Jewish content, and
Jewishness is built into daily
life. The kids' rest period is
called menucha (Hebrew for
peace or tranquility); they
study nature during teva
(the word for nature).
Campers participate in ser-
vices for Kabbalat Shabbat
(welcoming Sabbath) and •
Havdala (Sabbath closing).
They say the Birkat
haMazon (grace after meals)
and all camp food is pre-
pared in accordance with
Jewish dietary laws. Jewish
philosophy and traditions
are incorporated to help
campers feel secure with
themselves as Jews.
The 1,500 forested acres
and two lakes of Camp
Maas comprise the main
campus. Kids can attend for
a few days or several weeks.
There are several specialty
programs as well, for kids
who want to concentrate on
a single area plus programs
for children with special
needs.
Also, Tamarack Camps
offers programs in far-flung
locations, such as a
Canadian wilderness trip
based at Tamarack's Agree
Outpost Camp in northern
Ontario, canoeing trips from
Tamarack's Camp Kennedy in
Michigan's Upper Peninsula and teen
trips to Alaska and out west.
For most everyone involved in
Tamarack, however, the enduring facet
is the people.
Again and again, kids who camped
there say they go back to see their
friends, and to see beloved counselors.
A full 80 percent of Tamarack's
campers return each summer.
Counselor Mark Tapper is spending
his eighth summer at camp. Tapper,
who will be heading off to Brandeis
University in the fall, loves the "sense of
community" he finds at Camp Maas.
"My closest friends are from camp,
and my best friend in the whole world is
someone I met at camp," Tapper said.
He says he gained confidence at
camp, learning and maturing during
the summers he spent there.
"It may sound mundane, but I'll
never forget the first time I got up on
water skis. I remember how much
time my counselors spent helping me
get up. I remember being, in the water
ski show that year. I didn't realize until

wears bracelets and necklaces made at
I was a counselor how much they
camp. He especially loves the water-
invested in me," Tapper said.
front, where he can enjoy water skiing,
This summer, he is working in
'sailing and kayaking.
Horizons, a program for children with
Kids keep coming back to Camp
special needs who can be integrated
Tamarack, in part
into the regular
because they are
camp program.
Z VD a
learning and
Stacey Raf, 17,
9%;..
3fi a
?ft ff, -te
eeft
developing skills,
is a member of the
says Fresh Air
a
:26
Teen Service staff,
ft ft a M.
Society board
learning how to be
ftmaa
member Nancy
a counselor — her
Camp
has
had
to
change
Triest.
goal for next sum-
"I'm not going
mer. This is Raf's
to keep 'up with the
to say there aren't
11th year with
competition and better
kids who get.
Tamarack Camps
homesick," she
serve its constituencies.
(administratively
said. "But kids
based in West
return here year
Bloomfield), and
after year. They go away with positive
she has been on the Alaska and west-
self-esteem and self-worth. I know it
ern trips as well.
sounds very '90s, but it really is so
"I love it here. I come every sum-
important."
mer and all my friends are here. The
Triest attended the camp as a child
experience you get from camp, the
in
the
1960s, and has been on the
people you meet, is what makes it so
board
for
five years.
great," Raf said.
"I loved camp as a child. I attended
Nine-year-old Jonathan. Ben-Ze-ev is
for six years. Now I want to give back
spending-his second summer at Camp
what was given to me. I had such a
Maas. He loves "all the stuff you can't
positive experience," Triest said.
do at home." The freckle-faced boy

That former campers like Triest can
maintain a connection to the camp is a
testimony to its staying power. One rea-
son is that the camp stays true to its
original mission, stated in 1902. The
Tamarack goals of fostering Jewish
identification, cultivating fellowship
and encouraging participation of a
broad social and economic cross-section
of the Jewish community are still valid.
Donor Steven Grand who funded
the new sports complex with his wife,
Nancy, said they saw Tamarack as a
very positive Jewish experience for
children.
"We visited the camp a couple
years ago, and we were very inspired
by what we saw there. It's one of the
real success stories in the Detroit
Jewish community, and we felt that
helping out for the future was a great
way to contribute," Grand said.
Although some have questioned the
need for newfangled additions like a c\
swimming pool at summer camp, old-
timers like dancer Harriet Berg, a 74-
year old Detroiter who has worked at
camp since 1979, says the more things
change, the more they stay the same.
"Certainly there are changes," Berg

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7/30
1999

92 Detroit Jewish News