Above:
The newlyweds.
Left:
Married at
Camp Tanuga.
Campers Forever
Jenny Kellman and Ron Fritz wed in their favorite place: summer camp.
JULIE EDGAR
News Editor
Kellman's first summer at
Camp Tanuga had her
hooked.
enny
j
For the next 17 years, she spent
every summer there as a camper,
counselor, head counselor, and this
summer, as assistant director. When it
was time to get married, Kellman and
her fiance, Ron Fritz, a new Tanuga
devotee, thought Tanuga's sylvan set-
ting would be the perfect backdrop for
a wedding. It was.
On Labor Day weekend, Kellman
and Fritz were married on the banks
of Manistee Lake, in front of 225
dressed-down guests, about 75 of
them former campers and Tanuga
9/18
1998
156 Detroit Jewish News
staffers. Kellman, 28, was attired in an
upscale sundress. Fritz, also 28, wore
linen pants and a white shirt, sans tie.
Accompanying her and Fritz down the
"aisle" was their chocolate lab, Briggs.
Rabbi Stacie Fine of Ahavat Shalom in
Traverse City performed the ceremo-
ny.
Afterward, guests wound through
paths lit by lanterns to get to the din-
ing hall and the rec hall.
"My whole life I envisioned this
wedding. When Ron and I got
engaged, we planned that we would
work it out and have it here. I didn't
think my parents would go for it, but
they did," Kellman said.
Tanuga Directors Sid Friedman and
Mark Coden, working with Jenny's
parents, Betsy and Joel Kellman,
arranged the ceremony.
Guests began streaming into camp
on Friday, setting up in cabins. The
other half of the wedding party stayed
in hotels in nearby Kalkaska or in Tra-
verse City, coming in for a barbecue
and campfire.
On Saturday, guests ate breakfast
and lunch and indulged in waterski-
ing, rollerblade hockey, basketball,
sailing, wall climbing and mountain
biking. The wedding ceremony began
at 5 p.m., followed by dinner and
dancing in the camp's new lodge. On
Sunday, the couple hosted a farewell
brunch: -
Kellman, a Berkley High School
grad, met Fritz, a Novi native, at the
University of Michigan in 1996. He is
currently finishing a master's degree in
education at U-M, while Kellman is
finishing her doctorate in sociology,
also at U-M. She works with male
substance abusers in the state correc-
tions system.
Before they bought their house in
Ann Arbor, Kellman and Fritz moved
to New York City while Fritz partici-
pated in an educational program
called Teach for America. Kellman got
a job there as a social worker.
They returned to Michigan, she
said, because "the city was crazy for
us. We're both camp people."
Friedman, Tanuga's owner, said the
Kellman-Fritz wedding was the second
to be held at Tanuga. The first was in
May, but on a much smaller scale.
Arranging the wedding while run-
ning the summer camp was "a bit
stressful," he said, but "after the fact,
we looked and back and said it was
well, well, well worth it."
❑