As Detroit emerges from the darkness of bankruptcy into the light of regrowth, this year’s fourth annual “Menorah in the D” celebration — starting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 16, at Campus Martius — holds particular significance.
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“Including campers with disabilities in summer camp is beneficial for campers with disabilities and neurotypical campers,” says Howard Blas, Director of the Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah in New England and the National Ramah Tikvah Network. In an article published earlier this year in The Canteen camp blog at MyJewishLearning.com, Blas encouraged parents to consider summer camping for their special needs children for the following reasons:
- It offers fun, stimulating activities
- Campers engage with friends and role models
- It is an all-encompassing Jewish living environment
- It is the next step toward independence
- Camp (perhaps most importantly) offers parents a well-deserved and needed respite.
Ramah Darom, the Conservative movement’s summer camp in north Georgia, announced the launch of a new Tikvah Program for summer 2015 and the addition of Audra Kaplan to its professional staff. The Tikvah Program will offer a four-week summer experience for children ages 12 to 17 years who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Kaplan, who will direct this new program, is a clinical psychologist with extensive experience in Jewish camp and in working with children with disabilities.
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Adina Allen is a Camp Ramah poster child. She spent six summers at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin as a camper and as many summers since on staff.
This was her second summer as a rosh edah (division head). In her “off season,” Allen tries to connect with those counselors who, like she, attend Washington University in St. Louis.
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Jewish memories are made of this: sneaking out with my bunkmates for a thrilling nighttime swim. Israeli dancing on the lawn in the sunshine before lunch. Singing the birkat hamazon with gusto after dinner, concocting elaborately goofy skits for the talent show, playing friendly pickup games of GaGa, and sending a “Secret Shabbat-O-Gram” to my crush in Tent Gimel. Much more than the hours spent in synagogue or in religious school, I can directly trace my continued connection to Judaism to the unforgettable summers I spent at Camp Ramah in California. As it turns out, Ramah would play an even more crucial role for my son Nathan, who was born 14 years ago with Down syndrome.
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For the past four summers, Kaspar has been a camper at Ramah Outdoor Adventure (ROA) in the Colorado Rockies. Kaspar has participated in ROA’s Tikvah Program for campers with disabilities, both as a participant in the Amitzim edah (division) for campers with disabilities and, most recently, as part of the camp’s inclusion program.
Ramah Outdoor Adventure has become her second home and, according to her parents, has been a big part of her everyday happiness and success. Kaspar hopes someday to become a member of ROA’s tzevet susim (“horse staff”). Below is her take on life at Ramah Outdoor Adventure.
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Last Wednesday, I headed to family camp with Max for five days. I figured we'd have fun; I had no idea how meaningful our time there would be. It was full of firsts for Max—and the discovery of a whole other kind of holy land.
As a a teen, I was a counselor at two Camp Ramahs in New York and loved it. After I found out that the Ramah in the Poconos had a five-day Tikvah Family Camp for kids with developmental disorders and social learning disorders, I signed us up. (The Ramah Tikvah Network offers family, day and overnight camps at nine locations.)
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During the first week of August, a team of five from the Autism Institute at Mailman Segal Center headed for the mountains of Northern Georgia to help 26 families enjoy a week of summer camp.
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he campers and staff of Camp Ramah in Nyack danced with the crazed enthusiasm of people who had just won a $100 million jackpot. It was just past 9 a.m., the last Friday of camp in Rockland County, New York, and the Hebrew song playing was fittingly called "Lo Normali." I could not help but think that this amount of energy was freakish.
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