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Steven Schoenberger (Nivo ’96) Traveling Through Time
TRAVELING THROUGH TIME
by Steven Schoenberger, Nivo 1996
The magic of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin is time travel. The place, its magical ability, allows you in the blink of an eye, to jump back weeks, months, years, and decades, or to glimpse into the future for yourself and your family.
My Ramah past could begin with my first summer as a camper, in 1994, or could go all the way back more than 50 years, to the late 60’s when my mom was a camper and met my dad there. Another Ramah past of mine begins in 1999, when I met my wife, Louise (Nivo ‘97), during staff week as Machon counselors. Fast forward to present day, and we are sending our eldest off as part of Nivo ‘23. Louise and I hope that having all four of our kids at camp this upcoming summer will foreshadow our future and give us a taste of life as empty nesters!
After recently returning home from my 25th Nivo reunion, I reflected on the impact the Ramah experience has had on my life. In the mid-90’s I never could have imagined that the same group of people I danced with on the kikar and sang with in the Beit Am would be those whom I danced with at their weddings and sang with at the b’nai mitzvah of their children. The friends I visited in college and continue to travel with on vacations are the same friends I bunked with on the Givah and paddled down a river with on camping trips. Today, we don’t only experience camp through the eyes of our children, Micah, Laila, Rina, and Shira, but we also have nostalgia for our own days at Ramah and can be wistful for our kids’ futures as well. Camp is already a place that they cherish, a summer home where they are forging the same lifelong friendships and creating the same memories that we did.
The time-travel lens makes Louise and I appreciate the importance of helping to strengthen Ramah’s future. We want to make sure that camp continues to grow and thrive. We want camp to help provide the experiences and memories to others that we had the chance to experience ourselves. One way we have done this is by committing to being part of Ramah’s Legacy Society. It was around our 13th Nivo reunions that Louise and I first documented this commitment. A few years back I reaffirmed this goal and accepted the role of co-chair of the Legacy Society for camp. I continue to share my camp story with others to encourage them to consider making a legacy pledge and helping to secure camp’s future.
Everytime I visit camp, I personally am reminded of over six-decades of my family’s bond with camp. From my grandparents, to my parents, to Louise and me, to our children. Our personal, familial, philanthropic, and communal commitment has been maintained, and we hope through our own planning we can continue this virtuous cycle well for decades to come.
Steven and Louise and family at camp.
