Former Camper Takes the Helm at Camp Louise

Published April 16, 2008 5:00pm

From Washington Jewish Week
by Barbara Kopelman

Alicia Berlin will be having a busy summer this year. The new director of Camp Louise will be running the popular summer camp for girls in Cascade, Md., at the same time that she's overseeing the needs of her new twin girls, Marissa and Hannah, who will be nearing their first birthday when the campers arrive.

The Owings Mills resident says she's ready for the unanticipated, but welcomed, challenge.

"It was great timing. The girls are old enough that I have the time to do the work that needs to be done now," said Berlin, referring to the staffing, programming and other tasks that make camp administration more than just a seasonal position.

And, come summer, "the camp has made accommodations," said Berlin, that will allow her to bring her girls and a patchwork of loving family caretakers to camp.

The job seems like a natural for Berlin, who spent most of her summers since 1980 at Louise, progressing through the ranks of camper and counselor, up to assistant director, before taking a few years off to start a family with her husband, Neil, a former staffer at Louise's brother institution, Camp Airy. She studied education at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University after graduating from the University of Maryland at College Park and taught for several years – in the off-season, of course – in the Baltimore and Howard County school systems.

Mike Schneider, the executive director of Camp Airy and Camp Louise Foundation, Inc., is pleased that Berlin is ready to get back to Louise.

"We've made some changes in the structure of the camp to take some of the burden off of Bobbie Miller," who has been doing double duty as director of Camp Louise and associate executive director of the foundation, he said.

And, Berlin brings just the right background to a position that Schneider likens to "being the mayor of a city."

"It takes a real mix of skills," he explains. "You have to respect the camp's traditions and at the same time be able to say that maybe something isn't such a great tradition. Alicia has an open, creative and caring mind that is sensitive to all these issues."

Berlin anticipates that the new structure will give her and her colleagues opportunity to get out of the office when camp is in session.

As of now, Berlin is working to put her mark on the camp, Schneider said, reaching out and recruiting former staffers who have gone on to other careers.

"I want to bring back some people who haven't been there in awhile," she told the Baltimore Examiner, "People who have been out in the world and bring something back.

Another one of her innovations, planned summer bus trips for campers to New York to see Broadway shows, have already sold out, said Schneider. At a time when some summer camps are going the specialization route, camps Louise and Airy are proud of being traditional, offering a variety of activities to their campers, from canoe rides on the lake and songs around campfires to arts and crafts and sports activities.

But traditional does not mean oldfashioned, says Berlin. "We have added a few things to make it more interesting."

Among the new "interesting" offerings she touts: Krav Maga, an Israeli form of fitness training and self-defense; a scuba certification program for older campers, with "Scuba Rangers" for the younger ones; and a five-mornings-a-week cooking school experience in Frederick.

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