Quinn Lohmann’’s mother Kathy Finn credits his five summers at Ramah California’s Ezra voc ed program with preparing him for attending the Pathway program at UCLA, a two-year certificate program for students with intellectual and other developmental disabilities, offering a blend of educational, social, and vocational experiences.
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Sarah’s mother Sheri said there is no doubt that Sarah’s ability to successfully move to Ohio to live with her sister Allison and work at the preschool are due in large part to the independent living skills and sense of purpose she gained from her years with the Tikvah Support Program at Ramah Darom. Sarah, 23, still returns to Darom every summer to work with the children in the camp’s gan.
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Asking for clarification or repetition of instructions is a skill Jacob learned in Atzmayim, the Tikvah vocational program at Ramah Wisconsin. He participated in the program in summer 2011, and during the subsequent three summers he was part of the camp’s staff, working in the camp office. “I learned a lot at Ramah — things like working in a team environment, having one another’s back, and stepping up to help when things get hectic and work overtime,” Jacob said.
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Alison Rudolph credits Ramah New England’s vocational educational program with helping to prepare her son, Aaron, to succeed at his job with Walgreens. “He learned to have a work ethic, be disciplined, how to interact with people, and to help people — basically to understand the concept of customer satisfaction,” she said.
This past April, the 112 riders, hikers, and volunteers on the Ramah Israel Bike Ride and Hiking Trip raised more than $540,000 to benefit Ramah Tikvah programs for children, teens, and young adults with disabilities. During summer 2019, a total of 423 individuals will participate in Tikvah-affiliated programs. It is a privilege to share with you this report on this summer's plans for how Ramah camps will be using the Tikvah funds raised on the ride/hike, both 1) programmatically and 2) for the financial support of families with children with disabilities who also have financial constraints.
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The Ramah Camping Movement’s network of Tikvah (“Hope”) programs, which currently serves nearly 400 participants each summer in ten overnight camps, five day camps and Israel programs, is currently celebrating 50 years from its first memorable summer in 1970.
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In the late 1960’s, Herb and Barbara Greenberg, two teachers working in the field of special education, approached several Jewish summer camps with a novel idea: why not include children with disabilities at camp?
At the time, this was an unheard-of idea, and the Greenbergs encountered a lot of pushback and opposition.
Read MoreAtzmayim, the Hebrew word for “independent,” is an extension of Tikvah, Ramah’s program for campers on the autism spectrum or who have other social or learning challenges. All Atzmayim participants are high school graduates between ages 18 and 23, and they all work three hours a day, five days a week, in the town of Eagle River, about 15 minutes from Camp Ramah in Wisconsin.
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