Our Session I chalutzim have been gone for only a few hours, and our incredible staff have begun their first well-deserved day off of the season. Sitting here in Starbucks down in Woodland Park, I have only the warmest memories from the past two weeks. Leading up to the beginning of Session I, many on our staff were anxious about our second season at Ramah Outdoor Adventure. Could we repeat the magic we created in 2010? Would the new chalutzim (pioneers/ campers) bond with the returning campers? Would the new programs we have added this year be as successful as the ones we began last year? Would our new staff work well with our returning staff? Would our attempt to differentiate between different edot (age groups) succeed? Would a two week session, at the beginning of the summer, provide an emotionally moving experience for our chalutzim? These were just some of the questions racing through our minds in the weeks leading up to the opening of the 2011 season.
Please read to the end for housekeeping matters.
This morning was our warmest morning thus far this summer. While most of us woke up after sunrise and put on our fleeces and long pants, we did so out of habit and not necessity, as the temperature hovered in the 60s until the sun rose above the hilltop. The warm morning was a perfect way to transition into our week of masaot (excursions). At 7:30, our first group of Bogrim chalutzim (9/10th grade) boarded their bus to go kayaking on the Arkansas River and hiking in Great Sand Dunes National Park. An hour later, another group headed out for a five day climbing trip on a magnificent rock face, about one hour from camp. This afternoon, our Metayalim chalutzim (5/6th grade) leave for an overnight where they will be mining for quartz in a local quartz seam and feeding buffalo at our neighbor’s ranch. Tomorrow morning, our Sollelim chalutzim (7/8th grade) head out for four days of hiking and rafting or biking.
Lest you think that camp will be quiet this week, last night 50 campers and staff from Ramah in the Poconos arrived at camp. They will be participating in four days of activities here on the Ramah in the Rockies ranch.
All in all, this is certain to be an amazing week at Ramah Outdoor Adventure.
The past few days at camp have been challenging, inspirational and memorable. Since the second day of camp, our horses have been working about eight hours a day taking chalutzim on trail rides around the ranch. Our bikers have explored many of the trails in camp, including some with considerable inclines. Our advanced climbers have spent hours scaling cliffs 100s of feet high, including one who did a multi-pitch climb yesterday; while our beginner climbers have learned the basics of belay technique and the basics of climbing on real rock faces. One of the most popular additions to our program this summer is the new 18 “hole” FROLF (frisbee golf) course designed by a former Ramah in New England Ultimate star, Nadav. Nadav spent all of staff week constructing a course that takes 2-3 days to complete and circles much of the back of our property. In addition to allowing for some terrific FROLF, our course enables our chalutzim to explore areas of the ranch that they might not otherwise see.
While our physical activities have been amazing, we had an incredibly inspirational Shabbat as well. On Friday evening, we gathered in our new amphitheatre, called the Pardes Tefillah (Prayer Grove), for dancing and davening. As usual, we sang Kabbalat Shabbat with a guitar and drums before lighting the Shabbat candles. Our dinner, consisting of fish, beans and rice, was followed by some of the most incredible singing and dancing that any of us have ever heard or seen at Ramah. Shabbat proceeded as planned, with time for collective prayer and learning, as well as lots of free time, when chalutzim napped, played kickball and also hung around to chat with each other. At 9:15 pm we all gathered in front of the Chadar Ohel (dining hall) for our first havdallah of the season. For the first 10 minutes, chalutzim took turns giving “shout outs” to each other as a way to publicly thank others in the group who had either helped them out in the initial days of camp, or with whom they had shared a meaningful moment. It was incredible to see how, after only five days together as a community, we had already come so close to each other and were able to share our inner feelings.
With over a week left in our camp program, I can only imagine how this second week will change our chalutzim and bring them even closer together. While I savor each day here at the Chava (ranch), I cannot wait for next Shabbat when we will again gather in our pardes tefillah, having had six additional days of intense outdoor experiences and meaningful interpersonal bonding.
Now for a few housekeeping matters:
#1 Please note that due to the higher than usual water level in the Arkansas River our rafting company will not take any clients under the age of 12. Therefore, we have had to cancel our metayalim (entering 5/6) rafting trip indefinitely for this session. We were informed of this yesterday, and are still searching for an alternate activity for this Thursday.
