Summer is over, but the memories are still fresh. As a grandmother of several campers, I have a sort of panoramic view of the contemporary camp landscape – a landscape that has changed quite a bit since we, or even our children, went to camp in the 1960s through the early 2000s. Some of my grandchildren ran their own camps, some worked with special needs children, some were regular campers, and one traveled to an exotic location. I will use pseudonyms so as not to embarrass my grandchildren. After all, it is quite a burden to have a grandmother who thinks every experience of theirs is an idea for an article!
Waitressing
Sora spent her summer in Migdal, a
camp for special needs children. I remember from my teenage years that it was
considered a privilege to go to a camp like that and work directly with
children who are sick or who have special needs. I was curious what the draw is
to be spending your summer doing this special work.
Sora explained, “I wanted the
opportunity to give and to learn to love the campers for what they are. I
worked as a waitress, so I was not in charge of a particular camper. Working in
a camp like Migdal is like being a mother. You are not thinking of yourself;
you are thinking of the campers and what is good for them. It is a chance to
spread your wings and to see how much you can accomplish and grow.
“Every child has his or her own private
counselor, and to give the counselors a break, the other staff members take
over at certain parts of the day. I attended some of the activities to give the
other counselors a break, and I had the opportunity to develop a close
relationship with some of the campers. The work is so hard, but the reward you
earn is everlasting.” Sora said that, although she was paid a very small
salary, her reward was not monetary. “At the end of summer, we had a special
staff banquet, and a beautiful song was sung about the children and our
relationship with them. We felt appreciated and fulfilled.”
Camp Director
Like many other Baltimore
teenagers, a few of my grandchildren made their own camps. Raizy was very
enthusiastic about her experience, although she is not sure she would want to
do it again because it was very hard. On the plus side, it was exciting to make
money, and it was fun to be the boss and not have others tell her what to do. On
the other hand, it was hard to take care of 4- and 5-year-old boys. Listening
to instructions is not their greatest skill!
One of the things she noticed was
that the age of the children made a big difference. Although all the children
were born the same year, the 4-year-olds were more interested in building
towers, and the children closer to five were more interested in knocking down the
other children’s towers.
Raizy really knew the way to the
hearts of little boys. Her theme was vehicles. Every week, a different vehicle
was emphasized: school buses, police cars, firetrucks, RVs, etc. The projects were
centered around that kind of vehicle. For example, during school bus week, they
made pencils out of pretzel sticks, and during firetruck week, they made
cookies with red icing and decorated spritz bottles.
They went on two trips during the
summer. One trip was a bus ride. Most of the children had never been on a bus,
so it was very exciting. They took the bus to a dollar store where everyone
could choose a prize! They also played a lot of sports. One of Raizy’s boy
cousins is great at sports and came to teach the boys how to play soccer and
other games.
Raizy was careful to have all parents’
phone numbers on hand so she could text or call if necessary. One child had
food allergies, so she texted the mother very often to check on the ingredients
of the food projects. Once a child hit another child with a stick, and he got a
cut. Raizy was a little worried when she called the mother of the hurt child,
but the mother was not concerned and said she would see the cut when her son
came home.
Just Camp
My seven-year-old grandson, Eitan –
that is his real name because he wanted to see himself written about in the Where
What When – was happy to tell me what he enjoyed about his camp. It sounds
like he enjoyed almost everything. He liked sports especially and explained to
me the rules of a game called Mushroom, which sounded very similar to games we
played as children. But he also liked story time, playtime, and water time.
Camping in Alaska
Another one of my grandchildren did
something unusual; he spent two weeks in a camp in Alaska. It seems that
adventure camps in exotic locales is a trend; there are adventure camps for
yeshiva bachurim in Switzerland, Israel, and Costa Rica. When I heard
about my grandson’s plans, I immediately asked him to take notes so I could
write all about it.
I asked his mother why they would
even think about sending their son to Alaska. His mother explained that Dovid
does not like sports, which is the main activity in most camps. He did not want
to go to camp at all, but he needed a structure that would include davening and
learning. It is hard for a boy to have the discipline to get up in the morning
and go to shul, especially when there are no brothers around. His parents saw
an ad about this trip to Alaska, which seemed to be exactly what they were
looking for. An added incentive was that the learning rebbe was our relative,
Rabbi Avi Kosman.
When Dovid told me about his
experience, it didn’t sound like this camp was for people who like to sit
still. Every day they went on another exciting trip. Even though Alaska is one
of the 50 states, it is like another country. The flight took seven hours just
to get there. Dovid could not get over how beautiful Alaska is and how very
different it is from life on the East Coast. In the summertime, it is only dark
from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., so Shabbos started at around 10:30 p.m. and ended at
12:30 a.m. They ate the Shabbos meal at 11:30 at night, and Shacharis started
at 11:00 the next morning.
One day they went on a seven-hour
hike up a very tall mountain. The first hour-and-a-half was in a forest, but as
it got colder and higher, the terrain changed. The second hour-and-a-half, they
were surrounded by shrubs and grass. Then they went beyond the tree line to an
area of mud and snow. When they reached the top, they saw glaciers, and they
could see planes flying beneath them.
They went to the biggest national
park in America, called Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Dovid
told me that the park is eight times the size of the country of Israel. They brought
tents and camped out in the park. Other activities were kayaking, whitewater
rafting, ziplines, and a ride on a sea plane. They even went on a dogsled ride.
The boys had to be careful not to fall in when kayaking because the water temperature
was 33 degrees F. “You can only live two minutes in such cold water,” Dovid
told me gleefully.
A staff member described the rationale
for a camp like this: “The camp stressed the spiritual parts of the day,
davening and learning, but each day, the schedule was different. Every day was a
wow trip. Even the fun became a medium for growth.”
*
* *
Summer is the time to try new
things and have new experiences. As we begin the school year, summer seems a
long way off, but families can start planning for next summer. The
possibilities keep expanding so that each child can, hopefully, find a place
where he or she can have fun and thrive.
