Parents alerted to camp closure
By Christie Wilson
Neighbor Island Editor
WAILUKU, Maui — Child Welfare Services yesterday was attempting to contact the families of 80 children who were expected to fly to Maui this month to attend Aloha Adventure Camps at a cost of $1,150 per week.
The camp, operating at the Girl Scout Council of Hawai'i's Camp Pi'iholo in Makawao, was shut down Wednesday because owner/director Llew Lazarus did not have insurance, said Gail Mukaihata Hannemann, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts in Hawai'i.
After complaints about camp management surfaced this week, Hannemann flew to Maui to meet with Lazarus.
"Once we realized he had no insurance, the decision to terminate our (rental) agreement was not a problem," Hannemann said.
"We just had to make sure the children would be well taken care of."
Hannemann said she was not aware of any problems with Aloha Adventure Camps from the three previous summers when the outfit had used Camp Pi'iholo to run photography and surfing camps. This year, five weeklong sessions were scheduled to run from June 29 through Aug. 3.
Some of the 36 campers who arrived June 29 and several of 17 who arrived Tuesday managed to get flights home, but nine boys and seven girls, ranging in age from 11 to 17, were taken into custody Wednesday night by Child Welfare Services since they had no place to go.
By yesterday, 11 had returned home and the five others remained in Hawai'i with their parents or family friends, said Department of Human Services spokesman Derick Dahilig.
Parents, campers and counselors have complained that Lazarus was behaving inappropriately. They also said they were concerned about safety, including the lack of an on-site nurse. At least two police reports were filed this week, one made by a camp counselor alleging Lazarus made sexually inappropriate remarks to campers and the other by a New York parent who was upset with the situation.
Lt. Bobby Hill of the Maui Police Department said neither complaint involves allegations of criminal wrongdoing.
Hill said Lazarus, 39, told officers that his name was Raymond L. Thomas. He also used the name Llew Thomas in April when reporting to police that a trailer containing $25,000 in camp equipment was stolen from a Pa'ia lot.
The Advertiser has been unable to reach Lazarus since the camp was closed Wednesday.
When contacted Tuesday, Lazarus characterized the trouble as a "misunderstanding" that started when a remark by a staff member was misconstrued by others. Rumors about the incident upset some of the campers, he said, and they decided to leave.
Campers who spoke to The Advertiser said Lazarus didn't give them a choice but to leave.
Kimberly Praske, 17, of Chicago, was one of the campers who flew home Tuesday night. She said yesterday that she worked at a Walgreens drugstore to save up enough money to pay for a week at surfing camp and her $834 airfare.
In addition to the other complaints, Praske said she was unhappy that the group went surfing only three times during the week and only for a couple hours at a time. She also said she was led to believe she would be sharing a four-person cabin but ended up in a tent with six other campers. The bedding was inadequate, Praske said, and she was cold at night.
"It was my first time ever in Hawai'i, and it was really disappointing to spend it like that," the teenager said.
Mindi Verhaeghe of Mesa, Ariz., said she got a call from Child Welfare Services staff yesterday telling her the camp was closed. Verhaeghe had used her credit card in March to pay for a one-week session for her 13-year-old son and isn't sure if she'll be able to get her money back.
Lazarus apparently has not been in contact with parents or officials since the camp closed. He told The Advertiser on Tuesday that he had been operating the camp for nine years.
Aloha Adventure Camps was accredited in 2000 by the American Camping Association, with a routine site inspection done in 2003. Before this summer, the association had not received any complaints about the Maui camp, said ACA Executive Director Peg Smith.
Officials from the association's Southern Califor-nia/Hawai'i Section are continuing to investigate the complaints received this week, she said.
The Maui staff of the state Office of Consumer Protection has not received any recent complaints about Aloha Adventure Camps, but it did get a complaint in 2002 from a California parent who claimed the camp misrepresented itself. Colette Watanabe of the Maui office said she was unable to pursue the complaint because the parent did not follow through.
Watanabe encouraged parents who want a refund for this summer's sessions to file a complaint with her office at (808) 984-8244.
Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
