Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 38, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 18, 2008 Page: 3 of 28
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TEXAS JEWISH POST #SINCE 1947
September 18,2008 I 3
Greene Family Camp offers shelter from the storm
By Laurie Barker James
The Union for Reform Juda-
ism's Greene Family Camp played
a significant part in Texas evacua-
tion efforts this past week, as Hur-
ricane Ike steamrollered over Texas.
Disaster relief and emergency man-
agement personnel battled a storm
that was, at one point, roughly the
size of the state, which displaced
over a million South Texans over
several days. Beginning last week,
GFC Director Loui Dobin met with
emergency management officials
in Waco to plan out strategy for
housing evacuees at "Camp Ike."
Staffers Stefani Rozen and Ted Cera
worked with the Red Cross Heart
of Texas chapter, assuring that the
camper and staff housing facilities,
as well as the two recreation halls,
were prepped and ready. Hun-
dreds of families started arriving
in Bruceville on Wednesday, Sept.
10. In addition to families fleeing
the coast, GFC housed many of the
teams of Red Cross volunteers who
served other shelters in Central
Texas.
"All of the evacuees are from
the Texas Gulf Coast," Dobin said.
"People from San Patricio County,
the first county with a mandatory
evacuation, came to McLennan
County, where GFC is located. Af-
ter that, evacuees came in from
Galveston and Houston."
By Sunday, GFC was at capacity
with 700 evacuee "campers." GFC
kitchen, maintenance and house-
keeping staff have assured that the
evacuees have three meals a day, as
well as snacks. Additionally, mem-
bers of GFC's summer camp staff
ran a family activities program that
included sports, games, movies,
and arts and crafts, to relieve the
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boredom or anxiety they may feel
at being far from home.
On Friday night the evacuees
were offered an old GFC tradition.
"We had a campfire," Dobin said.
"I sang, we led some cheers, roast-
ed marshmallows and had a great
time."
Dobin says that, while there are
a few Jewish families among the
evacuees, they're "a diverse crowd
ethnically and everyone is getting
along as much as possible under the
circumstances."
With state and local officials ad-
vising the majority of evacuees to
stay put until further notice, GFC
staff acknowledge that they may
be in for a long haul. Some of the
evacuees who came in last week
have been cleared to return to areas
north of Corpus Christi. However,
Dobin said that there's a second
wave of evacuees coming in from
Houston and other areas, who rode
out the storm successfully, but now
face the hardship of recovery.
"We've put out the word to our
participating congregations and the
Red Cross as well," he said. "People
(in the Houston-Galveston area)
who sheltered in place are now fac-
ing prolonged power outages and
shortages of almost everything
else." Without fresh water and city
services, those who didn't original-
ly need shelter may find comfort at
"Camp Ike."
One of the major issues in this
crisis has been lack of communi-
cation. Ike disabled infrastructure
in South Texas, and evacuees have
been unable to reach relatives by
phone or Internet. People are wor-
ried about friends and family who
chose to ride out the storm in South
Texas, or want to assure loved ones
out of state they're safe.
"We have a media room with
computers, newspapers, and a 60-
inch plasma TV screen, tuned to
CNN and the Weather Channel,"
Dobin said. Staff are also help-
ing the evacuees complete the Red
Cross "Safe and Well" information
and search the agency's national
database to locate relatives.
Three years ago, GFC played a
major role in the Hurricane Rita
evacuation and relief effort. "Camp
Rita" served hundreds of residents
of the Texas coast. Some of those
families were forced to return to
Bruceville for "Camp Ike."
The Union for Reform Judaism
does not accept federal money for
disaster relief. GFC is anticipating
reimbursement from the Red Cross
for the evacuees and volunteers
sheltered there. However, there's a
Photo: Courtesy URJ Greene Family Camp
Pictured (i-r) are Michael Soika (GFC Camp Committee chair). Rabbi Aian
Freedman, Lori Freedman, Rabbi David Saperstein, Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy,
and GFC staffers Loui Dobin, Stefani Rozen, Ted Cera and Rabbi Ana Bonnheim.
Mayor DuPuy and Rabbi Saperstein came to Greene Family Camp to visit with the
700 evacuees from Hurricane Ike.
difference between simply provid-
ing shelter and providing the mitz-
vah of a total "GFC experience,"
which is what Dobin and staff are
doing.
"We're running a camp, just like
we would for one of our congrega-
tions," Dobin said.
And it's not the end of hurricane
season. The URJ has a specific fund
to help camps like GFC and Camp
Henry S. Jacobs in Utica, Miss.,
who are major players in the relief
efforts for the Gulf Coast. The URJ
reports that about 200 people and
their pets were sheltered at Camp
Jacobs during Hurricane Gus-
tav. While Loui Dobin and Camp
Jacobs Director J.C. Cohen hope
that their facilities don't have to be
used again, anything is possible.
To make a donation for hurri-
cane relief, visit the URJ Web site at
http://ur j .org/relief.
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EQUAL HOUSING
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Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 38, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 18, 2008, newspaper, September 18, 2008; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth188207/m1/3/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .