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This past sunday we marked 100 Days until camp- so we thought this would be a good time to start introducing you to our 2015 Summer Staff!

PicMonkey Collage

 

From left to right: Ben Winter, Leora Perkins, Rafi Daugherty, and Moshe “Mushon” Samuels

Hey, I’m Ben, and I’ll be your program director this summer. I’m looking forward to a great summer full of ruach and fun! I’m super excited to be joining the Camp Ramah family. Although I’m new, I’ve only heard awesome things about the camp and am confident we’ll have a fantastic time together. I can’t wait to meet all of you in 100 short days!

Hey, I am Leora Perkins, a first-year rabbinical student from JTS. I am super excited to be at camp this summer as Rosh Chugim [Head of Base Camp Activities]. I love hiking,  swimming, cooking tasty vegetarian food– and recently started getting into gardening.

My name is Rafi. This year, i’m the Director of Camper Care. I’m really looking forward to seeing all of the chalutzim [campers] and their smiling faces at camp!

Hi I’m Mushon and I’m thrilled to be returning to Etgar b’Ramah as Rosh Chinuch [Director of Education]. My favorite thing about camp is Shabbat- I love the ruach [energy] and singing at Kabbalat Shabbat [Friday night services] at the Pardes Tefilah [outdoor sanctuary], the sense of kehilah [community] at the K’far [tent area], and of course the delicious Friday night dinner at the ohel ochel [dining tent]. Can’t wait to celebrate Shabbat with all of you in 100 days!

Dear 2014 Parents and Chalutzim,

In a few hours we will welcome Shabbat for the first time this summer at Ramah in the Rockies. While our chalutzim  [campers] do not arrive for a few more weeks, the first group of tzevet [staff] arrived this past Sunday to begin summer preparations. Many of the tzevet are here for an intensive Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course. This course, administered by an outside mountaineering school, is designed to help prepare our tzevet to lead masa’ot [backcountry trips].

While we are here for WFR and to prepare the Ranch for the summer, the past 48 hours have truly been a gift. In the middle of the week, we collectively took a break to celebrate Shavuot. This is the holiday where we celebrate the Israelites receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, and also where the Israelites used to bring the first fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem.

As is the tradition on Shavuot, we had an “all-night” learning session, as well as other studying opportunities throughout the holiday. Various members of our year-round and summer teams led the sessions. Topics included Musar, how we relate to our Jewish identity, priorities in giving tzedakah, and perspectives on the revelation events described in Exodus 19. These sessions reflected our value of creating opportunities for continued growth for all of tzevet and chalutzim.

On the morning of Shavuot, we tried something new in a true Ramah in the Rockies style. We hiked up to Givat Ilanot [a hill at the ranch] with a Torah. There, atop the mountain, overlooking the valley that houses our camp, we davened [prayed] the morning service and read from the Torah. While the Israelites might have gathered at Mount Sinai to hear the Ten Commandments for the first time, we gathered atop our own mountain to hear the reading of the Ten Commandments a few thousand years later! What a powerful experience to share this holiday with staff of such a variety of backgrounds coming together in nature!

Several different tzevet members took turns leading, teaching, and explaining the service throughout our Shavuot davening. The meals, which included our own famous homemade vegan challah, were served throughout the holiday. What a delicious way to be welcomed back to the Ranch!

While Shavuot is a one of the three pilgrimage festivals featuring extra readings and prayers, we also shared lots of downtime together. Because one can transfer fire on Shavuot (unlike Shabbat), on the second night of the chag, we lit a medura [bonfire], sang songs, made smores, and hung out savoring the mountain air. During the afternoons, our tzevet enjoyed games of basketball and hikes to Prospector Mountain.

When we gather tonight in the Pardes Tefillah, this time dressed in white for Shabbat, we will be finishing our first terrific week at camp, and thinking about to the next few Shabbatot. Next week we are joined by Hanhallah [senior staff], the following week all of our tzevet, and finally, in three weeks, our chalutzim.

