for the trip?
Age, sex and hometown of
majority of teens?
Are groups of friends allowed
on the same trip?
What is the ratio of leaders
to campers?
Are there male and female
leaders?
Accommodations:
How are the teens assigned
to rooms/tents?
Do room assignments rotate?
Does each person have
his/her own bed (cot)?
What are the city amenities?
What are the campsite
amenities?
Food:
Who prepares the food?
Is it kosher?
Are teens supervised in
restaurants?
Itinerary:
Brad Neiman, Adam Schwartz, Berl'
Ausiander, Stacy Rothenberg, Lonnie
Meyers, Joshua Olstein of the Western
Teen Trip II from Tamarack Camps.
For re
A
dam Schwartz,
of Bloomfield
Hills, spent six
weeks last sum-
mer traveling
out West with
20 other local teens on the
Western Teen Trip, sponsored
by Tamarack Camps. These
campers hiked through the
Grand Tetons, explored Yel-
lowstone National Park and
went caving in the Black Hills
of South Dakota.
The Tamarack project is the
kind of travel adventure teens
can have this summer. This
project offers a Jewish orienta-
tion and there are other trips
that cater to Jewish teens with
two to six-week itineraries
throughout New England, the
western states, Pacific North-
west, Canada and Alaska.
Trips run the gamut from
rugged outdoor adventures em-
phasizing wilderness camping,
backpacking and outdoor cook-
ing to city explorations in which
sightseeing, shopping and
nightlife are complemented by
hip restaurant selections and
luxury hotel accommodations.
Ellyce Field writes a family
column for The Detroit News.
She is the author of "Kids
Catalog of Michigan
Adventures."
From outdoor adventures to Jewish programming,
there's a trip to match every teen's interests.
ELLYCE FIELD SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
How To Choose
Teen adventure brochures
look remarkably alike. Glossy
and multi-colored, they feature
photos of healthy-looking teens
smiling in front of waterfalls
and famous landmarks. Lan-
guage, for the most part, relies
on the superlative. "Five star
camping," "fantastic hotels,"
"fabulous meals" are widely
used descriptions.
So how do you judge the dif-
ferences and choose a trip?
George Auerbach, a Canadi-
an who, as owner of Auerbach
Teen Caravan, ran teen trips
for 21 summers, advises par-
ents and their teens to deter-
mine the purpose of such an
expensive trip. Is it purely for
fun? To become more responsi-
ble? To increase awareness of
nature and the environment?
To make new friends? To learn
to live with others?
Mr. Auerbach prefers to leave
the luxury hotels and bright
lights-city touring for family
trips.
Instead, he said, "teen trips
can be a tremendous growing
experience. If you want your
children to learn values and re-
sponsibility, throw off materi-
alism, pick up the old values
and become more idealist, then
send them on a trip that em-
phasizes camping."
Baltimore trip consultant
Eve Eifler, a member of
the nationwide Tips on
Trips and Camps consult-
ing network, offers fami-
lies a free referral service
that matches teens to
trips. (For a listing of
Camp Open Houses, spon-
sored by Tips on Trips and
held at area schools Janu-
ary to March, call 337-
8645.)
Mrs. Eifler recommends
that parents and teens
meet with trip represen-
tatives, watch videos and
ask questions. She and
parents of former teen trip-
pers suggest the following
list.
Trip Makeup:
How are teens selected
The 1993 Western Teen Trip II
from Tamarack Camps.
Are local guides hired to tour
specific areas?
How long at each stop/site?
How long of a bus trip be-
tween stops?
What specific adventures?
Safety and Supervision:
What is the staff's emer-
gency/medical training?
How does the trip deal with
emergencies?
Will leaders stay behind if a
child needs medical attention
and can't go on a side-trip?
How are teens supervised in
hotels/dorms/restaurants?
What are the drug/sex/be-
havior policies?
Other Expenses:
How much spending money?
Approximate cost of airfare?
Equipment and clothing
needed?
Living As A Jew
Three programs offer teens
Jewish content and daily Jew-
ish living.
One program, USY on
Wheels, is sponsored by Con-
servative Judaism's United
Synagogue Youth. Jeremy Gor-
don, an 11th grader at Groves
High School who went on USY
on Wheels last summer, said,
"I had an amazing time. The
Jewish content was important
to me — we davened three
times a day, kept Shabbo,s, and
it was a kosher trip."
USY's cross-country tour in-
cludes city sites, national parks
and Jewish landmarks. Teens
stay in hotels, national park
lodges and the homes of local
United Synagogue congregants.
The second program is the
American Jewish Society for
Service (AJSS), a 43-year old
non-profit agency headquar-
tered in New York City. Each
summer, AJSS sponsors pro-
jects (two or three, depending
on the number of teen-partici-
pants) in conjunction with local
communities. The projects take .
a variety of forms but all are
geared to helping low-income
communities in a hands-on
way.
This past summer, approxi-
mately 50 students participat-
ed in three AJSS-sponsored
projects.
z