Improper behavior alleged at youth camp

By Christie Wilson
Neighbor Island Editor

MAKAWAO, Maui — Dozens of families are trying to recoup thousands of dollars in fees and what's left of their summer vacation after the Girl Scout Council of Hawai'i shut down a private camp operator who was leasing the council's Camp Pi'iholo on Maui.

The youths, who came from all parts of the United States and Australia, stayed at a hotel under state custody, Dahilig said. Thirteen of the campers were to have left for home yesterday, he said.

Police Lt. Bobby Hill said no criminal allegations have been made, but parents, campers and counselors interviewed by The Advertiser say the photography and surfing camp, which charged $1,150 per week plus airfare, was poorly run and that they were concerned about safety.

Diana Crew of Denver said she received a call Tuesday from her 15-year-old son who said the 36 campers had all been ordered to go home. She signed up for a three-week session for her son and a four-week session for her 13-year-old daughter.

Crew said she had to leave a business meeting in Austin, Texas, to fly to Maui to get her children, arriving here Wednesday. As of yesterday, she still had not been able to contact Lazarus and doesn't know if she'll be able to get her money back.

"This is not the summer I envisioned for my kids," Crew said.

Girl Scout officials on Maui referred calls about the situation to Hawai'i Girl Scout Chief Executive Officer Gail Mukaihata Hannemann, who did not return phone calls this week. The Advertiser was unable to contact Lazarus after the camp was closed by the Girl Scouts.

But on Tuesday, Lazarus characterized the trouble as a "misunderstanding" that started when a remark by a staff member was misconstrued by others. He said rumors about the incident started spreading, upsetting some of the youths. He denied that he ordered the first group of 36 campers, who arrived June 29, to leave Tuesday, even though some had paid to stay for more than one of the five weeklong sessions offered. Lazarus said some of the campers had become uncomfortable about staying and that they were leaving of their own accord.

But counselor Jennifer Street of 'Ewa Beach said Lazarus was the staff member who made sexually inappropriate remarks to a boy about some of the girl campers, and that he was acting "weird." She said two girl campers also reported that Lazarus was leering at them while they were changing their clothes in a van.

Counselors and campers told The Advertiser that Lazarus had a second group of 17 children who arrived Tuesday spend their first night in a tent at the beach to avoid interaction with the first group. Although the group was co-ed, the three counselors chaperoning them at the beach were all male, they said.

Street, 25, a second-grade teacher at Pohakea Elementary School, said the counselors had other concerns about safety, such as Lazarus driving too fast, seatbelts missing from a 15-passenger van, lack of an on-site nurse, and delayed medical treatment for a girl who broke her toe and Crew's son, who suffered a severe sunburn.

Assistant camp director Melody Dean, 26, a student from San Francisco who said she has worked at summer camps on the Mainland, said she was so concerned that she called the police Monday, and was then fired by Lazarus for doing so.

Neither Dean nor Street had worked at Aloha Adventure Camps before. Street said she signed on as a surf instructor/lifeguard/girls counselor for $100 a week "to have fun with some kids."

Parent Diana Crew ended up taking her children and two others, along with Street, Dean and two other female counselors to a Ka'anapali hotel for the rest of the week.

Another parent, Jayne Gumpel of Larchmont, N.Y., said yesterday that when she heard what was going on, she also called the police. Gumpel's son, David, 16, who was supposed to spend three weeks at Aloha Adventure Camps, told her "the guy was really weird and that things got out of control."

Gumpel said her son was "really bummed" that the camp closed. "He said he had a really good week," she said. "He had met some people he really liked and he didn't want to leave."

Gumpel said she has yet to hear from Lazarus.

Lazarus said Tuesday that he had been operating the camp for nine years. Aloha Adventure Camps was accredited in 2000 by the American Camping Association. A routine site inspection was done in 2003, according to association Executive Director Peg Smith.

Smith said yesterday the association had gotten a number of complaints from parents about the Maui camp this week, but that there had no prior complaints from previous years. She said she was "very troubled" by the reports.

In response to the complaints, the association's Southern California/Hawai'i Section dispatched a representative from O'ahu, an official with Kama'aina Kids, to lend professional support to the camp and to try to get information on the complaints, according to section President Michele Branconier.

Smith said the association's emphasis is on educating camp owners on key aspects of running a quality camp operation. Accreditation by the camping association is a process that can take several years as camps take steps to comply with 300 standards that cover staff hiring, health, safety and other issues.

Accredited camps must file annual compliance reports and every three years a site visit is conducted.

Both Crew and Gumpel said they learned about Aloha Adventure Camps from assorted summer camp Web sites, and verified the Maui camp's accreditation with the American Camping Association. Crew said she also spoke to families in New Jersey and California "who said it was a great camp."

"They seemed to have everything: scuba diving, photography, surfing," she said.

Crew's daughter, Katherine, said she was excited about attending the Maui camp because of "surfing, paintball, parasailing, diving and waterfall jumping."

She said she was sad to be losing the close friends she made at the camp during her week there. "It ruined my summer," she said.

Gumpel said the camp also was mentioned in a New York publication. "I figured it was all right. It had been going for a while, and it was publicly known. I felt comfortable sending him there," she said.

The Aloha Adventure Camps Web site says it is run by the nonprofit Hawaiian Cultural Preservation Association. The state's business registration office said the association was incorporated in May 2000, and Aloha Adventure Camps in May 2003.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.