Established in 1941, Camp Friendly Pines has been called “an Arizona tradition.” For Margaret “Margo” Cramer, 14, Friendly Pines Camp is both an Arizona and a family tradition she’s happy to continue. She is the daughter of Amy S. Cramer and Amelia Craig Cramer, who spent many happy childhood days at Friendly Pines more than 40 years ago.
Margo plans to return to camp for the seventh summer next year. Located near Prescott, Friendly Pines is a residential summer camp for boys and girls ages 6-13, with some returning 14-year-olds.
Margo says she loves the people she has met at Friendly Pines and the chance to have some independence. She especially likes the variety of activities, including sewing, fencing, guitar and her favorite – vaulting on horseback.
“Friendly Pines is a warm and welcoming environment for everyone,” says Amelia. “The open-air amphitheater where a spiritual meeting takes place each week has, among other things, a Star of David sitting as a welcoming symbol amid the pine trees.”
The Cramers are active members of Congregation Or Chadash, a Reform synagogue in Tucson, where Margo is an assistant teacher in the religious school’s seventh grade. also sings in the Friday Night Live! Choir once a month. Amelia sits on the congregation’s board of directors.
“The values Friendly Pines inculcates are the same values I cherish from the Jewish tradition – tzedakah (justice and charity); tikun olam (healing the world); the importance of each person being treated with respect, responsibility, caring, knowledge, life-long learning and more,” says Amelia, who notes that two summers ago, Margo was able to study for her bat mitzvah and practice chanting her Torah portion while at Friendly Pines. “I feel comfortable in sending my daughter away from home for as long as a month (although I greatly miss her when she is away), because I know she is able to enjoy the cool weather and tall pine trees and fun activities at Friendly Pines Camp within positive, respectful of us as a family and of my daughter for who she is, including her strong identity as a Jew.”
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For the Rendelman family, Friendly Pines was an accidental discovery. The former director of Chanen Preschool at Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale, Sharon Rendelman worked at King David School (which closed in 2011) when their 6-year-old daughter, Lainey, wanted to go to overnight camp. “I reached out to Jewish overnight camps in California and Arizona looking for a two-week program for a 6-year-old, and (at that time) not one camp offered that,” says Sharon. Rather than tell their daughter she had to wait, Sharon and her husband, Michael, looked for other options. “We were on the camp grounds for five minutes when I had that great ‘camp’ feeling that I remember from when I was a child, and I knew that Lainey had found her summer home.”
Now a fourth-grader who turns 10 this month, Lainey is getting ready for her fifth summer at Friendly Pines. Her sister, Riley, 6, enjoyed her first summer at Friendly Pines the summer before kindergarten and is eager to return for summer 2014.
Sharon says her girls love the camp because of the upbeat and attentive staff and the versatile program. “The program at Friendly Pines is that of a traditional summer camp – all the activities that can be imagined,” says Sharon, noting campers get to choose their own program. “So, a child like my Lainey (who loves drama and performing) can be in a musical, act in (and help write) a camper-made video. She’s a horse nut, and the camp has five or six different riding activities … A kid who likes art can do several artsy activities, a kid who likes sports can do different sports all day, every day; and a kid who wants to try a bit of everything can do that. For example, last summer my 5-year-old took sewing, tennis, bareback riding, archery, an adventure program that allowed her to ride a huge zip line, an art class of some sort and a pony-cart driving activity. What a wonderland it must have felt like to her.”
The Rendelmans belong to Congregation Or Chadash, a Conservative synagogue in Scottsdale. Sharon says that Camp Friendly Pines “has taught each of my daughters to have a good moral compass, and this is precisely what we teach them at home, and what Rabbi (Micah) Caplan and his team teach them at OC. There’s a great team of trusted people who are in our lives.”
“The language at camp focuses on respect, teamwork, determination, cooperation, helpfulness, honesty, integrity, kindness, patience, loyalty and resourcefulness,” says Sharon. “So, while the words might not be in Hebrew, nor is there a direct correlation drawn to Jewish texts or prayer, the values are there, and that’s so important.”
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