Beth El Book Groups
Set Series Selections

B

Catherine Blotner on the ropes course at Camp Mak-A-Dream in Montana

Camp Mak-A-Dream fundraiser to help
send kids with cancer to camp in Montana.

I

Stacy Gittleman
Contributing Writer

W

"...because 1 want
to have a positive
influence on future
generations."

The Jewish Women's Renaissance
Project is partnering with Aish
Detroit to give Detroit mothers the
opportunity to reconnect in Israel.

IT'S LIKE A BIRTHRIGHT FOR MOMS.

CONTACT LISA KNOLL

lisak@aish.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION

OR APPLY AT
www.jwrp.org

OUR
MISSION

AISH Detroit welcomes
all families, regardless of
membership or affiliation
to create a revolution of Jewish life.

By providing exciting experiences
for the Holidays, meaningful life
cycle celebrations, and Torah study
opportunities in a non-judgmental
environment we enable families to
translate Jewish learning
into Jewish living which
strengthens the Jewish
identity of the home and
Detroit
builds community.

ash

Thank you to The Farber Foundation
and the JFMD for their support.

16

October 9 • 2014

Iwu

hen Catherine Blotner of
West Bloomfield was 17,
she underwent a risky
brain surgery procedure to remove
a benign yet deep and invasive brain
tumor that for years was causing seizures
and threatened her vision and hearing.
The doctors said the surgery could cause
permanent speech and cognitive loss,
and even the loss of her ability to walk.
Now, Blotner is 19 and a student
at Arizona State University studying
family and human development. Not
only did she keep her ability to speak,
she is a blogger and founder of #btsm
(brain tumor social media), a monthly
Twitter chat open to anyone seeking
resources on treating brain tumors.
Neurologists and healthcare profession-
als seek her out for speaking engage-
ments and conferences focused on
people coping with brain illnesses. On
the back of her business card: her twitter
handle — @cblotner — plus a photo of
an MRI of her brain.
Her mother, Ann Blotner, attributes
her daughter's confidence, coping
strength and leadership qualities in part
to the summers she spent as a camper
at Camp Mak-A-Dream, a free camp
under the big skies of Montana for chil-
dren and young adults with cancer. She
has been both a camper and a counselor
there, including the weeks leading up to
her life-altering surgery
"Through Camp Mak-a-Dream,
Catherine has become confident and
connected into a supportive network of
healthcare professionals as well as a peer
group who are going through similar
health challenges that have changed their
lives:' said Ann.
The Michigan Chapter of Friends of
Camp Mak-A-Dream will host its "sweet"
16th annual "Cookies n Dreams" fund-
raiser from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16,
at the Somerset Collection in Troy. Food,
beverages, entertainment and activities
for all ages will be provided throughout
the evening. Admission for adults is $60;

children under 17 pay their age and chil-
dren 3 and under are free. For details, go
to www.campdreammich.org .
According to Peter Grimes, the
organization's executive director, the
long-standing event has attracted "eager
sponsors" and area bakers donating
hundreds of cookies as well as their
confectionary time and expertise to
the family-friendly event. The bake-off
expects to draw 600 attendees and raise
at least $130,000.
Funds raised in Michigan pay for the
camping and transportation costs for 70
children from Michigan. Grimes added
that former campers like Blotner come
back to volunteer as young adults and
offer support to the campers through
talks and workshops.
The camp was founded by Sylvia
and the late Harry Granader of
Beverly Hills. Granader owned sev-
eral McDonald's restaurants and
founded several Michigan-area Ronald
McDonald houses. He donated 87 acres
of Montana ranch land to build a camp
especially created for children and
young adults facing life-threatening dis-
eases, such as cancer and brain tumors.
The camp welcomed its first campers
in 1995. Since then, it has hosted more
than 6,000 children and young adults,
offering typical camping activities such
as swimming, a ropes course, archery,
hiking, arts and crafts as well as a state-
of-the-art medical center that allows the
campers to get cancer treatment while
they are at camp.
Hadar Granader of Bloomfield Hills
wishes to carry on his brother's legacy
of granting sick children a summer
out in nature where "no child will feel
embarrassed or laughed at because of
their illness."
"Life is especially hard for kids with
cancer because they become cut off
from everyday life, and healthy kids
have a hard time relating to them:'
Granader said. "At Camp-Mak-a-
Dream, children with cancer get to
bond and share memories and friend-
ships that help sustain them long after
the summer is over."

❑

agels & Books" and "Books &
Bites," sponsored by Temple
Beth El's Prentis Memorial
Library and the Temple Sisterhood,
will meet on selected Mondays, with
"Bagels & Books" at 10 a.m. in the
library and "Books & Bites" at 7 p.m.
in the Alpert Room.
Facilitators include Rabbi Mark
Miller of Temple Beth El; Eileen Polk,
Beth El librarian; Marilyn Schelberg,
Judaic educator; and Barbara
Goldsmith, educator.
The series opens Oct. 20 with a
joint 7 p.m. session. The discussion,
led by Polk, will feature two short
memoirs, An American Bride in
Kabul by Phyllis Chessler and A Call
From Egypt by Joan Kadri Zald.
Educator and feminist Chessler
recalls her life as a young bride in
Afghanistan, in a state of culture
shock. Zald, daughter of an American
Jewish mother and an Egyptian
Muslim father, relates her journey to
Egypt following her estranged father's
death to meet his family and find
answers to questions about her par-
ent's marriage. Zald will also speak at
this opening session.
On Dec. 1, facilitator Goldsmith
will lead a discussion of Dancer,
Daughter, Traitor, Spy by Elizabeth
Kiem, a spy novel set in Moscow in
1982, when being a prima ballerina
meant your family was a target of
intrigue.
Goldsmith will also lead the discus-
sion on Jan. 12 of Helene Wecker's
novel, The Golem and the Jinni, a tale
set in turn-of-the-century New York.

Sima's Undergarments for Women

by Ilana Stanger-Ross, a heartwarm-
ing tale of friendship amid love, loss
and lingerie, is the Feb. 23 selection
led by Schelberg.
Miller will facilitate the March
30 discussion of In the Courtyard
of the Kabbalist by Ruchama King
Feuerman.
The series closes May 11 with a dis-
cussion of My Russian Grandmother

and Her American Vacuum Cleaner,
Meir Shalev's delightful remembrance
of his grandmother Tonia and the
pioneers who shaped his Israeli child-
hood. Schelberg will facilitate.
The series cost is $30 ($25 for
Friends of the Library & Sisterhood
members) or $10 per session drop-
in fee. To register, call Eileen Polk at
(248) 851-1100, ext. 3138.

❑