We look forward to seeing many of our local chalutzim, families, and supporters this Sunday for our Volunteer Day and wish you all a Shabbat Shalom!

 

Last week a study on the field of Jewish Outdoor and Environmental Education (JOFEE) was published by Hazon.  Ramah Outdoor Adventure at Ramah in the Rockies is one of the few groups engaged in this field that is based West of the Mississippi.  We are proud to be leading the way in helping youth link their Jewish identity with the natural world around them and glad to be having an impact on Jewish youth who join our community from around the country.

Here is a link to an oped written by Rabbi Eliav for The Jewish Week about the JOFEE study and Ramah’s role in the broader field.

http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/environmental-learning-why-liberal-rabbi-hopeful

For the past few years, we have had  a number of former chalutzim who have written about their time at Ramah Outdoor Adventure as part of their college admissions essays.  Over the next few weeks we will feature a few of these from our former chalutzim (and hopefully future tzevet members).  If you want your essay to be featured email us at info@ramahotudoors.org.  This weeks essay was written by Simon Lowen (JOLI 2012):

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The morning peeks over the mountains, and the whole camp comes alive. We wake up, yawn, and smile with the knowledge that another phenomenal day charged with learning and adventure awaits us. We are at Ramah in the Rockies, a Jewish outdoor adventure camp, in which campers learn the value of nature, leadership, community, and more. This is my favorite place on earth, and I could live here forever; I love nature, adventure, and environmental sustainability, which are all huge parts of camp, and my personality meshes perfectly with this truly special environment.

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In a few short months, we will open our fourth summer at Ramah Outdoor Adventure.  And if this summer is anything like the first three, the key to our success will once again be the incredible group of passionate, dedicated and inspirational staff who come to the Ramah Ranch each summer to implement our innovative outdoor adventure program.

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Last Sunday night, 220 people gathered in Denver to honor Don Skupsky and to celebrate our Camp Ramah.

Here are the brief thoughts I shared with everyone that evening.  Also, if you have not yet seen it, check out our new fundraising video here.

The question is, what do the following people have in common?

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We just added a new page to our website called BEING GREEN.  We were inspired to create this page after a conversation with Sybil Sanchez, Director of  COEJL.  She was musing  about the need for every Jewish organization to have a link on their website about ways in which they  are taking the enviroment into account in their programs.  We will continue to update this page in much greater detail over the coming months and years, but wanted to start somewhere.  To check out the new page, click here:  To read the content, without the fancy videos and pictures, scroll down:

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One of the stated goals of Ramah Outdoor Adventure is to be a “green camp”.  Over the years, I have blogged about some of our greening initiatives, from reducing paper use in our year-round office to serving organic milk in the dining hall.  We have recently added a section to our website that we will be populating in the coming weeks about these green initiatives and we will continue to update this page as we develop new ways to reduce our carbon footprint and create systems that reduce our impact on the natural environment. Read more

In November of 2008, the Jim Joseph Foundation (JJF) and the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) made a big bet.  They awarded the National Ramah Commission (NRC) $1.1 million to create the first outdoor specialty camp in the country with an intensive Jewish focus.  Jewish children had been going in droves to numerous secular specialty camps. The JJF, FJC & NRC bet that if a Jewish camp could offer a high level of programming infused with Jewish texts, values and traditions and employ passionate young educators to serve as role models to the campers, then a Jewish Outdoor Adventure camp would not only survive, but actually thrive.  And thus Ramah Outdoor Adventure was born.