#2 For those who are still having issues seeing our pictures, please know that they are kept on a new website. Due to numerous complaints last year, we ARE NOT using the UltraCamp site for pictures. Please contact us directly for a link to the photos.
The hour is late so this will be a very brief note. As our first day of kayitz 2011 comes to an end, I am sitting here in the office with a large smile on my face. Over 50 campers arrived this afternoon. Once at the Ramah in the Rockies ranch, our campers participated in typical first day activities including medical checks, camp tours and ice breakers. This evening we had a camp wide opening camp fire which featured skits by members of the various tents. We ended the evening by making smores.
Tomorrow morning, we are waking up at 6:00am for teffilot (prayers) followed by shmirat hagoof (physical exercise). After breakfast we begin regular programming.
While our campers arrived only hours ago, our staff has been here for over a week preparing for the summer. If it were not close to midnight, I would write much more about our staff (and certainly hope to do so at a future point), but suffice it to say that this group of 20 and 30 something’s is one of the most incredible camp staffs I have ever seen assembled in one place. To begin with, they are enormously qualified: our head climber has been a professional mountain guide for close to 10 years leading trips in Israel, Jordan and Europe; our archery instructor placed 9th in the NCAA and 23rd in the US Olympic trials; our head equestrian has been working in summer camps for close to 20 years and is assisted by a young woman studying to be a equine vet. In addition to their resumes, our staff have exhibited an amazing amount of passion: our song sessions usually turn into spontaneous dance parties; our teffilot (prayers) have been moving and inspirational; and our staff constantly return to our core values when planning the programming for the chalutzim (campers). Time and again, this past week, I have taken a step back and watched our staff step up and take on new leadership roles. I know that our success this summer will be because of the energy they will put into making sure that every chalutz/a who comes through our doors has the most incredible few weeks of their lives.
By the morning, we hope that our pictures will have finished uploading. Please remember that you can access our photos online through the link sent to all our families last week. If you are not a camper family, please email info[at]ramahout.s466.sureserver.com and we will send you the link (due to privacy issues we are not posting it on this blog).
Please know that during the summer we are available to speak by phone at 303 261 8214. However, since we check email far more regularly than our voicemail messages, if you need a quick answer, please email us directly.
Shavuot is typically called the “Dairy Holiday” as there is a custom not to eat meat on the chag. And as we prepare for Shavuot we have also been preparing for a major dairy influx at camp.
Throughout the off season we have been reaching out to local food producers and asking them to support our program through discounted pricing or outright donations. Recently, we received a commitment for a large donation of dairy to our food program. Aurora Organic Dairy, a local Colorado milk producer, has offered us a pallet of fresh organic milk. This dairy provides private label milk for companies all over Colorado. They typically do not work with individual organizations like Ramah, as they mainly sell milk by the pallet. Yet Aurora Organic Dairy agreed to make this donation on one condition: we must pick up a full pallet of milk — 480 half gallon containers — at one time!
I wanted to repost an article written by Rabbi Comins for EJewish Philanthropy on the power of using nature in teach spirituality.
If you have a moment, click here
I’ve been working at camps for a long time. At camp, everyone on staff is a role player; camps sometimes feel like giant machines where individual staff members are important cogs and gears powering an amazing summer experience. Camps can be exciting, hectic places and sometimes it is easy for us to get so engrossed in our own tasks and responsibilities that we are blind to the work that others are doing to make the camp machine run. Sometimes camp communities find themselves in struggling situations; where campers only care about being campers, counselors only care about being counselors and administrators only care about being administrators.
This picture of a camp is NOT Ramah Outdoor Adventure. We are one of the few camps where the camp director, in addition to all the responsibilities of running a camp, makes sure he takes time every day to teach an elective with campers and takes a few shifts a week washing dirty dishes in the kitchen. We are one of the only camps where the head chef comes out to get to know campers every day and is just as much a role model for some campers as their own bunk counselors.
I saw the goodwill and awareness of others that pervades our camp during the summer exemplified even before the camp season started — just this past Sunday at a volunteer work day up at our ranch. The day brought volunteers from across the spectrum of age and affiliation with camp. Many volunteers helped raise tents they will never sleep in, and worked in gardens from which they won’t ever taste the produce.
