In our Tamarack office, Thursday mornings are special.
Each week, our year-round team gathers for breakfast and an agency meeting — a chance to step away from our individual departments and spend time together as the people working toward the same mission. Every so often, we are joined by a community leader, and recently, that guest was our new board president, Elizabeth Sollish.
During the meeting, one of our staff members asked Elizabeth, “What would your elevator pitch for Tamarack be?” In other words, What’s your why?
Elizabeth talked about her history with the agency, the power of l’dor v’dor, her connection to Tamarack’s mission and the way camp strengthens the broader Jewish community.
Then we turned the question around on ourselves.
We asked our staff to think about their own answer. What keeps them connected to Tamarack? What makes the work matter to them? What is it about this place that brings people back, year after year and generation after generation?
For me, the answer starts with my two kids, who need camp for very different reasons. For my oldest, camp pushes him outside his comfort zone and gives him opportunities to try things he might never try at home. For my youngest, who spends much of the school year trying to fold himself into a “school-shaped box” that doesn’t quite fit him, camp is a place where he can be his authentic, wild self — and be appreciated for exactly who he is.
And Tamarack connects my kids to something even bigger. My great-aunt and great-uncle, Irving and Harriet Berg, were artists-in-residence at Tamarack for many years, and Irv’s artwork is still found throughout camp. He passed away before my children were born, but his sculptures make him part of their story and their lives. Vita brevis, longa ars (life is short but art lasts forever).
With full staff participation, everyone’s responses were different, as you might expect. Some have spent nearly their entire lives at Tamarack. Others joined us recently. Some came to camp as children. Some discovered it as adults. Some are parents and grandparents. Some work in programs, finance, advancement, inclusion or communications.
But as we read through their answers, which I’m proud to offer just a sampling of here, something became clear: There are a lot of ways to find your place at Tamarack, but the reasons people stay connected are remarkably similar: Camp becomes part of who you are.
For many of our staff, Tamarack is a story that stretches across generations.
Teen Programs Coordinator Emily Dempsey
is about to celebrate her 20th summer at camp. Her mom was a Tamarack camper and staff member, and Emily grew up hearing stories about her summers. Now, camp has become a thread through her own life — from her first paycheck to the friendships, confidence and Jewish connection she gained along the way.
Assistant Director of Financial Operations Jeannette Levene
came to Tamarack as an employee rather than a camper, but after nearly a decade, she says camp feels like family. She has watched campers become staff, staff become parents and families return with their own children and grandchildren. Her own family has become part of that story, too.
And Hank Pinter’s Tamarack journey began with something much simpler: He needed a summer camp his family could afford. A scholarship made that possible. What started as a “fun place to go” became one of the most formative experiences of his life — and eventually brought him back as a counselor, supervisor and, now, member of the finance team.
That’s l’dor v’dor in action. A child has an experience. Years later, they come back to help create that experience for someone else.
Camp gives kids room to become themselves.
Ask our staff what camp gives kids, and you’ll hear a long list: confidence, independence, resilience, leadership, friendship and the ability to solve problems on their own.
But underneath all of those words is something even more important: Camp gives kids the space to discover who they are.
Inclusion Coordinator Marni Alekman
put it beautifully: “We send our kids to camp for the fun, but what they bring home is so much more.”
Programs Coordinator Lauren Vidak 
sees that transformation from a unique angle. She talked about the moments that never appear in a job description — watching a homesick camper become someone who can’t imagine leaving, seeing a reserved camper discover a strength they didn’t know they had, or watching a counselor step outside their own comfort zone to help a camper grow.
Those moments are the work.
At Tamarack, kids have the chance to make decisions, navigate challenges, try something they’ve never done before and spend time away from the screens and routines of everyday life. They can fail, try again, figure things out and discover that they are capable of more than they thought.
And they do it with adults who are there to guide them, support them and keep them safe. As Chief Medical Officer Stefanie Aronow 
put it, “Tamarack gives kids a place to belong, become and believe in themselves.”
Jewish identity happens through living it.
For some of our staff, Tamarack has been one of the most consistent connections to Jewish life in their lives.
Emily grew up away from the Jewish centers of Metro Detroit and says she isn’t sure what her relationship with the Jewish community would look like without camp.
Hank remembers developing a deeper appreciation for Jewish traditions through his years as a camper.
And for Zack Goldman
, who grew up at Tamarack and now helps lead programs, Jewish community is part of a much larger story. He has watched campers find their place, teenagers discover their leadership and staff members realize the impact they can have on someone else.
Tamarack creates space for Judaism to be lived — through Shabbat and Havdalah, through Israeli and American campers learning from one another, through friendships and traditions, and through the simple experience of being part of a Jewish community.
It isn’t something separate from camp.
It is part of what makes camp feel like home.
And that home is bigger than camp.
Perhaps the most common word in our staff responses was connection.
Connection to friends. Connection to nature. Connection to Judaism. Connection to mentors. Connection to the broader Jewish community.
And connection across generations.
Associate Director Becca Fishman Brooks
talked about the opportunity to meet campers and staff from around the world, including Israeli campers and staff — relationships that might never happen anywhere else.
Marketing and Communications Coordinator Elijah Klein
has experienced Tamarack as a camper, teen, counselor, supervisor and now year-round staff member. Along the way, he has built friendships, found mentors and formed relationships with campers who feel like an extension of his family.
For Director of Annual Giving Lori Davidson-Mertz
, that connection has lasted a lifetime. Tamarack was there for her as a young camper during a difficult time in her family. Later, it became a place of comfort and healing after her mother died. Now, she has watched her own daughter grow through Tamarack and is helping make those experiences possible for other children.
Her “why” is simple: to help make sure those experiences are possible for other children.
That may be the clearest answer of all.
Andy Belsky
, Tamarack’s CFO, sees that impact from a different vantage point. He thinks about the confidence, leadership, lifelong friendships and Jewish identity that camp builds — and about what it takes to make sure those experiences remain possible for families for generations to come.
Because Tamarack has never been only about one summer.
It’s about what happens when a child has the chance to discover something new about themselves — and carries that confidence into the rest of their life.
It’s about the friendships that begin in a bunk and last for decades.
It’s about the camper who becomes a counselor, the counselor who becomes a parent, the parent who sends their own child to camp and the grandparent who returns to Bubbie Zaydie.
It’s about a Jewish community that creates space for young people to grow, then trusts those young people to help build that community for the next generation.
And it’s about a place that, for so many of us, started as a summer camp and became something much bigger.
A community. A connection. A home.
That’s what makes Tamarack a place that stays with you.
