The Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah in New England, now celebrating its 37th year, continues to grow and evolve, offering the Ramah experience to people of many ages with a wide range of special needs. Last summer, we initiated a program to hire post-voc eders graduates of our Tikvah Program as salaried employees to work in the newly-dedicated Herb and Barbara Greenberg Tikvah Guesthouse, a six-unit motel-quality facility. The guesthouse not only offers meaningful work opportunities for Tikvah campers, Vocational Education Program participants, and Tikvah graduates, but also allows guests to experience Shabbatot and ymei ragil at camp.

This summer, our guesthouse welcomed its first guests and it was filled to capacity every Shabbat and many mid-week days (for Ymei Iyyun, the board meeting for the Foundation for Jewish Camping, visits by rabbis in our communities, etc.) Each room is air-conditioned, with two double beds, a bathroom, and a sitting area. The hallmark of the Tikvah guesthouse is the fact that it is 100% Tikvah run and operated. While a Tikvah staff member serves as overall supervisor, her main role is to run daily staff meetings, oversee assignment of jobs, help workers figure out how to solve problems, and serve as a liaison to the camp director and to the office staff member responsible for booking guests.

Each morning, following the staff meeting, the post-voc eder assigned full time to the guesthouse opens the building for work. He and his staff (one to two members of the Vocational Education Program) begin the day by finding out how many rooms will be occupied that night. The team then moves into action! Guesthouse workers strip beds of dirty sheets, collect towels, and clean each room. They sweep the floors, clean the bathrooms, do all laundry, make up each room, clean the porches and water the beautiful hanging flower baskets on the porches.

Our Voc Ed supervisor was instrumental in securing a cleaning and room preparation protocol from a major international hotel chain, and our in-camp head of the laundry volunteered his time to model and teach proper techniques and steps for cleaning and making up a guest room. Guests consistently raved about the service and overall quality of the guesthouse.

We are proud that guests of Camp Ramah in New England can now experience the beauty of camp in the finest of accommodations, lovingly prepared and maintained by some of Palmers Finest. And many of our Tikvah families pray and dream that we will one day become a year-round guesthouse one that offers quality service and a place of employment and camaraderie for their children.

A dozen members of the Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah in New England and their chaperones visited Israel from December 20, 2006 January 3, 2007. Howard Blas, director of Ramah New England’s Tikvah

Program, expressed his feelings about this special experience.

The trip was a dream come true. This was my third Tikvah Ramah Israel trip, and the 10th trip to Israel in the history of our Tikvah Program. We enjoyed seeing places of historical significance, davening in so many different places the Kotel, outside of our guest houses in the Negev and Galil, and at different synagogues, purchasing souvenirs for ourselves and friends, and supporting the Israeli economy. But, most of all, we enjoyed seeing our many Israeli friends.

Our group was like a magnet, and the Israelis were like iron filings drawn to us everywhere we went. I am pleased that our campers and program alumni (age range: 17-31) felt comfortable in Israel and will return to their homes, schools and communities as great shlichim and hasbara members for Israel.”

Camp Ramah, the camping branch of the Conservative Movement of Judaism, has provided special needs populations with an exciting camping experience for over 30 years. The Tikvah (meaning hope in Hebrew) Programs are located in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, California and Canada and serve Jewish adolescents with developmental delays, mental retardation, autism, Aspergers syndrome, Down syndrome and other conditions. The overall website for Ramahs special needs program is http://www.campramah.org The website for Camp Ramah in New England, http://www.campramahne.org, states, Tikvah campers are placed in special programs that allow them to integrate into camp activities whenever possible, with appropriate supports, and special educational and social skill development.

The Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah in New England is located in Palmer, Massachusetts. It is an 8-week program for teens 13-21. Campers enjoy a variety of activities and electives, such as swimming, boating, archery and more. Pre-vocational skills training and social skills groups are other components of the program. The Tikvah Program is further divided into Amitzim for ages 13-17 and Vocational Education (Voc Ed) for 18-21 year olds. Members of the Tikvah Program go on an overnight camping trip and take several small trips throughout the summer, such as attending baseball games, horseback riding, and blueberry picking.

Camp counselors are college or graduate students carefully screened and trained by the Tikvah program director at each camp. Former Camp Ramah New England campers make up the majority of counselors. The Tikvah Program Director Howard Blas states, We know how much the program offers campers with special needs. It is the impact on the typical campers and staff members which is truly exceptional–there are hundreds of stories of former campers who went on to work as counselors in the Tikvah program, and on to become pediatricians, psychologists, professors in special education–or just more sensitive people. Two to three counselors live in the bunks with the Tikvah Program campers. Each summer there are an average of 23 Amitzim campers and 12 Voc Ed campers, with the camper to staff ratio being about 2 to 1.