Four years ago, I sat in our first incubator camp session along with directors of four other Jewish specialty camps dreaming of what our camp would look like.  Based on the model of a business incubator, where businesses share resources and knowledge early on to create a new business, the FJC organized a four year program to help five new specialty camps come to market.  In that first meeting, the professionals running the camp incubator spoke to us about creating a 501(c)3, articulating a mission and list of values and conducting a SWOT analysis to figure out how we could compete in a crowded marketplace with 190+ other Jewish camps and hundreds of other excellent private camps.  Over the ensuing four years, we have continued to gather as a cohort in our incubator sessions five times per year.  We have moved from talking about camp as a theoretical idea to serving hundreds of young campers and staff each season.  We have moved from talking about our “theory of social change” to implementing programs where we are actually changing children’s lives.  We have moved from a group of 20 & 30 somethings with an idea about what an ideal camp could look like to a community with campers age 8-18, over 200 college/ graduate school age staff members and countless enthusiastic fans from parents to teachers to other camp professionals who are copying aspects of our program.

Last week in New York, the directors of all five incubator camps gathered for our final official incubator meeting to celebrate our collective success and welcome the directors of four new specialty camps who are setting out on their own journey to make their own camp dreams a reality.  Standing in the room with the other directors, the heads of our respective agencies and many members of the FJC team who have helped bring us to this point, I could not help but feel a sense of collective pride in the thousands of Jewish children who have attended our five camps, many of whom would not have gone to a Jewish camp without the introduction of these incubator camps to the broader Jewish Camp marketplace.

And as I sit here, four years later, I think the three most important lessons I have learned are as follows:

  1. Always stay true to your mission and values, even if it means losing some sales.  In the long term the dedication to our core values are what has made Ramah Outdoor Adventure such a special place and continues to guide each of our decisions about how we continue to improve our program.
  2. Hiring passionate, dedicated staff members who come to camp because of their love for the outdoors and their desire to advance our mission ensures the success of the program each summer.  Our facility is one of the most rustic in the Jewish camping world and few children come to camp for our basketball but I have no doubt that our staff is among the absolute top in the entire camping industry.
  3. Many children want to be challenged, physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Ramah Outdoor Adventure is a place with a clear “aspirational arc” in each of our program areas.  At each stage of the program, campers are able to aspire to a new level.  Whether this is in the teffilah program where we offer different prayer options to different age groups, or the archery range, where we have a traditional range with round targets and a 3D range for more advanced shooters, or our masa program where younger campers go for day trips and short overnights and our older campers head out for 4-6 days on the trail, at each stage we celebrate where a camper is, and show him/her where s/he can continue going.

With days left in our super-early bird registration, we have more campers registered for camp today than at this point in any previous year.  In fact, we have more campers enrolled today than who came to camp in our opening summer only three years ago.  It truly has been a fantastic ride, and I know that we are only at the beginning of ensuring that Ramah Outdoor Adventure continues to be a place where Jewish children come to spend their summers for years to come!

At the beginning of each camp season, a herd of horses and a number of farm animals are delivered to our ranch for us to use in our camp program.  For nine weeks, our tzevet (staff) and chalutzim (campers) care for these animals as their own pets.  They learn the value of tzar baalei hayim (taking care of animals) as well as the work ethic involved in raising farm animals.

Finding animals for camp is one of the more interesting aspects of my job as director and rabbi of Ramah Outdoor Adventure.  After years of living in Boston, New York, Palo Alto and Jerusalem, my experience with farm animals was very limited before starting this job.  My understanding of how the rental market for horses & chickens in the West works was even more limited.

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Our first full day of camp has drawn to a close.   Chalutzim (pioneers/campers) were rock climbing, painting, playing Frisbee and so much more.  While our oldest chalutzim chose their activities according to their interests, our younger ones went around as an ohel (tent) for most of the day.  From the smiles on their faces, it seems that most of the chalutzim are making an easy transition into our community.  Our meals today were also scrumptious, consisting of yogurt and homemade granola for breakfast, an extensive salad bar (with homegrown lettuce) and enchilada casserole for lunch, and salad and tuna casserole for dinner.   Of course, while we try to serve healthy meals, the culinary highlight of the day was the homemade fudge soynut butter brownies!

Throughout this month, in these shorter blog posts, I hope to feature different programmatic aspects of our camp program.  Tonight’s thoughts are on the newest addition to our camp program: Step Aerobics.  In the fall, one of our returning mishlachat (Israeli embassador) members, Or G, asked whether she could introduce aerobics into the camp program this summer.  Not wanting to every say no to a good idea, I told her that she was welcome to try it.  Or, who is a certified aerobics instructor in Israel, gave a list of items she would need for the program, including steps, small carpets (to pad the floor) and a wall of mirrors.

Being an environmental camp can mean so many things. Certainly it refers to how we live in concert with nature, according to the cycles of the sun.  It also means eating a healthy diet with an awareness of what we are putting into our bodies.  But it also means being mindful in the procurement of materials and often buying used items that would otherwise be thrown away.  Our Step Aerobics program is comprised of 100% recycled materials:  The steps came from a gym in in Denver that was no longer offering aerobics, the mats came from a company called www.recycledfloormats.com, and the mirrors were bought at a foreclosure auction of a nightclub.

For a camp program to be successful, it not only needs an excellent teacher and appropriate materials, but also chalutzim who want to participate.  In the case of step aerobics, its popularity has surpassed our expectations and has become one of the most subscribed offerings at camp for the older chalutzim.  Last session, about 12 chalutzim, males and females, participated in the program.  This session it is closer to 20 chalutzim, and a cadre of staff.  Each comes because of the intense workout, the excellent Israeli music, and the fun nature of the class.

Step

Step

At the moment, step is only being offered to our Bogrim chalutzim (9/10th graders).  The younger chalutzim have an option for gymnastics, and we thought that this would be a suitable substitute.  However, given the popularity of the step program, it is possible that we will revisit this decision for session IIB when all the chugim (classes) will be changing in any case.

The initial success of our step program suggests that while chalutzim choose to come to Ramah in Colorado for the outdoor sports, there is also a desire for regular athletic programs that provide additional physical challenges.  Step aerobics requires a level of stamina similar to mountain biking, but an amount of grace and coordination of dancing.  Seeing as it is only offered during the last perek (period), is a perfect way to end the day at Ramah Outdoor Adventure, and something that will hopefully remain part of our program for years to come.

Note: We were waiting to post this until our session slide show was ready with a hyperlink.  Due to copyright issues, we are not able to post the session slide show on Youtube at the moment.

Tuesday Morning:

Our session I chalutzim have left the chava(ranch).  Our Madrichim are preparing for our session II chalutzim who will be arriving in less than 24 hours.  Beds are being moved, bikes are being fixed and the dining tent is being scrubbed.  And just like that we have drawn the curtain on our largest first session ever at Ramah Outdoor Adventure.

The past four weeks have been a terrific success.  We biked, climbed, visited wolves, witnessed fantastic rainbows, crossed snowy mountain passes and bathed in refreshing Colorado streams.  We laughed and we cried, we hugged and we played.   We shared scrumptious meals in the back country and set Shabbat tables in our new dining tent.  We learned and we taught.  And perhaps most importantly, we all grew spiritually, emotionally and physically through the weeks together at our alpine ranch.  While there is no way to adequately capture a month of excitement in a few words or pictures, given that most parents and supporters of camp never have a chance to experience the Ramah Outdoor Adventure excitement, I will offer a few vignettes on this session.

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Core Values revisited

In the winter of 2008‑2009, a full eighteen months before we were scheduled to welcome our first chalutzim (campers/pioneers) to Ramah Outdoor Adventure, a group of us spent many weeks articulating a set of Jewish core values that we would use as our guiding principles when creating the camp program.  We used Dr. Ismar Schorch’s Sacred Clusters as the basis for our principles, written in 1995 by the then‑Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in an attempt to articulate the principles of Conservative Judaism.  By beginning our planning process around our Jewish values, and not the activities we hoped to offer, we were able to ensure that everything we developed for camp from that point forward would be influenced by these values.  Each year, we begin our staff training with a program articulating our Jewish core values.  Anyone who enters our Chadar Ohel (dining hall) knows that these values are displayed in large print on the walls of the dining hall, as a constant reminder of why we come together each summer as a Kehillah Kedosha (a holy community).

