trainers to work with clients without being overly crowded and increased exposure of our programs to members. It created a unified space for all fitness programs instead of the disjointed spaces that existed before.”
While the results of updating the JCC after 20 years has been rewarding for both the JCC team and its community, undergoing the project — during the COVID-19 pandemic — did not come without challenges. “Three years of construction is a lot to handle,” said McAlister. “Add COVID-19 on top of that and it put us in completely new territory.”
The project faced many challenges, some of which included road and parking garage construction, traffic delays, temporary accommodations for locker rooms, the fitness center and group fitness classes, plus closing an entire floor of the building while offering as many programs as COVID-19 and construction would allow. McAlister elaborated it was hard to see past all of it to know if the renovation and expansion decisions made years prior would still be the right ones after the pandemic.
“Now almost a year out from completion of our construction project, we’re settling in, watching many of our programs thrive and making exciting changes to our other program offerings now possible with our expanded and renovated spaces,” said McAlister. “The I.J. & Jeanne Wagner JCC is a special place for me and my family. It’s welcoming and warm. It’s a place where my children are finding lifelong friends and a place where I feel good about the influence the staff has on them as they grow and develop. The JCC is where my children and I can be fully ourselves.”
McAlister credits so much of this to the leadership of Alcabes. “I’ve worked with Andrea for a total of six years now,” she said. “My family moved away for my husband’s job in 2016 and Andrea remained a mentor and a friend. She is a large part of the reason we decided to move back in 2020. It’s the way she listens, the quiet way she leads, her open-door policy and her vision of our JCC being a welcoming place for all. She’s shaped me as a leader and as a person, and for that I am forever grateful.”
Matching the JCC’s history of relocation and drive for growth, Alcabes came to her leadership position by chance. “I’m a recovering lawyer who served on the board of directors for the JCC,” explained Alcabes. “After a tumultuous period of too many changes, I offered to resign from the board of directors and serve as an interim director. I enjoyed the job so much I applied for the permanent position. That was about 18-plus years ago.”
When looking back at her time spent leading, Alcabes said the JCC is literally her community. “I’ve been able to share in the joys of the community and have been comforted and embraced by the community at the low points in my own life,” she reflected.
Her advice to other leaders? “Be authentic. Being who you are not only makes interactions with others more effective, it’s easier on your soul,” said Alcabes. “Always take the time to listen and think before reacting.”
Photos by Bobbi Tolman.
