Posts

The summer of organic milk

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!

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How do we maintain a “cliqueless” camp?

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.

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Building a sustainable site

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE SUMMER CAMP
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?

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Year Round Work at a Summer Camp Office

“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.

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Last month for earlybird discounts and edot winners

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.

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Two more terrific camp stories

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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