I found myself working in one of these garden beds with two seventh graders. While I am the one who is the camp professional, paid to make people comfortable at camp, these seventh graders spent their time in the garden asking me how my transition to living in Colorado was going, if I was excited or nervous for the summer, and assuring me the garden looked great and that the summer was going to be a great success.
As the summer approaches, I am very proud of this camp for its distinctive programming, fantastic location and exciting excursions, but I am most proud of our unique, sensitive community and I can’t wait to be a witness and participant this summer to the goodwill and magic that occurs within the community that is Ramah Outdoor Adventure.
This was posted on our monthly Constant Contact before Passover: I wanted to share it with the readers of our blog, should people have missed it in the pre-pesach mailing.
On Pesach, as we drink 4 cups of wine, raise 3 matzot and sing about 13 attributes of God in “Who Knows One”, we share a few key numbers of our own…
500 Loaves of organic bread we plan to order from a local bakery
250 Pounds of organic granola we plan to order from a local supplier
240 Gallons of milk we anticipate using this summer
187 Campers currently registered for the 2011 summer season
106 Campers coming to Ramah Outdoor Adventure in 2011 for the first time
41 Campers from Camp Ramah in the Poconos spending a week at the Ramah in theRockies ranch this summer
30 Program staff members who are working in camp this year
24 Campers we are hoping to enroll before opening day
23 States from which campers are coming
14 Horses coming to “work” at camp this summer
13 Camper bunks we will have at camp this summer for session II
12 Hens who will be laying eggs at camp this summer
2 Goats coming to camp this summer (on loan from a local goat farm)
1 Registered camper coming from the state of Wyoming
Hi Ramah Outdoor community!
My name is Dan Carmeli, and for the last two years I have served as the Ramah Outdoors webmaster. I spend most of my time as a second-year law student, and I am very passionate about sustainability, local food systems, and the environment in general. I have enjoyed following and contributing to camp’s development. After spending much time behind the scenes, I write to you today to address a recent issue that compels us to reflect upon our camp’s values and how they apply to our very own website!
As many of you may have learned in the news, GoDaddy.com’s CEO, Bob Parsons, recently posted a video of himself shooting and killing an elephant in Zimbabwe. According to Parsons, the elephants there often trample crops, resulting in significant hardship for the local farmers. He has steadfastly defended and praised his behavior, stating that, “of everything I do this is the most rewarding.” Environmental and animal rights groups, on the other hand, have decried his actions as inhumane. They argue that, whatever the extent of the inconvenience the elephants cause the local residents, other solutions undoubtedly exist.
The Ramah Outdoors website is hosted by GoDaddy.com.
Yesterday we asked you whether you believe Ramah Outdoors should disassociate itself from GoDaddy.com and find a new web hosting service. To facilitate the discussion, I share some of my thoughts, pose some deeper questions, and challenge you to explore the intricacies of this issue.
First, on a personal level, what specific aspect of Parsons’ actions disturbs us? Let’s first consider the incident itself.
- Is it the fact that it was an elephant? Would we have been less offended if he had killed a horse? What about chicken or, even, a mosquito? Why should we care more because it was an elephant? Is it because they are exotic? Because they excite our imagination? Because we do not eat them?
- What makes one pest different from another? What is the difference between eliminating the insects that eat your crops and killing the elephants that trample them? What about the formerly common American practice of shooting wolves to protect livestock?
- Should we consider cultural differences? In India, elephants are sacred animals. In Southeast Asia, elephants are domesticated to do agricultural labor. In the U.S. they entertain (some would say are enslaved) in circuses. In Zimbabwe, they are wild, seemingly, causing problems for local residents.
- Have we been disproportionately sensitized? Elephants, especially African ones, have received considerable attention over the last few decades pursuant to international campaigns to end poaching and avoid extinction. What if there had been no such campaigns or if elephants were not endangered?
As members of the Ramah Outdoors community, we approach the issue through a different lens. We share the value of leaving no trace. We recognize that each creature is one of God’s creatures. We understand our roles as stewards of the environment. We look at the world with wonder and radical amazement. We find ways to harmonize our existence with the rest of the world, rather than exert our dominance. So no matter how you slice it, killing that elephant runs counter to our entire value system.
