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Facilities Updates at Camp

Dear OSRUI Community,

Summer 2021 is right around the corner and we can’t wait to welcome our camp community back to Oconomowoc. Our onsite facilities team at camp, led by Joe Heinecke, is hard at work ensuring that our camp grounds are in great shape for the summer ahead. Additionally, I’m excited to share that our community has generously stepped up in many ways over the last year to invest specifically in our camp facility to update, improve, and keep our beloved spaces in great shape for this summer’s campers and future generations!

Some highlights of the projects underway at camp that will be ready for summer include:

The Kallah cabin bathrooms have been fully renovated and expanded. These new bathrooms offer accessible toilets and shower stalls, 10 private showers per building with lots of space, and a bright colorful setting for our campers. We know our summer campers, as well as our off-season retreat groups, will love these new bathrooms!
For many of our camp community there is no more iconic image than the Bayit, the original building on our property overlooking the lake. The Bayit was built in 1903, predating camp by nearly five decades!  The Bayit has been the cornerstone of our facility since camp opened in 1952. This spring the Bayit has had a full exterior restoration with new roofing, siding, and updated carpentry. Thank you to the Community Development Foundation for Reform Judaism for funding this project. After this work, the Bayit will be ready for generations to come of campers to, quite literally, call it home!
Our High Ropes Course is expanding this summer as well. Campers will now be able to climb, balance, and traverse more elements on the course, culminating in our zipline. They’ll even be able to walk across a bridge suspended high in the air that spells out OSRUI.
The Heichal Hatarbut Kaye (Kaye Cultural Center), which opened in 2019, has a beautiful new fire pit and seating area outside. The next time you are at camp you’ll also be able to see new brick pavers leading the walkway to the fire pit recognizing many of the people in our community who supported this project.
We also have a brand new playset outside of the Lodge – a great addition to Camp for our youngest participants all-year long!
In addition to these projects, we have made a number of improvements to our camp facility in preparation for camp with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. These upgrades include: party tents outside of the dining hall for meals, new picnic tables, additional outdoor covered meeting spaces around camp, bathroom trailers for Tzofim and Moshavah, and over 100 hand sanitizer stations all around camp.

None of these improvements to camp would be possible without the leadership of the Seth Erlich, Chair of the Physical Plant Committee, and the members of the Committee who partner with Seth, Joe, and me to ensure that our camp facilities are a great place for all who enter.

We are also so grateful to the many people in our community who supported these projects. Thank you to the many foundations, families, and individuals who donated generously to our Care of Facilities Fund to help prepare camp for this summer and beyond!

Looking forward to a great summer ahead!

L’shalom,

– Solly Kane, Director