Camp Guide ❉

Vaccines
Required

Entrepreneurship
Starts Young

Tamarack
Camps issues new
immunization policy.

Camp Inc.’s teens and their start-ups.

W

Ronelle Grier | Contributing Writer

T

amarack Camps issued a new
immunization policy to be
phased in over the next two

years.
For the summer of 2016, campers, staff
and volunteers must provide documenta-
tion that at least the first doses of MMR
(measles, mumps, rubella), Tdap/DTaP
(tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) and men-
ingitis (if applicable by age) have been
administered prior to attending or partici-
pating in any Tamarack Camps program.
In 2017, no child, camper, staff, artist
in residence, volunteer, doctor, nurse or
their families will be allowed to come to
camp without documentation of complete
immunization according to the camp pol-
icy, which follows the recommendations
of the American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP) and the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).
A Dec. 30 email from Tamarack Camps
said the decision was influenced by “the
overriding Jewish value of Pikuach Nefesh
[saving a life] that puts a premium on
maintaining health, including taking
preventive measures, along with the clear
public health-based need to protect the
camp community as a whole, and those
unable to receive vaccines in particular
…”
The email also stated, “While parents
may choose to defer the vaccination of
their children, for Tamarack Camps this
is not an issue of individual rights and
choice, but an issue of public health and
policy. The routine vaccination of all chil-
dren, campers, staff, artists in residence,
volunteers, doctors, nurses and their
families at camp is an important public
health matter, especially in the confined
environment of a residential summer
camp with round-the-clock communal
living and with some vulnerable popula-
tions present.”
The new Tamarack policy includes the
following vaccines, in accordance with
AAP and CDC guidelines:
· DTaP, DT, Td, or Tdap (diphtheria, teta-
nus and pertussis)
· Tdap vaccine is now required for chil-
dren over age 11, booster every 10 years
· IPV (poliovirus)
· HIB (haemophilus influenza type b
bacteria)

26 February 4 • 2016

· PCV 13 (pneumococcal) vaccine
· Rotavirus vaccine
· Hepatitis B
· MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) or
serologic evidence of immunity. Adults
born before 1957 are assumed to be
immune to measles.
· Varicella vaccine (chicken pox) or sero-
logic or historical evidence of immunity.
· Menactra (meningococcal disease /
meningitis) required for those age 11 and
older
The camp also strongly recommends
the Hepatitis A and annual flu vaccines.
The relatively new HPV vaccine (Gardasil
or Cervarix), which is recommended by
the AAP and CDC but not required by the
state of Michigan, is not required.
Exceptions to the new policy were
explained in the December email as fol-
lows:
“We recognize that individuals who
have had a documented allergy or severe
adverse reaction to a particular vaccine
will not be able to receive further doses of
that individual vaccine.
“In addition, individuals with medical
conditions such as congenital immuno-
deficiency or HIV, malignancies receiving
chemotherapy, transplant patients and
persons receiving immunosuppressive
drugs and chronic steroids will not be
able to receive certain vaccines.
“In these instances, a physician docu-
menting the problem and exempting the
child from further doses of that specific
vaccine must be furnished to Tamarack
Camps. In addition, if an individual or
his/her family believes that a specific situ-
ation poses extenuating circumstances
and furnishes a letter from a medical
doctor (MD) substantiating this conten-
tion, the medical director and medical
committee will review such situations on
a case by case basis.”
JCC Day Camps Director Howard
Gutman said the day camp administra-
tion is taking steps to “mirror the policy
Tamarack has put in place.”
Some families have expressed disfavor
with the new policy, citing adverse side
effects, allergic reactions or other issues
that may cause parents to defer or refuse
certain vaccinations for their children or
themselves.

*

hen I was in seventh grade
I recall a couple of my
school classmates launched
a rather odd business. They schemed
to collect as much Halloween candy as
they possibly could and then sold each
individual piece of candy to students
around the school. With no overhead
they managed to make a relative fortune.
Of course, when their candy supply ran
dry these boys were out of business. So
much for that business model.
Twenty-five years later, I contrasted
that short-lived candy selling operation
with the complex and creative startups
I saw when I visited Camp Inc. Business
Academy, a new Jewish camp in the
Colorado Rockies that focuses on entre-
preneurship.
Middle school and
high school campers
form into teams and
launch innovative
business models.
With all the tradi-
tional components of
an overnight summer
camp, Camp Inc. adds
Rabbi Jason
several hours a day of
Miller
programming geared
toward business plan-
ning, marketing and
technology.
Heading into its third year, Camp Inc.
is attracting budding entrepreneurs from
all over North America. Three Jewish
teens from Metro Detroit spent last sum-
mer there and used the experience to
develop their love of entrepreneurship.
Brad Simtob of West Bloomfield,
Daniel Zalesin of Birmingham and
Adin Kleinfeldt of Huntington Woods
spent several weeks on the 70-acre
camp property in Steamboat Springs
brainstorming startup ideas with their
fellow future business superstars. Each
chose from one of four tracks including
Finance, Marketing and Design, Coding
and Startups and then set out to create a
business proposal.
The startup track gives campers the
opportunity to experience the process of
launching a company from scratch and
garnering the necessary skills and tools
to bring a product to market. Campers
are even provided with savvy entrepre-
neurs who serve as mentors, offering
advice in building a business plan before
pitching to investors in a Shark Tank-
style event.
“Adin loved meeting kids from all

Campers pitch their startup ideas
Shark Tank-style.

over with different backgrounds who
put their different ideas together. They
really learned from each other,” said his
mother, Nancy Kleinfeldt. “The highlight
of his summer was going to Google’s
Boulder campus, getting a tour and
meeting with Google staffers there.”
Some of the business startups last
summer included GoPower, off-the-grid
power solutions using renewable sources
and stackable batteries for adventurists,
and ViSU Safe Alert, a high-tech alert
system for school emergencies.
Another team came up with the idea
for E-Z Brush, a mouthpiece that brushes
your teeth without needing to use your
hands at all. My favorite startup from
last summer was from a team of four
campers that included a Jewish boy from
Kuwait. Their idea, named FireCrate,
ships a monthly box of new early-adopt-
er tech gadgets to your door to get user
testing, feedback and pre-sales.
“It was fantastic having a great repre-
sentation from the Detroit area this past
summer, including Brad Simtob who
returned after our inaugural summer,”
said Camp Inc. Director Josh Pierce. “We
are now focused on a strong recruitment
effort in the area and hope to see more
Jewish teens from Metro Detroit get the
Camp Inc. experience.”
Certainly much has changed since
that poorly conceived candy business I
witnessed back in middle school. At this
dynamic summer camp, today’s entre-
preneurial-minded Jewish teens have the
necessary resources to launch and then
nurture their own business. What they
will create I’m sure will impress us all.

*

Rabbi Jason Miller is a local entrepreneur, blog-
ger and tech expert. He is president of Access
Computer Technolo gy in West Bloomfield and
serves on the Board of Advisors for Camp Inc.
Business Academy. Follow him on Twitter at @
RabbiJason.