So, we don’t agree with Parsons’ action, but why should we care? This leads us to consider Parsons’ second act: posting the video online.
Had Parsons merely gone to Africa, shot an elephant, and returned to the U.S., we likely wouldn’t be having this discussion. Under such circumstances, Parsons’ actions would have had no connection to us. He would have been acting as a private citizen on his own personal time. However, posing with local residents with their new “GoDaddy.com” caps and uploading the video for the world to see, Parsons acted not only on his own behalf, but on the behalf of his company. And as patrons of GoDaddy.com, our implicit endorsement extends to Parsons’ acts as well.
But what difference does it make? Had we not reached out to you, you would have never known that our website is hosted by GoDaddy.com and you would have never known whether we remained with GoDaddy.com or switched to another hosting service. And even if you know, most people in the world (including Parsons) will never know. Essentially, would this even have been an issue had we not made it an issue?
We have here an interesting dichotomy: Parsons’ actions, which were made known to the world, and our actions, which will be known to practically no one. It is human nature to feel responsible and to be held accountable for actions that others know about. How many of us keep our homes messy, only to clean it when we know company is coming over? After all, why bother if nobody is watching?
As members of the Ramah Outdoors community, we know otherwise. Leaving a place worse off than the way we found it is wrong regardless of whether anyone else will be using that place. There is an inherent and holy value of living virtuously. The undisclosed donor is just as praiseworthy, if not more, than a disclosed donor. Similarly, the anonymous sinner acts just as reprehensively as the known sinner. Ultimately, the distinction between known and unknown is entirely a fiction. We are all interconnected; we all rely on the same resources; we are all responsible for one another; we are all accountable to the same higher source.
True values are what we do when no one is watching. Our actions as a community, both public and private, matter. Please visit our facebook page and share your thoughts so that our actions may speak for all of us.
Part I: Maintaining a positive community
How do we maintain a close‑knit camp community where we all know each other but where there are no cliques, even as we grow enrollment by 75% in one year? This is an issue we are dealing with in the off‑season as we gear up for our second summer with chalutzim (pioneers/campers) at Ramah Outdoor Adventure and our inaugural summer for the Jewish Outdoor Leadership Institute.
BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE SUMMER CAMP
TAMRA L. DOLLIN
PROJECT DIRECTOR, RAMAH IN THE ROCKIES
MARCH, 2011
TAMRA L. DOLLIN
PROJECT DIRECTOR, RAMAH IN THE ROCKIES
MARCH, 2011
Ever wonder what it takes to build a ‘green’ camp from the ground up? What does it mean to build in an environmentally sustainable way? How do you minimize your impact on the land while building a facility to comfortably house hundreds of campers and staff every year? In what way can the physical buildings reinforce the educational values being practiced at camp?
Post by program director, Dan Buonaiuto.
According to the wisdom of the Jewish mystics, there are two kinds of miracles: Nisin Ila’in, higher miracles, are distinctly extraordinary and completely defy all understandings of the way the world works. An example of this would be something along the lines of the splitting of the Red Sea or the Revelation at Mt Sinai. These events were so astonishing that it is impossible to deny their miraculous nature. These miracles are rare, but when they occur their impact is immeasurable.
The other kind of miracles, the Nisin Tata’in, lower miracles, are veiled in our everyday living as seemingly natural phenomena, so much so they we may not even recognize them as miraculous. Lower miracles are happening all the time; the birth of a child, the snow melting on the first warm spring day after a long, frigid winter, a loving interaction between friends of family, or even waking up energized each morning after a night of sleep. Most of the time, we come to expect these events as just another part of life, and lose sight of their miraculous nature.
The Baal Shem Tov, a 15th century mystic and founder of the Hasidic movement, shared a parable on this matter: If we were to walk in the woods and a spring appeared just as we became thirsty, we would call this a miracle. And if on a second walk we became thirsty at just that point, and again the spring appeared, we would remark on the coincidence. But if the spring were there always, we would take it for granted and cease to notice it. Yet is this not more miraculous still?
It is so easy to get caught up in flow of our daily lives that we lose sight of how precious and miraculous each moment truly is. In my own life, I find this awareness to be a constant struggle, a consciousness I am always forgetting.
