UCSC Student Dies in Summer Camp When Tree Falls

 Bay City News

A staff member at a Jewish summer camp near Yosemite National Park died and as many as 20 people were injured this morning when a tree fell, according to Cal Fire and the camp's executive director.  

  Annais Rittenberg, a Camp Tawonga staff member, was killed when a tree fell at the campfire circle outside the camp's dining hall, executive director Ken Kramarz wrote in a letter sent to parents this afternoon.

  Rittenberg was about to enter her senior year at the University of California at Santa Cruz, school spokesman Guy Lasnier said. She was an environmental studies major affiliated with Porter College, he said.

  She worked at the KZSC campus radio station, he said. Rittenberg started school in 2010 and was due to graduate next spring, he said.

  According to Rittenberg's Facebook page, she is from New York, where she attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. She lists "counselor at Camp Tawonga" as one of her jobs on her online profile.

  The accident occurred at about 8:30 a.m. at Camp Tawonga, which is located at 31201 Mather Road in Tuolumne County outside of Yosemite.

  Campers were inside the nearby dining hall having breakfast when the incident occurred, Kramarz said in the letter.

  Four other adult staff members were taken to area hospitals. A Cal Fire spokesman said late this morning that a total of 20 people were injured. 

None of the young campers were hurt, Kramarz said.

  The campers were taken away from the area, and camp therapists are working with grief experts to help the camp community cope with the incident.

  Generators are providing power at the camp today because part of the tree that fell struck a PG&E power line, Kramarz said.

  He said more information would be sent to all camp families at 6 

p.m.

  Gail Witzlsteiner, spokeswoman for Sonora Regional Medical Center in Modesto, said two female camp counselors were transported to that hospital with minor injuries. One is a 20-year-old with injuries to both arms and the other is a 21-year-old with back pain, she said.

  Two other female camp counselors were transported to Doctors Medical Center and Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, she said.

  Early this afternoon, Camp Tawonga staff members were calling campers' families from the camp's San Francisco office to provide the latest information, Jewish Federation of the East Bay spokesman Kevin Vickery said.

  There are between 250 and 300 campers and 150 staff members on site during each session at the sleep-away camp, Vickery said.

  The federation is an Oakland-based Jewish organization that funds scholarships to send Bay Area students to the camp.