Judy Paschen said that in Baraboo, where she lives with her family, there “aren’t a lot of enrichment opportunities” to experience life in a Jewish community.
But there are even fewer for her son, Mitch, 17, who has Asperger’s syndrome, a high functioning form of austism.
So Paschen, who attended overnight Jewish camps as a child, and “felt they were a great way for kids to live in a Jewish community” and her husband, Mark, went about finding a camp for Mitch.
After talking with a friend, Paschen learned of the Tikvah program at Camp Ramah, located near Eagle River, which provides “recreational, educational and social experiences within a traditional camp setting.”
Six summers later, Paschen said that Tikvah has been “priceless” for Mitch.
“It’s totally taken this kid from being a loner to maturing into a self-confident, highly productive individual with more people skills, work skills, and most importantly [greater] self-esteem,” she said.
Rose Sharon, who is the director of Tikvah, said the program currently serves about 26 campers, in addition to the some 400 general campers at Ramah.
Half of the campers in Tikvah have Asperger’s, Sharon said, and others have attention deficit, hyperactivity, or non-verbal disability disorders.
These campers are integrated with the rest of the camp for all but “one period a day, five days a week,” Sharon said, and take part in all of the standard camp activities, including swimming, sports, crafts and photography. They can also choose to participate in a vocational program.
At the camp, Paschen said, Mitch is “very well accepted. They have gone out of their way to include him.” The experience has also “increased Mitch’s love for Judaism.”
Paschen said Mitch enjoys being busy in the summer. “He looks forward to it,” she said, and hopes to work at the camp someday.
Without programs such as Tikvah, Paschen said, kids with special needs “would miss the whole experience” that Jewish camping can offer.
Camping is a ‘necessity’
Other camps, including Camp Chi, the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago camp in Lake Delton, and Camp Moshava, in Wild Rose, also offer Jewish camping opportunities through the assistance of Keshet in Chicago, which provides educational, recreational and vocational programs for children and young adults with special needs.
Camp Chi director Ron Levin said the camp has “had great success” with the special needs campers, of which there are about 15 this year.
“These children have autism, William’s syndrome, and Down’s syndrome,” Levin said.
Levin said each camper is “really embraced by the cabin groups and the staff does a wonderful job working with the kids.”
According to Keshet director Abbie Weisberg, “residential camps for kids with special needs is not what we call a luxury; we call it a necessity.”
Summer camp “is where the kids are given the opportunity to become as autonomous as possible. It’s good for mom and dad and great for the camper,” she said.
“When inclusion is done the right way it works for everybody,” Weisberg said. “Kids are not accepted based on their disability, they’re just accepted.”
All ages
Younger special needs campers also have options, through Camp Gan Israel, the Lubavitch of Wisconsin camp that serves children ages 5-13 years old, and through the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center camps.
According to Pnina Goldfarb, JCC early childhood director and assistant executive director, the camps have been offering the Shiluv (Integration) program for special needs campers entering K5-eighth grade since 1997.
Held in Fredonia at the Albert & Ann JCC Rainbow Day Camp, Shiluv includes campers who are “emotionally disturbed, cognitively disabled or autistic,” Goldfarb said.
Shiluv offers support services in addition to regular camp activities, including tutoring, speech and occupational therapy. A favorite has been the Shiluv Horseback Riding Camp.
The “totally inclusionary” program allows students to continue their camping experience as they age, through counselor training programs and visits to the Steve and Shari Sadek Family Camp Interlaken.
“We bridge our children from camp to camp,” Goldfarb said, referring to the three main JCC camp locations for campers of ascending ages — at the Karl Jewish Community Campus in Milwaukee, in Fredonia, and Camp Interlaken in Eagle River.
Though there is no formalized program for campers in the Aleph (ages 2-3) and Gesher (K-4- first grade) camps, Goldfarb, who has a Ph.D. in special education, said she works with those children as well. “We do not reject any child.”
Older campers, from grades 9-12, can go to the JCC’s Bonim program, which is held in Fredonia and includes the option to go to Camp Interlaken.
All of the programs provided at each camp don’t benefit only the special needs camper, however.
According to Paschen, “The most important thing is that other kids in the camp learn to be tolerant of others. They learn the beauty of others that are not like themselves and they enrich their lives. That doesn’t always happen in the environment outside of camp.”
That experience has “changed [Mitch’s] life — and the result of that is that it has totally changed our life.”
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