Hannah Solomon, Rachel Morof, Rachel Fenberg, Caitlin Forbes, Emily
Benderoff, Katie Rothstein and Emma Salesin

Camp Finder

It's not too late to find your kids
a camp for this summer.

Sari Cicurel

Special to the Jewish News

I

n March 2011, after 55 years, Camp
Sea-Gull, an all-girls summer camp
on Lake Charlevoix, closed its doors.
Sherri Morof, whose daughter Rachel had
been going to Camp Sea-Gull since she
was very young, was stunned.
"What do you do when all of a sudden a
camp you watched your daughter grow at
and love closes its doors?" she asked.
"There were seven of us, and we wanted
to stick together in a bunk": Rachel Morof
said. "We had grown up going to camp. It
was going to be too hard to try and fit in at
another camp around here:'
Many camps opened their doors for for-
mer Camp Sea-Gull campers. The parents
of the group got together with the hopes
that Margaret Bornstein, local consultant
for Joanne Paltrowitz's New York-based
Camp Experts & Teen Summers, a com-
pany with 30 global offices, could assist.
Bornstein of Huntington Woods
brought numerous camp directors into
Michigan to make presentations until she
found the right fit for the girls. Best of all
for parents, the service was free.
No one who has been to camp is sur-
prised to learn about its benefits. Parents
who remember what camp was like want
the same things for their children: physi-
cal activity, the experience of success and
gaining confidence and resiliency, unplug-
ging from technology, developing life skills
and growing more independent
"My husband and I both grew up
spending our summers at sleep-away
camp, and we wanted our girls to have the
enrichment of the camp experience," said
Bornstein, mother of lifelong campers,
Rachel, 19, and Carly, 17.
"It was an overwhelmingly positive envi-
ronment, and both girls gained so much

28

April 10 • 2014

JN

self-confidence while building friendships
with people from all over the country," said
Bornstein, mother of two lifelong campers,
Rachel, 19, and Carly, 17.
Once Rachel "graduated" from being
a camper, Bornstein began to explore
options for teen programs. She was over-
whelmed. How do you then know if it is
the right fit? To whom can you ask ques-
tions before giving a deposit?
Then Bornstein learned about Camp
Experts & Teen Summers. Every year,
experts visit camps, and evaluate them for
security, programming, costs and exper-
tise. Camp Experts & Teen Summers rep-
resent more than 1,000 overnight camps
and teen programs, in the U.S. and abroad.
"There is definitely something for
everyone, but each child deserves a cus-
tom fit, as there are so many details that
separate one program from another;
Bornstein said.
"I offer a very personal and vetted pro-
cess and a timesaver for parents who can't
spend hours scouring the Internee'
Bornstein has sent freshmen and soph-
omores in high school on directed pro-
grams in fashion design, musical theatre,
Spanish language immersion and marine
biology only to later find the teens' inter-
ests stay strong enough to major in col-
lege in those areas.
Although already late in spring, it is
not unusual to find families who are not
sure of their kids' summer camp plans.
"This winter it was hard for anyone to
imagine summer would come, and right
now I have families trying to make those
last-minute decisions:' Bornstein said.
"Camps do have openings, and I work to
find that fit:' ❑

Contact Margaret Bornstein at (248) 723-

2880 or margaretbornstein@campexperts.

COM.

Yoga Shelter Named
'Best Of Detroit'
Yoga Shelter has been voted Best of
Detroit. Eric Paskel opened the first
Yoga Shelter studio in 2004 in West
Bloomfield and the company has
since opened studios in Birmingham,
Royal Oak, Grosse Pointe, Midtown,
Downtown (affiliate studios) and Los
Angeles, serving more than 1 million
students and counting.
Hannan Lis of Lis Ventures, an
owner of Yoga Shelter, announced
new studios opening this spring in
the new Arbor Lofts in Southfield
City Center and a new affiliate Yoga
Shelter in Rochester Hills.
"Yoga Shelter was created to help
create a coming together of like-
minded people, to create a real com-
munity for people, so as we grow
with our studio locations we contin-
ue to fulfill that intention," Lis said.
The city of Southfield and
Lawrence Technology University
are making a shift to developing a
better, bigger and brighter city and
university.
"Yoga Shelter welcomes partnering
with Southfield residents, along with
LTU students, to help to continue to
cultivate the growth of Southfield,"
Lis said.
Expansion is not just in bricks
and mortar. Yoga Shelter has
recently hired Nicole Rowan to
manage an innovative philanthropy-

based marketing effort called "Yoga
Shelter Cares:'
The initiative seeks to harness the
power of giving back and reward
charitable giving with free and dis-
counted yoga.
Through Yoga Shelter Cares, Yoga
Shelter will partner with a variety of
local charities and allow their donors
to participate in Yoga Shelter classes
for free and or subsidized rates. Yoga
Shelter will also match charitable
donations in exchange for nonprof-
its promoting the program to their
donor and member base.

A Pass Education Group
Gets Small Business Award
A Pass Educational Group LLC is one
of 12 companies from Michigan to
receive the Michigan Small Business
Development
Center's (MI-SBDC)
Best Small Business
Award. These
companies were
chosen from more
than 5,500 small
businesses that the
MI-SBDC provided
Andrew Pass
with confidential
counseling and training in 2013.
The Best Small Business award
recipients were identified based
on their success in creating jobs,
increasing sales, improving their
business strategy and their involve-
ment with the MI-SBDC.
Andrew Pass began A Pass
Educational Group LLC in 2009.
This innovative company designs
educational content including
instructional materials, assessments
and curriculums as well as provides
editing and translation services.

Its customers include Pearson
Learning Solutions, Scholastic, Apex
Learning, the DeVry Institute and a
variety of other educational institu-
tions.
By utilizing technology to create a
global workplace, A Pass Educational
Group LLC has cultivated employee
talent from around the world. A
Pass currently employs 10 full-time
employees and more than 700 con-
tractors.
Pass began to work with the
Oakland County SBDC in 2012. The
SBDC helped him develop a strategy
to move his million-dollar business
into permanent office space.
SBDC Consultant Catherine Abad
said, "Andy is enthusiastic, eager to
learn and has aggressive but realistic
expectations for growth:'
He is also a leading member of
the Troy PeerSpectives CEO Round
Table.
Pass and the other recipients
will be honored at the Michigan
Celebrates Small Business awards
ceremony on May 6 at Michigan
State University in East Lansing.

Arbor Lofts at Southfield City

Center Building