But for me, camp is the place where these “lower miracles” are by far the most accessible. There is something about life in camp that brings these hidden miracles to the surface, making them real and powerful for individuals as well as the whole community.
Maybe, it is simply the fact that we know that there is an end date to the session that makes us take the time to notice the beauty of each moment. Maybe, it’s the bonds we make with our bunkmates, friends and counselors and the inspiration we constantly draw from them that creates an atmosphere of love and appreciation that is almost tangible. Perhaps, it is living integrated in nature, and becoming connected to the subtle energies and rhythms of the environment around us or the mental and physical challenges and rewards we experience in a camp setting that bring these miracles to light.
As I begin to feel the long, grey winter wearing me down and convincing me that life is all drudgery, I have flashes where I think about the upcoming summer and something will change within me. Not only will I feel excitement for the countless miracles we will all share together this summer at the ranch, but these moments also cause me to turn my head and look out the window — to notice the miracle of the small sparrow outside gathering materials to build its nest, or the miracle that the ingredients I just combined in a bowl, stirred and put in the oven turned into a delicious challah!
I don’t know exactly what it is about camp that brings out an awareness of so many miracles, I am sure it is different for each person. It cannot be studied or proven. I see no straightforward scientific law or philosophical theory that could identify how camp triggers this awareness of miracles, but I know that it is true. Camp is not a place where there are more miracles than at home; it is simply a place that allows us to see the countless miracles that are happening to us all the time.
“So what do you do the rest of the year?” This is the question I am most often asked when I tell people that I am a Rabbi/educator who works as a camp director. In most people’s eyes, camp is an eight week job. For the other 10 months, I think that they imagine year round camp staffget to kick back by the pool for hours every day.
This was printed last week in the ejewishphilanthropy.com newsletter. In case you missed it, I am reprinting it here:
by Rabbi Eliav Bock
Last year, while recruiting our first cohort of campers to the county’s only Kosher outdoor adventure camp, Ramah Outdoor Adventure, someone forwarded me a funny video titled Jews Don’t Camp (see above). While clearly intended as some light humor, there is an element of truth in this video. American Jews, as a whole, are not known for their rustic “outdoors-y” nature. Although we are a people whose ancient texts and traditions emerged from an agrarian society, most American Jews live in urban settings with minimal daily contact with the broader natural world. And worse, perhaps, is the fact that our children are constantly connected to technology. What parent among us does not regret that?
The holiday of Tu B’Shvat is intended to make us stop and consider our relationship to the earth. At a Tu B’shvat seder, we sit with friends, sing songs about nature, eat special fruits that represent an element within nature, drink hues of wine that represents the changing seasons and discuss how we can protect our natural environment. In recent years, with the rising awareness of humanity’s deleterious impact on the natural world, Tu B’shvat sedarim seem to be ever more popular.
And while celebrating this holiday is a good start, as a camp director, I know that we can take the lessons of Tu B’shvat and apply them to our summer camp lives. At Ramah Outdoor Adventure, we have created a program with the specific goal of reconnecting our youth with the natural world around them. We have made environmental living an integral part of the summer program. From waking up with the sun, to living in a technology free zone with limited electricity, to eating sustainable food at meals, our goal at camp is to spend a few weeks living intentionally in the natural world.
Our program seeks to engage campers in environmental programming. This might be an exploration through the surrounding forest to search for mushrooms or a specific type of tree. It might be a discussion about our own carbon footprint each time we fly to camp or drive three hours to go on a four day hike. But other times our environmental education is embedded within the broader camp program. For example, by spending extended time camping in the backcountry, our campers are able to gain a deeper appreciation about how to use nature for their own good while also leaving it undisturbed for other humans and animals to enjoy. Similarly, by adjusting our internal clocks to wake up at sunrise and go to sleep when dark, campers not only gain an appreciation for living according to the natural rhythms of the day, but they also see that one can survive in a world without electricity.
Throughout, we never lose sight of the fact that Jewish camp works as an educational enterprise because it creates a model community disconnected from the “real world.” Educators have been using camp to impart the importance of living in a deeply connected Jewish community for over 100 years. Because of this, countless campers have spent ten months of the year yearning to return to their camp community. As research now shows, immersive Jewish experiences at camp are a good predictor for life-long engagement in Jewish life. Ramah has long recognized the fact that in every activity and circumstance – and now in the daily routine of Ramah’s first specialty camp – the emphasis on Jewish life and learning remains a critical ingredient. Our environmental learning and outdoor experiences would not be nearly as impactful without grounding in Jewish text learning and the context of Jewish tradition and ritual.
