A Friendly Face
Reid Kaplan doesn’t remember the exact moment he met Abby Lesorgen at Club J.
But he remembers how she made him feel.
He was in first or second grade. Life outside of school was complicated — his parents were divorcing — and he gravitated toward steady adults. People who felt calm. People who felt safe. One day he cut his thumb near the Club J homework room. There were tears. There was blood. Abby was there in seconds — paper towels, gauze, reassurance. “She patched me up and made me feel better,” Reid recalls.
For Abby, their connection ran deeper than she initially realized. Reid’s grandmother had been her favorite teacher growing up in Baltimore. Even before they formally met, their stories were intertwined.
As a child, Reid was quiet and observant — an old soul. He always made a point to seek out Abby to say hello. Over time, that consistency became connection.
Years later, Reid walked into his first BBYO regional event feeling nervous — new room, older teens, unknown expectations. And then he saw Abby, now serving as BBYO Regional Director. “It was good to see her,” he says. “It felt like a friendly face.”
The relationship evolved. No longer director and child, but mentor and emerging leader. Abby encouraged him to lead with respect rather than authority — to collaborate instead of command. “I think it made me less of a ‘stand up there and bark orders’ leader,” Reid says. “More of a leader of the people.”
He moved from chapter board to regional board. He mentored younger teens the way someone once mentored him. When a chapter faced a difficult transition, Abby stood beside him in meetings with parents and teens, helping him navigate leadership decisions with confidence. “She was always there,” he says. “Having an adult say, ‘Trust the process — this will work,’ makes a difference.”
Abby still keeps a card Reid wrote her when he graduated. It reminds her that her role is not simply to oversee programs, but to invest in people. “If teens have just one positive role model in their lives, it changes everything. I wanted to be that person for as many teens as possible,” Abby says.
Now a college student, Reid still returns to the MJCCA when he’s home. He still seeks Abby out. What began as supervision has become mutual respect — someone in his corner who isn’t a parent or teacher, but who believes in him deeply.
From Club J to BBYO and beyond, each stage built on the last. “Being at the JCC showed me that Judaism can be part of my everyday life,” Reid says. Every time he walks through the doors, he sees someone he knows. Every stage of life, the MJCCA has been there. For Reid, it isn’t just a building. It’s where he learned to lead. Where he could fully be himself. A place that felt steady when the world didn’t. And sometimes, all it takes to change a trajectory is a friendly face — showing up year after year.