The Great Outdoors
Jewish Senior Life residents enjoy the perks of summer camp.
Lynne Meredith Golodner
Special to the Jewish News
Ortonville
F
or more than three decades,
Jewish Senior Life (JSL) residents
have gone for an overnight or
full day of activities at the Butzel Retreat
Center at Tamarack Camps. Recently,
more than 60 residents from all of the JSL
residences journeyed there.
"The boundaries of camp are limit-
less, and age is not a factor;' Lee Trepeck,
Camp Maas executive director, said over
chicken dinner with JSL residents. His
wife, Robin Kaufman Trepeck, serves as
JSL board vice president.
"When you go to summer camp as a
kid, you think you're never going to get a
chance to go to the country and breathe
the good summer air again:' said Nancy
Siegel Heinrich, JSL president. "You come
to JSL and you get the chance to experi-
ence and enjoy the camaraderie of your
peers in a beautiful environment, and you
realize that as a senior, your life is full of
possibilities:'
Indeed, JSL seniors went boating,
enjoyed arts and crafts, watched fish leap
out of the lake and snakes slither under
canoes. They raised and lowered the flag
with four veterans folding Old Glory and
reminiscing about their time serving our
country.
"I was pleasingly surprised at every-
thing they have here;' said Stanley
Prenzlauer, 82, a resident of Fleischman
Residence/Blumberg Plaza in West
Bloomfield. "The warmth and love really
fills a need for me:'
JSL residents gather around a bonfire to eat s'mores and sing along with Rennie Kaufman and his daughter, Esther.
Meyer King, 95, a resident of Hechtman
Apartments in West Bloomfield, remi-
nisced about his time on staff at Fresh
Air Society camp (now Tamarack) in the
summers of 1937-1939 and 1941. He is
the eldest of the Tamarack alumni.
"This is all nostalgia;' he said. "Those
were probably the happiest days of my
life. I got here and listened to the music
and singing around the campfire. Staff
were always singing at camp. They were
so helpful and nice to us, making us feel
like royalty?'
Rochelle Upfal, JSL CEO, said, "For
many residents, this is their complimen-
tary vacation. For many, it brings them
back to childhood. Our residents said
they never sleep as well as they do here?'
Carol Rosenberg, director, JSL
Foundation, added, "One of the best parts
of JSL's camp experience is that residents
from all JSL residences come together.
Two cousins reunited at camp, giddy over
the amount of time they had together in
the open air.
"We all revert to an earlier time in our
lives when we were carefree, invigorated
by the camp adventure;' Rosenberg
said. "Our focus is always to enrich and
enhance the lives of our older adults,
and I cannot think of a better way than
spending full days at camp?'
❑
Lynne Meredith Golodner owns Southfield
public relations firm, Your People LLC.
JSL staff and residents eat dinner in the dining hall.
Four U.S. veterans were on hand to take down the flag:
Just relaxing: Frances Gantz and Clarice Haimovitz,
On the left: Lea Trager, Florence Kasoff and Arnold
Eugene Levine of Teitel Apartments in Oak Park, U.S. Air
both of Meer Apartments, Rose Breitberg of
Berman. On the right: Mort and Sally Horwitz and
Force, 1951; Jerry Order of Teitel, U.S. Army, 1964-66;
Fleischman and Shoshana Wolok of Hechtman, all of
Becky Grossman.
Bernie Friedman of Fleischman, Navy, 1945; and Frank
West Bloomfield.
Machlis of Meer, Marines, 1944-46 (holding the flag).
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September 12 • 2013
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