CAMP GUIDE
Where else in the world can you take a silly picture like this?
A Great Chapter in One’s Book of Life Under unprecedented circumstances from COVID, Camp Tamakwa shows its real colors in overcoming challenges.
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f the pandemic has played havoc with most businesses, it’s thrown an oversized wrench into the works for summer camps. For those in Canada, like Camp Tamakwa, for whom U.S. kids are an important segment of their camper population, COVID19 has been a major test. It wasn’t long ago I thought I had seen it all in my 52 years at Tamakwa and experienced just about every possible scenario that can happen at camp. That was until the pandemic hit and subjected Tamakwa to a new reality of how camp had to be conducted these past two
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FEBRUARY 3 • 2022
COURTESY OF CAMP TAMAKWA
VIC NORRIS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Tamakwa’s Senior Director Vic Norris and Camp Directors Leslie Hartsman and Jamie Kudlats, circa 2003
summers. Of course, compared to how COVID-19 afflicted the entire world, most members of our Tamakwa community were fortunate to endure as they did. Talk about keeping perspective!
WHEN BORDERS CLOSED In 2020, for the first time in my life since 1967, I couldn’t be at Tamakwa or, for that matter, in Canada, after public health authorities ordered all camps closed and the government shut
the national borders. Despite my many years at Tamakwa, it still boggles my mind how labor-intensive it is to administer camp, particularly one as ambitious as Tamakwa, to achieve so many tangible and intangible goals. It’s ultimately about providing our campers and staff not just the best camp experience possible, but the best life experience. We must do everything we can so one of the best chapters in the book of life of our campers and staff will be their time at Tamakwa. True to Tamakwa’s philosophy, we turned COVID’s negative situation into a positive outcome. In 2020, with camp closed, owners Michael Budman and Diane Bald spearheaded a major capital improvement campaign to upgrade and replace many of camp’s facilities, infrastructure and equipment. As the 2021 season approached, we closely followed government updates on whether camps would be allowed to open and, if so, under what restrictions. With
