BB Camp adds resident docs

By JEWISH REVIEW

article created on: 2009-02-01T00:00:00

What do eight doctors and B’nai B’rith Camp have in common? Location, location, location.

This summer, eight doctors—pediatricians, including emergency room specialists—will volunteer their time, on site, to shore up BB Camp in the best way campers’ parents could imagine: By providing incalculable peace of mind.

For the first time since the 1970s, BB Camp will have a stable of on-site physicians. The Jewish camp on Oregon’s coast this summer expects nearly 500 campers, in grades 2 to 11, from all over the globe.

BB Camp always has had a nurse on staff during its summer-camp sessions and is close to medical facilities in Lincoln City. But next summer’s committed doctors place BB Camp in a higher—and safer—echelon than most any Jewish camp West of the Rockies.

“Having this level of full-time medical care by kids’ specialists is unusual for a summer camp,” said Robert Mendelson, once a volunteer pediatrician at the camp who’s helped resurrect the program. “This is a unique program, and the doctors’ top-notch level of training is unique, too.”

B’nai B’rith Camp is accredited by the American Camps Association. Such accreditation requires—among myriad criteria—camps have a registered nurse on staff. Staff doctors are not required.

It is a nationwide trend to have physicians available to camps. And, today, many do—in an on-call or weekday-only capacity. BB Camp’s advent of on-site, 24/7 pediatricians is a leap above the norm.

In addition to Mendelson, other BB Camp volunteer physicians are Dr. David Spiro, section chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, and Dr. Jay Rosenbloom, a pediatrician in private practice. The trio expect five more colleagues to commit soon.

“It’s been a dream of mine to be a camp doctor, and I’m fulfilling that dream,” said Spiro, whose two sons, ages 6 and 10, will join him during the weeks he spends as camp doctor.

Working in tandem with Executive Camp Director Michelle Koplan, Mendelson, a pediatrician with 43 years’ experience who now is retired, is the guiding force behind restoring the high quality and consistency of medical care the camp enjoyed a few decades ago.

Now a grandfather of four BB campers, Mendelson in the early 1970s sent his kids to the camp. His son once fell ill and received sub-par medical treatment. Eager to remedy the situation—for all future campers—Mendelson recalls saying, “Let me fix this problem.”

For years he and up to seven pediatricians took weekly shifts volunteering at camp, living on the premises with their families whose children got to take advantage of BB Camp’s offerings. “Everybody had such a good time,” Mendelson said. Unsure why this program came to an end, he knew it should be brought back.

He said to an already-sold Koplan, “We could do better than this, and we are going to do better than this.”

Said Koplan: “Kids at BB Camp always have had access to medical care. Now, their care will equal what they receive when at their own pediatrician’s office. On-site doctors further differentiate us from most Jewish camps in the country.”

She continued, “As a parent myself, I’d have complete confidence sending off my child to a second-to-none overnight Jewish camp that now is safer than ever.”

Campers’ top maladies include sports injuries; allergies, headaches; physical symptoms related to homesickness; fevers; and abdominal pain. In addition, more children these days take daily medications—such as for asthma, seizures, ADHD and anxiety—that must be administered by a medical professional.

Each of the volunteer doctors will work for either one or two weeks of BB Camp’s eight weeks of sessions. Their presence will ensure better medical equipment and expertise than previously available. And, when the new physician comes to relieve the current one, he or she immediately will be brought up to speed on campers’ charts, medicines and any conditions before taking over.

“Parents will be reassured by the quality of medical care their kids will have access to,” Spiro said. He added, “BB Camp is exemplary in taking the initiative to make camp not only fun but safe, too. You can’t have fun without safe.”

B’nai B’rith Camp offers a wide range of activities, including arts and crafts, Jewish enrichment, athletics, waterskiing, sailing, canoeing, hydro-tubing, swimming in the heated, outdoor pool, dancing, nature, singing, high- and low-ropes challenge courses, leadership, community service, drama, creative writing, Shabbat celebrations, overnights and trips. Owned and operated by the Mittleman Jewish Community Center, BB Camp is licensed by the State of Oregon and accredited by the American Camp Association.

BB Camp offers one one-week session and two three-week sessions for its overnight camp. Additionally, there are seven one-week sessions of day camp for Lincoln County residents. For details, visit www.bbcamp.org or call 503-452-3444.