On Sunday, March 28th, Jewish teenagers from all around Atlanta gathered for the 3rd annual JATFEST, Jewish Atlanta Teen Festival! This year's festival was held at the Andretti Speed Lab. Rented exclusively for JATFEST, Andretti's provided over 100,000 square feet of pure fun ranging from Super Go-KARTS and rock climbing to every arcade and virtual reality game imaginable!

JATFEST's true highlight was the amazing live concert by The Rick Recht Band, the #1 premier touring Jewish artist, playing over 125 concerts each year including almost

all major youth group national conventions and over 70 camps.

JATFEST is a collaborative, community-wide event which is coordinated by JATCO, Jewish Atlanta Teen Community Outreach. JATCO is an umbrella program serving all the different Jewish teen organizations in Atlanta. This year, over 25 different youth groups, synagogues, schools, and camps participated in the planning, promoting, and staffing of the day. Additionally, this year JATCO has created an Jewish Youth Alliance, where one teen from each organization serves as a community ambassador. These teens were very instrumental in all the various aspects of JATFEST, and the day could not have been as successful without their help. ALL teens were encouraged to invite their friends and particularly to reach out to those friends who may not "belong" to any specific Jewish organization.

As a special component to this year's festival, the teens were asked to bring in any extra kippot they had at home. In June, when Federation takes its next mission, these kippot will be donated to the Belarus community of Minsk!

Most importantly, JATFEST, is an annual opportunity for our teens to get together socially and celebrate being Jewish! For more information on JATFEST and the other teen initiatives of JATCO, please call Mindy Ellin, JATCO Director, at 404-236-0930 or jatco@mindspring.com