New Methods

New toys may not change the role o summer camp.

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Right: Tamarack campers
enjoy
the "Rave."

Below: Melanie Dovitz
gets ready to pitch
in kickball.

LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer

amp Tamarack's yearbook
boasted 1998 as "The Year
We Raved!" and the large
water-based trampoline
could be another signal of how sum-
mer camps are changing programmati-
cally and in camper recruitment.
According to Tamarack's director,
Harvey Finkelberg, the days of people
going to camps for name recognition
are over.
"Camps have videos, information

1/22
1999

74 Detroit Jewish News

meetings, follow-up calling and
reunions," he said. It used to be that
people would send in their application
and that was that. It's now a year-
round process to recruit kids."
Camp in the past was sports, water-
front, arts and crafts and canoe trips.
Now campers also have ropes courses,
climbing walls, mountain biking and
in-line hockey to choose from.
Joanne Kates, the director at Camp
Arowhon in Canada, won't -be too
quick to add something simply
because the campers want to add it.
"We're more into adding skill-based
activities," she said. "Campers will

continue to do the climbing wall
because they can get better."
Kates doesn't think the craze of the
high ropes course will last long.
"From what I'm hearing, it won't
stick for the same reason we decided
not to do it in the first place: there's
no learning, only a jolt," she said. "It's
a thrill ride, but can you keep doing it
for five years and get better?"
Sid Friedman from Camp Tanuga
said today's campers looking for a
quick fix isn't surprising.
In keeping up with today's chil-
dren, programs offer more immediate
gratification," he said.