-7s
Mitch Rosenwasser, his wife Jenifer
and son Ian, enjoy camp life.
A
fter years of participat-
ing in outdoor adven-
tures through a variety
of ad hoc channels,
University of Michigan alum
Mitch Rosenwasser has finally
realized his dream of running a
summer camp.
Rosenwasser, 40, was recently
named director of the University
of Michigan Alumni Association's
family camp, Camp Michigania,
situated on 400 acres of rolling
hills off the shores of Walloon
Lake at the northern edge of
Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
In his first year as director,
Rosenwasser speaks with the
enthusiasm of one of his campers
when describing how he ended up
as Michigania's camp director.
"I've been involved in camping all
my life," he said. "Plus I'm a huge
Michigan fan, a fanatic if you will,
and this position came up ... and I
felt it was a perfect fit."
A Detroit-area native,
Rosenwasser grew up in
Southfield and graduated from
Southfield-Lathrup High School
in 1981. He then went on to grad-
uate from the University of
Michigan in 1985 with a pre-lased
background.
"I went pre-med because I real-
ly wasn't sure what I wanted to
do," he said, adding that after
graduation he decided to pursue
what many unfocused graduates
before him have done — become
a ski bum in Aspen, Colo.
"I tried to set up my life so that
in the winter I could ski and in the
spring and summer I could be a
(counselor) at Camp Tamarack,"
located in Ortonville, Mich.
And while skiing in the winter
and teaching archery and hiking in
the summer are appealing,
Rosenwasser acknowledged that
there was more to life than just
living for the moment. In 1990 he
again graduated from Michigan,
this time with a teaching certifi-
cate with a major in English.
For the last several years
Rosenwasser was the "director of
watching all the money" at
StarTrax, the Southfield-based
entertainment company. He said
the interaction with people
enticed him to give up his ruck-
sack for a briefcase.
You can take the boy from the
country, but you can't take the
country from the boy. So when
this self-professed "camp-a-holic"
had an opportunity to apply for
the director's position at
Michigania he said he knew this
was, in his words, "... a unique
opportunity to make a career of
my love for the outdoors."
With the support of his wife,
Jenifer, a teacher at West
Bloomfield High School,
Rosenwasser met with
Michigania's board of directors and
now calls the Boyne City area
home for nearly five months out of
the year.
"There were only two places I
would have left Star Trax for and
one of them was Michigania," he
said (the other being Camp
Tamarack). "It was just a great
opportunity to fulfill a lifelong
dream of being a camp director."
With nearly 1,000 families
under his charge throughout the
summer, and more than 200 more
on a waiting list, Rosenwasser
expresses the gratitude of a man
who has hit his stride and is confi-
dent about the direction life is tak-
ing him.
"I would say that my goal in life
is to help people have great expe-
riences. At camp we create what
we call `Michigania Magic,' (and)
to see parents be able to see their
kids have fun or play tennis for
the first time, that's what makes it
rewarding."
(Related story on page 15)
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