Erin Okuniewski
:
I started at Tamarack in the spring of 2017 as an intern with Tamarack Adventure and Retreat Center. I came back the following spring as an educator with TARC and then was a staff on a Western Trip for the summer. I returned to TARC as an educator this fall and I have been living at camp and working for TARC ever since! I am incredibly excited to be joining the leadership team here at Tamarack Adventure and Retreat Center this spring!
I graduated from Michigan State University in 2018 where I studied Environmental Sustainability, Sustainable Parks Recreation and Tourism, and Women’s and Gender Studies. I fell in love with the outdoors in college and knew I wanted to dedicate my career to spending time outside! I went on my first backpacking trip in the Adirondack Mountain Region in upstate New York and felt completely at home in the backcountry. Ever since then, I am always counting down the days until my next camping trip! Before I came to work at Tamarack, I was the director of a basketball camp in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan for three years.
A fun fact about me is that I am really good at playing with flower sticks! Flower sticks are the toy where you have one stick in each hand and twirl another stick with tassels at the end around in between them. I can do a lot of cool tricks!
I am so excited to be on another travel trip this summer! I feel unbelievably honored to have been chosen to be a supervisor. I cannot wait to meet the campers and help foster a community where they can feel free to be themselves and grow. We are going to have the most incredible experience of our lives in the most beautiful places our land has to offer.
Rotem Raiter:
I am from Israel and had my first Tamarack Camps experience in the summer of 2010 as counselor in Ruach and Levison. In 2014, I was a staff on the Detroit Federation’s Teen Mission to Israel and was the Israeli logistic coordinator on the Teen Mission in 2016.
I am excited about meeting the staff and campers and helping to provide them with a very meaningful, fun trip. I am also excited to see and experience the views, trails and nature with an amazing group of people!
I have traveled and hiked in South America often, and also hiked in the West Coast and in the Midwest in the US. I staffed 5 Birthright Trips to Israel and hike in Israel.
I worked at Michigan State Hillel for two years as an Israel fellow. And, while I was there, I adopted a dog from Michigan and she loves hiking!