SubscribeYFC — The powers behind the throne: Julie Kremer
Anyone who has been on a cruise, guided tour, or to sleep away camp knows that it’s the staff that can make of break the experience. So I though it only appropriate to give nod to some of the people behind the scenes that make everything run so smoothly.
Julie Kremer, left, and Amysue Manzione
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Julie Kremer, camp director, and Amysue Manzione, assistant camp director: Everything runs through these young women. They’re the administrative end, that keeps everything running smoothly, from arranging the Yankees players to scheduling the buses to dozens of little items that go unnoticed until something goes wrong.
Kremer worked in close association with Ira Jaskoll on the kosher component of this year’s camp, the first time the organization has offered such a feature. She has been in charge of the whole smear since 2004. “We had two kosher campers [in 2008; Jaskoll was one of them] that had called and they were interested in attending. They had concerns, obviously, because we weren’t providing kosher food. I said, if you arrange the food, we’ll go on with business as usual. Once camp was over, I spoke with Ira Jaskoll and he had the idea that we would offer kosher accommodations and on top of that we would go through the whole process of ordering kosher food, and on top of that, we would also provide Saturday services and Friday services as well.”
After services, the Kosher campers will have a few guest speakers, including former Yankee Ron Blomberg;, Marty Appell, former public relations director for the Yankees, and author of a recently published biography of Thurman Munson; and Irwin Cohen, author of seven books, and a former writer for a national baseball publication for five years before earning a World Series ring working as a department head for the Detroit Tigers in 1984.
“Instead of the ‘Dream Game,’ [which pits the Yankees legends against the campers] on Saturday, we made a special dream game on Friday.” For most people, Kremer said, this was the highlight of the week, and since the games were normally scheduled for Saturdays, observant Jewish campers would be precluded from participating.
There are not enough Orthodox Jewish campers to make up a full team, so Kremer said
The response has been good, considering the economy. “I think we were right where we wanted to be,” she said. “Like everything, there’s that building process. And being where we are, I think it’s only going to get better for next year.”
The January session also has six observant Jews registered, she said. Jaskoll will once again serve as point man.
It’s something we’ve always talked about,” Kremer said. “It makes you a little nervous because it’s the first time we’ve done it, but we’ve done fine and the response has been great.”
Kremer, who is not Jewish, said this has been a learning experience. “There’s a lot I did not know and Ira’s been very good at teaching me what it’s all about, and it’s been great. We’re looking forward to next year.”
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Good column, Ron. Julie deserves a lot of credit as does her staff. Ira also did a great job and it went off as well as could be expected. Hope the numbers of orthodox campers increase but almost 10 percent of all campers was very good representation. Take care, Irwin