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Today marks our 75 day countdown until we welcome our first Chalutzim (pioneers/campers) to the Ramah Ranch.  In this time of Pesach, when we think about 4 cups of wine, 3 matzot and the numbers in “Who Knows One”, I wanted to reflect on a few of the key numbers we are thinking about as we prepare for our upcoming camp session

300         Gallons of milk we anticipate using this summer—most from a local organic supplier

250         Campers currently registered for the 2012 summer season

140         Campers who are coming to Ramah Outdoor Adventure in 2011 for the first time

130         Maximum number of campers at camp at any one time

50           Program staff members who are working in camp this year

40           Additional campers we are hoping to enroll before opening day

20           Horses coming to “work” at camp this summer

18           Number of shower stalls in our renovated shower-house.

13           Number of campers coming from the State of Oklahoma

8              Hens who will be laying eggs at camp this summer

7              Dogs we will have living with us on the ranch (they all belong to older

staff members and do not live in camper tents)

2              Goats coming to camp this summer (on loan from a local goat farmer)

1           Currently registered camper from each of the following states: Wyoming, Wisconsin and

Tennessee, plus 1 camper coming from the Dominican Republic (our 4th country represented at Ramah Outdoor Adventure).

[Written on erev Shabbat, posted on Sunday)

My work week began this week, at 6:00am on Sunday morning in Denver, on my way to catch a flight to Laguardia Airport for a week of meetings and conferences in the tri-state area.  No sooner had the cab pulled away from my house and merged onto the main road, did I realize that I had forgotten an important item at home: my reusable coffee mug.  When I leave the house for a meeting or trip, I try to remember to bring a reusable cup and a reusable water-bottle.  I have found that by carrying these two items in my bag, when I am attending meetings, I am able to reduce the amount of waste I produce because rather than reaching for a disposable cup or bottle, I reach for my reusable bottle or cup.

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Over the next few weeks, we will be highlighting the writings of some of our former chalutzim and some of our own staff members.  This week, I will share a write-up from one of our counselors, Hannah Samet who, along with Jordan Anderson, attended a weeklong training for over Ramah staff members (from all our camps) that takes place annually in Ojai CA.  Hannah is returning to Ramah Outdoor Adventure this summer as a counselor and Rosh Edah for our youngest Chalutzim.

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It is official.  The summer 2011 season has come to an end.  The gear bins have been sealed, the tents closed down and all the kitchen equipment stored for the off season.  All that is left are lots of memories and good stories.   If we were in camp, the chadar ohel would be ringing with the sound of the entire camp singing “shabbos is coming we are so happy, we’re going to sing and shout out loud.” Instead, we are all welcoming Shabbat back in our homes; probably devoid of the service projects, Israeli dancing and massive challah baking (up to 75 challots) that were part of our Friday afternoon rituals at camp.

Our second year was a resounding success.  We welcomed over 250 campers and staff to the Ramah in the Rockies ranch.  We lead over 30 extended massaot (excursions) and numerous shorter trips.  We rode bikes, and we rode horses.  We climbed mountains and rappelled down cliffs.  We planted our own vegetables and harvested our own food.   We laughed, and we cried.  We sat in quiet meditation and we sang songs with intense passion.

While 2011 is still fresh in my mind, I wanted to share three vignettes with you that capture the spirit of our community this past summer.