At Ramah Outdoor Adventure, we build upon the success of Jewish camping by creating an immersive Jewish community with an additional layer which makes us unique in the North American Jewish camping world. We have created a program that places equal emphasis on how our community relates to the natural world around us. This means we engage our campers in the choices of food we eat; we spend days at a time sleeping on the ground in tents and under tarps; we walk around at night guided only by moonlight; and we perform weekly service projects to beautify our ranch and to take care of the natural landscape around us. In addition to having our own working garden on the ranch, we contract with a local organic farm to source much of our food. Our older campers have a chance to spend five days living with the farmers and cultivating the land, and return to camp with boxes of fresh produce for us to eat the following week.
We do not want camp’s lessons to remain behind in the Rocky Mountains when campers go home. Rather, we want our campers to return to their regular lives not only with a deeper sense of their own Jewish identity but also with a deeper commitment to protecting and preserving the natural world around us. By marking Tu B’shvat within their home communities, they and we are reminded, as winter wanes, of the imperative to engage more deeply with the natural world and live Jewish lives imbued with wonder at the beauty, bounty, and fragility of the natural world.
Rabbi Eliav Bock is the Director of Ramah Outdoor Adventure
What do a Kosher, free- range chicken distributor, a pulpit rabbi from LA who composts and the program director of Ramah Outdoor Adventure have in common? Well for one thing, they all recently had the opportunity to attend the 2010 Hazon Food Conference in Petaluma, California. This conference brings together some of the most innovative and progressive thinkers in the world of Jewish environmentalism for four days of learning and discussion. Yes, the program director mentioned above is me, and I have been sitting in front of this computer for weeks since the conference trying to figure out what I want to say regarding my experience.
The first entry I wrote but never posted praised the energy and inspiration of all the participants, but I felt that it didn’t do justice to the amazing projects all around the country in which people are engaged.
So the second entry I wrote but never posted was about how impressed I was with people who are turning their fantastic ideas in realities. There are some really amazing projects out there that are being actualized this moment. Kosher, free range meat, a heksher that certifies the ethical standards of food products in addition to the halachic kashrut, the building of a Jewish land based community outside of Baltimore to name a few. But this entry didn’t express how impressed I also was with the many people who are not in a place to devote their lives and careers to environmental Judaism, but attended the conference just out of person interest and passion.
Feeling defeated, I tried to change my attitude and my third blog attempt was a critique of the scholarship behind environmental Judaism. I wrote that we rely so heavily on a small group of texts to support what we consider to be a revolutionary movement. I cynically pointed out that every class, lecture or conference on Jewish environmental topics explores the same texts as the previous one as if they had discovered something totally radical. But thinking about it, I realized I wasn’t being fair. While I do feel there is a need for an intermediate track of Jewish learning around environmentalism, the fact is, I have learned so much about this different face of Judaism I never experienced in my childhood education, and even though the texts express the same words each time I see them, the meaning I gain from them is always different, and isn’t that one of the truly amazing aspects of Jewish learning?
So where does that leave me? Three failed blog entries later, I was back where I started, so I turned to the wisdom of our Tradition to guide me. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, an 18th century mystic, describes three stages of spiritual growth: the mountain, the field and the city. The mountain is a place that is wild and unpredictable; there we might face adversity at any moment. The field is our attempt to make sense of this chaos, where we can feel the influence of our own order while still being at the mercy of the variances of nature. The city is the place we can dwell most comfortably, where we have the most control of ourselves and our surroundings. Rebbe Nachman teaches it is our spiritual mission to leave behind the mountain and move to the city. My understanding of this teaching is not that we are somehow supposed to leave the uncertainty of mountain; life is wild and unpredictable and there is little we can do to change that. But rather, we must equip ourselves with the tools and consciousness to live comfortably in this unpredictable and challenging reality. We must make the mountain feel like a city.
