John Ruskay (left), executive
vice president of
UJA-Federation,
and
Jordan Dale, executive director
of Surprise Lake Camp (SLC). |
SURPRISE LAKE CAMP
Camp
Marks Centennial
As
Haven from NY Heat
By Nina Boxer
 OR
the 100th anniversary of Surprise Lake Camp, they could
have honored any one of its distinguished alumni, such as Larry
King or Gene Simmons of KISS. Mercifully,
executive director Jordan Dale said, it was decided that the
camp would be the guest of honor “which spared you another
speech.”
That
was good news for the 480 guests who came to the Marriott Marquis in
New York to celebrate and contribute $1,013,000 for scholarships.
John Ruskay with Marjorie Wyler,
former SLC president and
current
board member, and daughter
Ruth Messinger, board vice
president. Mrs. Wyler, who died
July 22, was the former public
relations director at the Jewish
Theological Seminary and producer
of its Eternal Light radio program
1940-85. |
“Surprise
Lake Camp is driven by tradition,” said UJA-Federation chief John
Ruskay. “One tradition is tzedaka. The camp gives out more
than half a million dollars in scholarships every year to enable
kids to go there.”
Even
in 1902 when the camp first opened, some people needed assistance,
since not every family could afford to send its sons out of the
Lower East Side for relief from the stultifying heat. It cost a
whopping $3 to send a kid away for a two-week summer session and
that was a heavy sum in the old days.
Among
those Lower East Side kids was a young orphan named Edward Israel
Iskowitz who grew up to become Eddie Cantor, the world class
entertainer and one of the camp’s major supporters. (His bunkmate
was Walter Winchell.)
In
his 1957 autobiography, Take My Life, Cantor wrote,
“Grandma got me to a place where I learned more than I ever
learned in school – Surprise Lake Camp, a camp for poor
undernourished kids who’d never seen a blade of grass pr a tree.
They scooped us off the parched summer streets of New York and sent
us to heaven…”
Peter Seeger leads his
“Seegerkids” in singalong at
annual Shomrei Adamah Day
(Earth Day) at SLC. |
In
1952 three young campers sneaked out on an unauthorized hike and
promptly got lost in the woods. They came upon a cabin and knocked
on the door. Folksinger Peter Seeger let them use the phone
so they shouldn’t miss dinner.
That’s
how the legendary folksinger, now 82, got involved with the camp.
For 50 years the banjo-playing singer, who wrote If I Had a
Hammer, Where Have All the Flowers Gone? and Turn, Turn, Turn,
has been visiting every summer to sing for the youngsters, who now
include girls as well as boys.
Neil
Diamond
was a happy camper who got his inspiration to become a
singer/songwriter by listening to Seeger. He once told the New York
Daily News that performing at Surprise Lake Camp “was really
the start of my career.”
Jerry Stiller (center) and Anne Meara (from
left), unidentified person, alumni association
president
Howie Berk, Eddie Cantor’s
daughter Janet Gari, SLC executive director
Jordan Dale, and Eddie Ward, camp's 100th
anniversary coordinator. |
|
Larry King
