Sometimes what a person does for a living makes perfect sense. Such is the case with Howard Wagan and Lenny Kass, both of whom loved camping since they were much younger, and both of whom are directors of camps run by Milwaukee’s Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
“I was always involved in Camp JCC” as a staff member ever since 1966, said Wagan, who directs the Steve & Shari Sadek Family Camp Interlaken in Eagle River.
“I’ve been camping since I was six years old. I’ve never missed a summer in 38 years,” said Kass, director of the Albert & Ann Deshur JCC Rainbow Day Camp in Fredonia.
Additionally, both directors’ lives have crossed paths over the decades. Wagan said he was working “in the kitchen and as an administrative assistant at Camp Interlaken when Lenny was probably a camper there in the 70s.”
Many years later when Kass was the athletic director of the JCC he, “worked with Howard,” who was his “supervisor,” said Kass. “He was great, he did a nice job and I learned a lot from him.”
Kass said he learned he wanted to be involved in camping for a career during his university years. “I studied accounting in college but switched to recreation because of my love for camping,” he said.
He became the assistant director for Camp Interlaken for three years. He then started his own private camp in Brown Deer called Rainbow Day Camp. He also began a business “working with other recreation departments,” which he still does.
Eventually “we merged Rainbow Camp with the JCC, after JCC approached me,” said Kass. The day camp serves children from K5 to 12th grade.
Calm in the storm
Kass has a bubbly, outgoing personality. He described himself as “a very hands-on” camp director who “likes to get down with the kids. Every morning I let the five-year-olds pick out what color shoelaces I’ll wear that day. I ride around in a golf cart all day visiting with the different groups.
“The first thing they see every morning when they come to camp is me (I unload the busses) and the last thing they see at night is me, when I say good bye to them.”
What if it rains all day?
“That’s when the fun comes out,” said Kass. “We do innovative programming. Make pretend commercials, I teach them magic and we play games.”
Wagan, whose campers range in ages from eight to 17, is more reserved. One of the things he loves about camp is watching children “try things for the first time. We have a saying at Interlaken, ‘A kid is always a star.’ There are always things they can excel in, and we help them excel — a kid can always get a second chance.”
He had worked as an administrative assistant at Camp Interlaken, and realized he wanted to be involved in camp “after seeing the enthusiasm and spirit at the camp. It became clear to me that I really wanted to be involved.”
Wagan also tries to “be out of the office for several hours of the day” when camp is in session. “I am out and about so I know how things are going at the camp and what the kids like and how we can improve on that.”
Wagan said directing a camp is akin to being “the mayor of a small village, but also like being a parent.”
Wagan’s cool and collected manner came in handy in the summer of 1998 when a tremendous storm ripped through the grounds of Camp Interlaken, causing extensive damage.
Kipp Friedman, the marketing and public relations director at JCC, was at the camp taking pictures when the storm struck.
“Howard was not director at the time, but he was there in an administrative role,” said Friedman. “When the storm hit, the lights went out and some kids got very upset. I just remember Howard’s voice rising above the [din] and it was like he had everything under control in moments.”
Wagan said another challenging aspect of his job is “Sometimes having to deal with some of the problems that the kids come to camp with, or if a camper has a death in the family.”
What he likes best about being a camp director is “that you can have an impact in helping kids to develop self-esteem and skills and help them to connect to their faith and culture.”
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