And that, my friends, is what I think people in the Jewish environmental movement are doing. We are learning and teaching the skills that make us feel more comfortable and excited in our own tradition, more at ease as ethically conscious beings, and more competent in providing for ourselves and living as a truly integrated piece of the amazing natural world that G-d created. That is the common thread, and whether we are doing through a kitchen compost bucket, an educational institution, or a green business, intellectually, physically, or spiritually, we are all doing our part to build our home on the mountain.
As my thoughts turn toward camp this summer, I think of some of the mountains we will face. Maybe it is coming to camp for the first time, or practicing skills outside of our comfort zone. It may be experiencing things that frighten us, or simply creating a recycling program at a location that is 10 miles down a mountainous, dirt road. Perhaps it’s creating a community at camp that exemplifies our ideals, or even figuring out what those ideals are. These mountains are daunting, but if there is one thing in which I am confident after seeing the drive and inspiration of our 2010 chalutzim and staff, as well as experiencing the competence and passion in those involved in the Jewish environmental world, the mountains that may daunt us now will quickly become a place where we feel at home. To me, this is a pretty strong metaphor for a camp that makes its physical home high in the mountains.
One of the goals of our program at Ramah Outdoor Adventure is to serve sustainable food. This means we take into account how our food affects: our health, our environment and our financial bottom line. One of the areas on which we are working during the off season and are committed to improving in the summer of 2011 is making our food decisions more transparent to our chalutzim (campers). We have already hired returning counselor Yael Greenberg as our food counselor for the summer. In addition to being a counselor, Yael’s specialty area this summer will be working to include food education throughout of program.
Yael has begun keeping a blog documenting her experiences. Currently she is trying to find a place to buy “fair trade” bananas. Below is copy of her first post. If you would like to follow her on this journey to buy fair trade bananas , please do so on her blog: http://letmyveggiesgrow.wordpress.com/
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First, a short disclaimer: These first few posts are going to be a little bit disingenuous because I’m going to go day-by-day, but in fact the story started Sunday and it’s now Tuesday. But trust me, a recap up until this point would be no fun at all and would miss most of the point.
So what’s going on here? What is this all about? How did it start?
It started with a phone call mid-morning on Sunday, December 26. Before hitting the after-Christmas sales downtown, I had a conversation with the director of Ramah Outdoor Adventure, where I will be returning to work this summer as the food educator. Since this is a relatively new camp and there has never been a food educator before, I am designing the position and the food education curriculum pretty much from scratch. I’m going to draw a lot on existing material, but I really need to figure out what it is that I want to impart to the campers and how to go about doing that. Before this point I had already decided that my position as food educator should entitle me to at least some say over what gets ordered for the kitchen, so I had tried to get in touch with a company that does fair trade stuff to see what it would look like to order chocolate. Their email address doesn’t work and their offices are closed for the holiday, so that project is tabled for the time being. But after I got off the phone with the director I got to thinking, and one thing led to another and I decided that there should be fair trade bananas at camp this summer. See here for an explanation of why fair trade and why specifically bananas.
My explorations thus far have been guided by a series of questions, the first being Where does one buy fair trade bananas? I know where to get them for breakfast, but I don’t know where to buy them in Colorado, and I certainly don’t know how to get them delivered to the doorstep of a ranch somewhere in the middle of nowhere. So I went on the TransFairUSA website and got a listing of where to buy fair trade-certified goods in the state of Colorado. I got a list of 119 results, 38 of which indicated that they sold fair trade produce. The phone calls began.
My first four calls were to Sam’s Clubs, none of which carried them. Most of the people I spoke to had no idea what I was talking about (they thought Fair Trade was a brand), but the conversation was interesting, if unhelpful. The guy at Sam’s Club in Arvada told me that they used to carry them, but they weren’t doing as well as conventional bananas. People just didn’t want to pay the extra fifty cents for the fair trade, so they went back to selling just Dole. My next call was to Vitamin Cottage in Lafayette who told me that they do sometimes carry fair trade bananas, but that no, they don’t deliver, and I would have to call back the following day to speak to a manager for more information. I had similar results at two Whole Foods branches (Whole Foods also does not deliver), but from those phone calls I learned to ask for the produce manager in future conversations. Not only does that streamline things, but when you ask to speak with a manager–especially one in a specific department–you sound really impressive and like you’re someone who knows exactly what she wants. Which I guess I am. Anyhow, the most interesting call of the day was to Holly at Love Your Mother, LLC. Holly runs a small produce business, and she told me that unfortunately she does not sell fair trade bananas because she has been unable to get them cleared for importation, mostly, it seems, because of the minuscule size of her business. Despite her inability to sell me bananas, Holly told me she would do a bit of research for me and get back to me.
By the end of Sunday the fire was really lit under my rear. I stopped making phone calls because somehow it got to be 8:30 PM ET, so I was getting Sam’s Club security instead of the actual store. Seemed like time to close up shop for the day. But by this time I had a new mission. Forget actually getting my hands on fair trade bananas for camp. I mean, that’s still the ideal, but I had just begun to unearth a rich, deep mine of teachable moments. My new goal was slightly different. In my own words (excerpt from an email I sent to the camp director at 11 PM Sunday):
I’m not asking you (yet) if we can have them; right now I’m a lot more interested in the process than the outcome. What’s exciting for me is trying to get fair trade bananas at camp. It’s fascinating. I might not even get to the point where I can ask if they are a financial possibility because there may be limiting factors way farther back in the system than camp director that prevent Ramah Outdoor Adventure from having ethically-produced bananas. Just think, if it’s this difficult for an organization that’s committed to sustainability to get them, and it’s requiring the legwork of an individually motivated person, how ENORMOUS must the conventional banana industry be, and how huge the hurdles must be to do this elsewhere? What I really want is for the campers to have an insight into this whole thing. If we end up having fair trade bananas I want campers to know how they get to camp, and if we don’t, I want them to know why not.
And there was night, and there was dawn; Day 1.
The oil in the Menorah was supposed to last for one day, but it lasted for eight. Our registration goal was to be 20% full by Chanukah and we are closing in 45% of capacity! Is it a miracle? I prefer to think about it as testament to the incredible job that our staff and campers did in helping us initiate the camp in 2010.
Kislev was an excellent month to work in the Ramah Outdoor Adventure office. Each day we registered chalutzim for 2011 and we continued hiring our 2011 staff. At this point, almost half of our 2010 staff has committed to return for another summer. Our registered 2011 chalutzim include a mix of both new and returning campers. This means that while there will be some wonderful reunions on the first day of each session, all the chalutzim who come to camp in 2011, will make new friends as we renew our community at our rustic Ramah in the Rockies ranch.
While summer is still seven months away, we are starting to count down the days. We expect some of our tents to begin fillings by the end of December when the early bird discount ends. We will try to add capacity in the more popular edot, but will wait until the end of January to make these decisions.
Thanks for Eytan Deener-Agus (2010 session I) and Mikaela Kaiser (2010 Session II) for their submissions to our story contest. While neither won the grand prize, both wrote terrific stories that are reprinted below.
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We asked our chalutzim to write a short story about a moment they had at camp this summer. Over the next few weeks we will be posting all these stories on this blog. In the meantime, here are the two that won our contest. Each of these campers will have the opportunity to tell their story at our gala event in Denver on December 12th.
Two important announcements:
#1 Please remember that on November 15th anyone who has already registered for Ramah Outdoor Adventure in 2011 will be entered into a drawing to receive a free embroidered fleece jacket/pullover. The drawing will be in the afternoon and only registered chalutzim are eligible.
#2 We are pleased to announce a brand new 11th grade leadership training program: Click below for more details. . .
Recruiting season & camp planning has shifted into high gear. All of our 2010 chalutzim (lit. pioneers, campers) should have received their thank you gift for being part of our opening summer. We’ve heard that many chalutzim wear their new orange sweatshirts all the time.
By November 1st, we have enrolled over 40% of the total number of chalutzim who joined us in 2010.
In the spring of 2010, I wrote a blog post about the food at Ramah Outdoor Adventure. In that post I laid out our goals for the summer as it related to the food we would be eating at Ramah Outdoor Adventure and the programs we hoped to run that related to food at camp. When writing that post, our culinary program was but a dream, having not yet welcomed our first campers to our rustic base camp.
Over the past few weeks we had a chance to take a step back and evaluate the food program in the broader context of the mission of our camp.
Here are some of the important lessons that we have learned:
