2014 Grants for Day School Students Now Available for Ramah Outdoor Adventure’s Upcoming Camp Season

A grant of $100,000 by an anonymous donor will now make it possible for students in Jewish day schools to apply for generous scholarship support for the upcoming 2014 camp season. The grant represents unprecedented support for the camp’s day school campers, as well as traditional need-based scholarships and support for first-time campers.

“Ramah in the Rockies is committed to ensuring that any eligible camper who wants to attend camp will be able to do so, regardless of the family’s financial situation,” says Rabbi Eliav Bock, Ramah in the Rockies’ Camp Director. “Some 30% of our campers are day school students, and their families often struggle to meet the financial obligations of paying both private day school and camp tuition. In the midst of the ongoing, broadly based discussions around the affordability of day school for Jewish families, this generous grant will help make it possible for those families to provide their children with a meaningful, exciting, memorable, and immersive Jewish summer camp experience.”

Any family with an annual income of $175,000 or less that sends at least one child to a Jewish day school and is not already receiving incentive support from the One Happy Camper program may be eligible to receive between $700-$1000 in support towards camp tuition.  This grant, directed specifically to Day School families earning what some might consider “healthy incomes”, is the only known grant of its kind in the non-Orthodox Jewish camping community.  We expect 40-50 families to benefit from scholarship support this year from this grant.

“My goal in awarding these funds is to help ensure that the children of families who commit substantial revenues to a Jewish day school education are also able to afford the experience of the Jewish summer camp,” the donor stated. The donor’s goal is to increase the strongest factors in creating a lasting positive Jewish identity—attending a Jewish day school and participation in a Jewish summer camp experience. “I know that the future leaders of the Jewish Community will be coming out of Ramah Outdoor Adventure and I am happy to support this important cause” she said.

Funds from the grant will also be used to subsidize the Ramah in the Rockies portion of One Happy Camper subsidy as well as more traditional need based financial assistance.

Ramah in the Rockies was established in 2010 as the first specialty camp within the Ramah network. The Colorado camp was established through an incubator grant provided by the Foundation for Jewish Camp and the Jim Joseph Foundation, and has grown through significant support from within the Jewish community nationwide. Ramah in the Rockies is located on 360 pristine acres in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The camp offers a wide range of outdoor adventure programs, teaches environmental stewardship and immersive Jewish living. The camp currently welcomes 375 campers each year, coming from a range of Jewish backgrounds, from 26 US states, Canada, Israel, and Mexico. Ramah in the Rockies also offers a Tikvah program for campers with developmental special needs, and JOLI, a teen leadership training program for youth entering grades eleven and twelve.

Ramah in the Rockies plans to expand the camp facilities in order to offer its programs to greater numbers of campers and make an exponentially greater impact on the vitality of the Jewish community and its future leaders. Ramah in the Rockies has launched a capital campaign to expand the camp to serve 200 campers at any one time.

To be considered for this grant, recipients must be first be registered for camp and then email dayschoolaid@ramahoutdoors.org. These awards will be given on a first come first serve basis.  “Traditional” need based assistance is also available through our confidential process.  More information on this is found here.

More information on Ramah in the Rockies can be found at www.ramahout.s466.sureserver.com or by calling 303 261 8214.