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Rundown cabins slated for replacement 49-year-old Camp Swig getting $6.5 million facelift

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/18163/full/18163/rundown-cabins-slated-for-replacement-49-year-old-camp-swig-getting-6-5-mil/ Rundown cabins slated for replacement 49-year-old Camp Swig getting $6.5 million facelift Friday, July 26, 2002 | by ALEXANDRA J. WALLBulletin Staff But believe it or not, not everyone is happy about the demise. Those bathrooms may have been gross, but they also kind of defined camp life. "They've become kind of a bonding thing," said Ruben Arquilevich, executive director of Swig and Camp Newman, the Reform movement's Northern California summer camps. The need for major renovations at Swig, the 49-year-old camp in Saratoga, should come as no surprise to anyone who has visited lately. What may be a surprise though, is that most of the money to pay for those renovations is coming from a donor who has little connection to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations' camp. "I guess I have one now," joked Lorry I. Lokey, Atherton-based founder and president of Business Wire, a financial news wire service. He has pledged $4.5 million. Another major donor is a Los Angeles-based couple, Mark and Peachy Levy, who are both Swig alumni. Together with Peachy's mother, Lee Kalsman, they have pledged an additional $1.5 to $2 million. The upgrades will cost an estimated $6.5 to $7 million. Most of the camp's infrastructure hasn't been upgraded since the camp opened in the Santa Cruz mountains in 1953. Many of the cabins remain without bathrooms. Amid a site with such natural beauty—with its many redwood and oak trees—the buildings for years have seemed completely rundown in comparison. Some renovations to the staff cabins have been made over the decades. But the name of this reporter still was spotted in two places inside the closet of Cabin 3D, from the year she spent on the non-counseling staff in 1985. And several buildings have been condemned and are not in use, according to Arquilevich. If not by next summer, by 2004, every camper cabin will have its own bathroom. And, in fact, most cabins will be two stories. The new camper housing will be so plush that "it will be like cabins in Lake Tahoe," Arquilevich told a group of campers hanging around the model and architects' rendering of the new camper village. A symbolic groundbreaking was held at the camp July 18, during its annual arts festival. The ceremony honored the donors who are making the renovations possible. "All the current housing units and bathroom facilities and infrastructure will be removed and rebuilt," said Arquilevich as he pointed to a model made by the architectural firm of Herman and Coliver. Most camper cabins will sleep six kids and one counselor on each of the two floors, with the bathroom on the first floor. The person-to-shower ratio will be 4 to 1. Some cabins will also have a deck. "Will we still have the same bunk beds that move every time you breathe?" asked Zach Morrison, a 14-year-old camper from San Diego, who overheard the plans. "Will we have chairs or couches?" he wanted to know. The interior of the dining hall, known as the chadarochel, will be remodeled and cleaned up. The program building, known as the ulam, will also be remodeled, with the addition of some art studios. The administrative building will also undergo renovations, and all buildings will be seismically reinforced, as the camp is on a major fault line. Construction won't actually begin until the fall. While the camp has remained open year-round, hosting retreats and conferences after campers go home at the end of this summer, it will close down completely to allow for construction. It will reopen to campers next summer, though the renovations will not yet be completed. After shutting down again at the end of next summer, it will reopen full time in the summer of 2004. It's hard to believe that the camp was almost sold a few years ago. For a time in the 1990s, the site was considered beyond repair. When Camp Newman opened in Santa Rosa, it offered much more space and could be expanded, while Swig could not. An unsolicited offer in 1998 to buy the site was accepted by the UAHC. But then, for unexplained reasons, the buyer backed out. An anonymous gift of $2 million in 1999 helped to improve its infrastructure, and the camp has continued to operate, with about 375 campers from grades eight to 11 attending Swig each summer, and more than twice that number, from grades three through eight, attending Newman. Lokey, 75, has given millions to local educational institutions such as Mills College and Stanford and Santa Clara universities, as well as an $8 million gift to the Reform movement's Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa, funding its Lokey International Academy for Jewish Studies. "I've heard so much about [Camp Swig] directly from people involved over the years. It's one of those things that you don't have to check out. It's a good thing for the community." One of his daughters did attend Swig one summer, Lokey said, but his children also attended other summer camps. In 1999, Lokey donated $6 million to the capital campaign for the Peninsula Jewish Community Center's new Foster City campus. Discussing his donation to Swig, he said, "I heard a rumor about them being in trouble. I suggested they hit me up for some money, and they did." The Jewish "camp system is a good thing; it provides a lot of education and unity among kids, and strengthens their feelings about being Jewish for the better. "While I'm not really active in religion and don't pay much attention to it, if I had to be born again, I would hate to be anything but Jewish, and I want kids to feel the same way." The new housing for campers will be entirely built in the area now known as Samuel Kaminker Memorial Village. Currently, the wooden cabins line a dusty field that also serves as a pick-up and drop-off point, as well as a parking lot. That field will be turned into a "grassy, irrigated lawn," said Arquilevich. After the renovations, non-counseling staff such as doctors, nurses, rabbis, artists, unit heads and kitchen staff will all be grouped together in a staff village, away from the campers. Now they're housed near a second grouping of camper cabins. Despite some nostalgia for the outmoded bathroom facilities, those who have long been associated with the camp are generally happy about the renovations. "There are very few areas in the camp that have true significance," said Rabbi Morris Hershman, who first went to Swig for a leadership program in 1956 and served as its director for a few years in the 1970s. While Hershman pointed out the beauty of the Jo Naymark Holocaust Memorial built away from the central camp area, he said, "the cabins themselves were never a source of nostalgia. I think seeing them rebuilt so it's more useful is all for the better." He emphasized that with the upgrade in facilities, Camp Swig will continue to leave its mark on generations of campers for years to come. "We have this resource that makes an impact on youth, congregations and families," he said. "It's very inspirational, and often a transforming experience because of the personalities of the staff and faculty, and the experiences and what is learned, and the associations and friendships that last a lifetime. All of this is because Jewish camping is devoted to those goals. They're not byproducts but intentional."

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