jews in the d

Cookies N’ Dreams

Camp Mak-A-Dream fundraiser marks 20 years.

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

K

ate Michaels, 12, spent a special
week this summer at Camp
Mak-A-Dream in Montana.
There were horses to ride, a climbing
wall, art, bonfires — and the chance to
connect with other kids who’ve been
affected by cancer.
Michaels, age 4 when she was diag-
nosed with kidney cancer and went
through about 19 months of treat-
ment, enjoyed her time at the camp,
says her mother, Amanda Michaels of
Waterford. “She had a great experience;
I feel like it was a great thing for her.”
On Wednesday, Oct. 24, Friends
of Camp Mak-A-Dream, Michigan
Chapter will host its 20th annual
Cookies N’ Dreams event to help sup-
port the cost-free camp experience and
Michigan kids who want to attend.
Held at Somerset Collection in Troy,
the family-friendly event invites guests
to sample cookies from 15 to 18 area
bakers and then vote on their favorites.
There will also be food, face painting
and live entertainment, including a
magic show.
Proceeds — Cookies N’ Dreams
has raised more than $2 million since
it began — help pay for airfare for
Michigan participants headed to the
camp, which also draws campers from
other cities with oncology hospitals,
explains Hadar Granader of Bloomfield
Hills, whose older brother Harry
founded the camp with his wife, Sylvia,
in 1995.
“You see these kids’ faces; some of
them have never left home before and
here they’re traveling on an airplane. It
just makes all of us involved feel good
that what we’re doing is good, and the
results are also good,” says Granader,
who serves on the board.
The late Harry and the late Sylvia
Granader donated 87 acres of their
Montana ranch plus seed money to
construct the camp. The impetus came
from Harry’s background as a build-
er. He got involved with helping to
build the Ronald McDonald Houses
in Ann Arbor and Detroit, then, in
1991, decided to start the camp, which
opened with 46 children for one camp

36

October 18 • 2018

jn

With cookie boxes in hand, these young attendees of last year’s Cookie N’ Dreams event look
pretty happy.

that draws kids, parents
session. Now, 70 to 80
and grandparents alike.
kids from Michigan,
“Everybody just loves
ages 6-21, attend
participating. It’s geared
annually. There is a
toward the children
medical facility on
from the minute they
site, with doctors and
arrive until the minute
nurses in attendance.
they leave.”
Zina Kramer of
Friends of Camp
Bloomfield Hills had
Mak-A-Dream helps
the idea for Cookies
support camp for kids,
N’ Dreams. “I think
teens, siblings and
every good cause
young adults who’ve
starts with somebody’s Volunteers hand out cookies at last
been affected by can-
dream, and that was
year’s event.
cer, as well as brain
really [Harry and
Sylvia’s] dream, to create that camp,” she tumor survivors. The facility also sepa-
rately hosts women’s cancer camps.
says. “That was part of how I came up
For the 20th anniversary, the group
with the name of Cookies N’ Dreams.
raised an extra $37,000 for a van to be
It was that notion, that we were going
to have a cookie-tasting combined with used to transport campers from the
airport to camp.
the dream created by the Granaders.”
Meanwhile, the camp, which has wel-
As for the setting, she thought of
comed more than 7,000 children and
longtime family friend Tony Jacob, a
young adults through its doors, con-
physician who had cancer and had
tinues creating positive experiences for
joined the board. His daughter and
those whose lives have been impacted
son-in-law Catherine and Nathan
by cancer. ■
Forbes are co-owners of Somerset
Collection in Troy. The cause quickly
became a family affair, says Tony’s wife, Tickets for the Oct. 24 event, 5-7:30 p.m. at
the Somerset Collection in Troy, are $60 for
Connie Jacob, Friends board president.
adults; kids 17 and younger pay their age;
In addition, the event also features a
children 3 and younger are free. Go to camp-
storytelling and activity area honoring
dreammich.org/cookies-n-dreams-registration.
Tony. “And then all the grandchildren
got involved,” Jacob says of the event

Comedian To
Headline
Emanu-El
Installation

Los Angeles-based
Emmy-winning
comedian Monica
Piper will headline a
weekend of festivities
at Temple Emanu-El
Nov. 2-3 to wel-
Monica Piper
come its new rabbi,
Matthew Zerwekh.
A writer for the
animated children’s
TV series Rugrats,
Piper has also written
for Roseanne and Mad
Rabbi Matthew About You and has
performed her own
Zerwekh
special on Showtime.
Her first love, professionally speak-
ing, is performing live. “I do a lot of
temple gigs,” said Piper. She will soon
begin rehearsals in Los Angeles for
an updated version of her one-wom-
an play Not That Jewish, which ran
for 16 months in Los Angeles, then
off-Broadway for seven months.
Earlier this year in California, she
played former Miss America Bess
Myerson — “all 5 feet of me” — as an
offstage voice in an autobiographical
play by Myerson’s daughter, Barra
Grant. “I was much more convincing
as the voice of Bess Myerson then
I would have been as the physical
embodiment.”
The weekend events begin with
Shabbat services at 7 p.m. Nov. 2,
where Rabbi Ken Kanter, associate
dean and director of the rabbinical
school at Hebrew Union College-
Jewish Institute of Religion, will
formally install Zerwekh. On Nov.
3, Torah study with Kanter and
Zerwekh begins at 9:30 a.m. followed
by Shabbat services at 10:30 a.m.
The installation celebration kicks
off at 7 p.m. Nov. 3 with hors
d’oeuvres and wine. Piper performs
at 8:30, followed by a dessert after-
glow.
Tickets for Saturday night are
$100, and sponsorship packages are
available. Call (248) 967-4020 or
click on the installation celebration
tickets link at emanuel-mich.org or
email TempleFamily@emanuel-mich.
org by Oct. 29. ■