#1 Returning from Masa.  A new tradition was solidified this year.  As each Masa (excursion) returned to camp, they marched back to the gear shed singing a song from their trip, or chanting their masa cheer.  (Last month I wrote about a biking masa’s return).  Those of us who remained at base camp would come out of the office as we heard their voices to welcome back the returning chalutzim (campers).  One of the most memorable returns of any group was group of metayalimers (entering 5/6th grade) who had gone on a day trip to our neighbor’s buffalo ranch to feed the buffalo.  On their way back, they found a large mud puddle, and rather than walk around it, apparently began a competition of who could become the muddiest.  After the first puddle, they found a second and then a third, and thus began a game of mud painting, and mud sliding.  They eventually ran the final mile to camp, covered in thick brown mud, almost as if they had just been hanging out at the Dead Sea.  Rather than returning upset to be so dirty, these 10 & 11 year olds were “hooting” and “hollering” and squealing with delight about their expedition.  Each bragged about how they were muddier than the next.  This type of uninhibited play could only happen at camp!

#2  Bo Bo Bo Boker Tov:  Each morning, these are the words that begin Ramah Outdoor Adventure.  This summer, Dan AKA “Juice-Boxx” [note the double X], Gabi AKA “G-baby,” and Or, AKA Or, took the lead on leading the Bo Bo Bo Boker Tov cheer when they were at base camp.  They would meet at the picnic table at 5:58 or 6:58, depending on the day, and begin chanting.  All of us at camp became so used to this chant that we stopped setting our own alarm clocks as their voices would echo off the valley walls.  Last Thursday, “G-baby” had already left to go back to school, and Juice Boxx & Or were on a Masa.  As a result: the rest of the camp overslept, because no one set an alarm!  Eventually people began to wake on their own, and once we realized why everyone had overslept we all had a good laugh.  The irony of our community is that we are in a gorgeous natural setting, and often just listen to the sounds of nature around us, such as during meditative teffilot or during solos on our massaot.  But much of the time at base camp, there is a constant din of cheering, whether it is chalutzim cheering on their friends in the duathlon, chanting edah cheers in the chadar ohel or at 6:00am during camp wake up!  As a tribute to our Bo-Bo Boker tov wake ups, all the staff gathered on the picnic table on our final full day of programming and gave a collective cheer. No one slept in that day!

#3 Increased environmental awareness:  At our core, Ramah Outdoor Adventure is a community dedicated to living intentional Jewish lives with a heightened sense of our natural environment.  It is for this reason that we focus so much on the food we eat, on our water consumption and on how our decisions impact the broader world around us. (Watch this video by our metayalimers on this topic)  Last Sunday we had a final barbeque during lunch to finish off the final 40 pounds of meat that we had left in our freezer.  As we always do when we have our occasional barbeque meals, we placed disposable plates and cups on the serving tables (we have no meat dishwasher, and therefore are not able to use reusable tableware at meat meals).  But when it came time to serve the meat, I noticed that most of the chalutzim were holding cut out pieces of cardboard, in place of disposable plates.  I am still not sure whom, but someone apparently had gone to the kitchen, taken a few of the boxes they had placed outside for recycling and began cutting small “card board” plates.  Instead of rejecting these primitive plates, the chalutzim chose to use them in lieu of the disposables that the camp provided.  In this way they were making a powerful statement that even if we were serving a meal that had a huge impact on the natural environment (our meat is sadly, NOT organic or local and creates about 4 times the amount of garbage as a typical meal at Ramah Outdoor Adventure), they were going to do whatever they could in their own power to make the meal a little more environmentally friendly.  We have put all the paper goods back into storage instead of the local landfill.  Just like the previous groups who came through this summer, there were many chalutzim who third session asked whether next summer we could try to serve local and/or organic meat and make the meal far less wasteful of natural resources.

As we draw the curtain on the 2011 season, please know that we are already counting down the days until the opening of camp in 2012.  We are expanding our program and expect up to 150 chalutzim at camp at any one time.  (See our current dates and rates here, and register here—though know that we expect to add additional programs for younger children AND adults).  We already have a number of families who have registered their children for next year.   Thank you to everyone who made our second season such a success.  We would not be able to be building this camp without the support of parents, chalutzim, donors and volunteers.  We look forward to many more successful summers together.

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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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 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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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.

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