Tikvah Program campers are fully immersed and enmeshed into a variety of aspects of Camp Ramah. They have three meals a day with the rest of Camp Ramah campers. They also participate in such camp-wide activities as Sabbath services, song and dance festivals and plays, as well as during some electives and other activities. The campers with special needs, like all campers at Camp Ramah, put on a divisional play in Hebrew and English near the end of each summer. The Amitzim campers meet with fourteen year old buddies from other divisions of camp two times a week. They have the opportunity to do a variety of activities together such as go on nature walks, rehearse lines for the play, listen to music together, etc.

Fifteen and sixteen year old campers also interact with Amitzim members during swimming, sports, and in the process of preparing to become future camp counselors.

The Voc Ed members, who are also full members of the Ramah community, can be found learning hospitality skills by preparing guest rooms for valued guests to the camp, delivering mail to other campers, helping recycle, picking vegetables from the gardens for meals and much more.

Howard Blas is the director of the Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah in New England. He has a Masters of Social Work and a Masters of Education. His relationship with the Tikvah program began in 1984 when he began serving as a counselor. Howard believes parents are the experts on their children and that communication with parents is essential. The parents are truly amazing, Howard expresses, It is not easy sending your child from Minnesota, Florida, Iowa and Kansas (as well as closer destinations) to camp in Massachusetts — for eight weeks. I always tell the parents that I am an over communicator — I would prefer they call and email too much rather than too little. I often pick up the phone to tell families to simply report on the wonderful day to day things we did — swimming, blueberry picking, archery…

The Tikvah Program has other exciting news. Funding was obtained for a recent summer trip for the Vocational Education program to go to Chapel Haven to visit past campers and learn more about options for the future. Chapel Haven was featured in a past issue of our newsletter and provides special education and independent living resources for adults with cognitive disabilities, http://www.chapelhaven.org Howard Blas had also recently lead two twelve-day trips to Israel for current Tikvah campers and alumni of the program. Their trip focused on learning about Israels culture and history. Finally, the Tikvah Program received funding for a three year pilot program to establish an inclusion program for younger campers. An additional counselor will be added to bunk with the campers, creating 1:3 counselor to camper ratio. A consultant has been hired and everyone is very eager to move into this new chapter of the Tikvah Program.

Howard was interviewed for Yale’s Developmental Disabilities Clinic Newsletter – Summer 2005 edition, what follows is the excerpt containing Howard’s interview. The original newsletter can be accessed here: http://www.med.yale.edu/chldstdy/autism/summer2005.pdf

Camp Ramah, the camping branch of the Conservative Movement of Judaism, has provided special needs populations with an exciting camping experience for over 30 years. The Tikvah (meaning hope in Hebrew) Programs are located in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, California and Canada and serve Jewish adolescents with developmental delays, mental retardation, autism, Asperger’s syndrome, Down syndrome and other conditions. The overall website for Ramah’s special needs program is http://www.campramah.org The website for Camp Ramah in New England, http://www.campramahne.org states, Tikvah campers are placed in special programs that allow them to integrate into camp activities whenever possible, with appropriate supports, and special educational and social skill development.

The Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah in New England is located in Palmer, Massachusetts. It is an 8-week program for teens 13-21. Campers enjoy a variety of activities and electives, such as swimming, boating, archery and more. Pre-vocational skills training and social skills groups are other components of the program. The Tikvah Program is further divided into Amitzim for ages 13-17 and Vocational Education (Voc Ed) for 18-21 year olds. Members of the Tikvah Program go on an overnight camping trip and take several small trips throughout the summer, such as attending baseball games, horseback riding, and blueberry picking.

Camp counselors are college or graduate students carefully screened and trained by the Tikvah program director at each camp. Former Camp Ramah New England campers make up the majority of counselors. The Tikvah Program Director Howard Blas states, “We know how much the program offers campers with special needs. It is the impact on the typical campers and staff members which is truly exceptional — there are hundreds of stories of former campers who went on to work as counselors in the Tikvah program, and on to become pediatricians, psychologists, professors in special education — or just more sensitive people.” Two to three counselors live in the bunks with the Tikvah Program campers. Each summer there are an average of 23 Amitzim campers and 12 Voc Ed campers, with the camper to staff ratio being about 2 to 1.

Tikvah Program campers are fully immersed and enmeshed into a variety of aspects of Camp Ramah. They have three meals a day with the rest of Camp Ramah campers. They also participate in such camp-wide activities as Sabbath services, song and dance festivals and plays, as well as during some electives and other activities. The campers with special needs, like all campers at Camp Ramah, put on a divisional play in Hebrew and English near the end of each summer. The Amitzim campers meet with fourteen year old buddies from other divisions of camp two times a week. They have the opportunity to do a variety of activities together such as go on nature walks, rehearse lines for the play, listen to music together, etc. Fifteen and sixteen year old campers also interact with Amitzim members during swimming, sports, and in the process of preparing to become future camp counselors.

The Voc Ed members, who are also full members of the Ramah community, can be found learning hospitality skills by preparing guest rooms for valued guests to the camp, delivering mail to other campers, helping recycle, picking vegetables from the gardens for meals and much more.