Dear CW Families,
Wow! That’s all I can say, wow! What an incredible first week of the 2021 summer!! After 680+ days, Camp Wise reopened to welcome our first group of campers back to the Home of Happiness. I am beyond grateful to spend time with each and every one of your campers; thank you for trusting Camp Wise to provide a safe, warm, and welcoming home away from home for your children.
This first week was filled with ruach (spirit), energy, and happiness! Wearing masks did not stop us from standing on our benches and singing our hearts out in our first ever indoor/outdoor song session. All throughout camp, sounds of joy were carried in the breeze as campers reunited with old friends and new friendships started to form.
After receiving the news that all first session campers and staff are negative for COVID-19 we are excited to spend even more time together as a camp community. Following the guidance of the CDC, American Camp Association, and our medical advisors here is what will change tomorrow morning:
- All of camp will move into one dining facility, the chadar. Masks will be worn to enter the dining hall, when cheering, singing, or moving about the building.
- When indoors (outside of meal times), everyone will wear masks when interacting with campers or staff from outside of their village.
- When outdoors (except for all-camp activities), masks will be optional.
- Masks will be required for all-camp activities that involve sustained close contact with other people (like Shabbat services).
In 2019 we focused on the core value of b’tzelem Elohim (in the image of God). We taught that being created in God’s image means that no matter the color of your skin, who you love, your gender-identity, what country you come from, or your abilities, you should be accepted and celebrated for exactly who you are.
This year we are focusing on Tikkun Olam (repairing the world), and all the responsibilities that come with being created b’tzelem Elohim. We are learning about how we must partner with God through social justice, social action, and being shomrei ha’adamah (guardians of the earth) to make the world a better place.
We do not just want to talk the talk, but to walk the walk. Tikkun Olam will be seen throughout all aspects of camp this summer, including Shabbat. Each Shabbat will focus on Tikkun Olam in some way, and Tosafot started us off, as they taught camp about Juneteenth. We focused on how everyone’s destiny is bound together and MLK’s words that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This is of course timely since President Biden signed into law, after it was voted on almost unanimously by both the House and the Senate, that Juneteenth is now a national holiday.
In the end there is love. We are commanded “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The commandment is to love, not like. This is a love born of respect and understanding for others. In the end there is love, and when there is love there is tikkun olam.
Below is a short highlight from each cabin this week. Stay tuned to your CampIn Touch this week for new and unmasked cabin photos!
I look forward to sharing more next week. Thank you for allowing us to spend part of our summer with your amazing campers!
Shavua Tov,
Rachel
C1
C1 is full of energy and the campers are always happy. Bunk night was really special for the cabin as they all started to get to know each other. They’re all making friends in the cabin and coming together as one group.
C2
C2 had a great time this week playing at the lake and making their very first Camp Wise tie dye t-shirts! Everywhere we go the campers are excited to try new activities. We even reached new heights on the climbing tower!
C4
Everyone in C4 is getting along and making new friends. A special moment for us this week was when we played soccer against C2 and we won! Some activities that we really enjoyed were archery and swimming. It was nice to cool off in the pool after a hot day.
C7
The C7 campers are loving camp and adjusting very well. We love spending time together in the cabin and out at activities. Some activities that we enjoyed were when we went to tie dye and the climbing tower. A special moment we had this week was getting to have a birthday celebration for one of our friends in the cabin!
O1
O1 has had a lot of fun in the cabin writing mad libs and making a fort with the spare bed in the cabin. When we’re outside we love playing roofball as a cabin. Our favorite cabin activity this week was pottery, everyone had a great time building monsters out of clay!
O2
O2 has shown so much energy; cheering at meals, song sessions, and campfires. O2 Pad Thai is definitely going to make an impact on Camp Wise this summer. So far we’ve played a lot sports including football and kickball. We’re also working on keeping our cabin clean, after a slow start we are averaging a 9.7 out 10!
O3
O3 has enjoyed getting to know each other. We had a really special moment when we were at podcasting and worked together to create a song! We also had fun at basketball where we pushed past our comfort zones and worked together as a team.
O5
We have had a busy week with archery, fitness, and pottery being some of our highlights! O5 is full of creativity – at our Obscure Kitchen Appliance Shark Tank they designed a cup that stabilizes to prevent spills! We also bonded as a cabin when we went on a hike and played camouflage!
O7
O7 is having a lot of fun hanging in the cabin, making string bracelets, and getting to know each other! We loved our yoga cabin activity, we all got involved and played together. We also love time and spend a lot of time bonding as a cabin before bed.
O8
Everyone is having a lot of fun and making new friends in O8 while also spending time in the village and getting to know other people as well! Some activities that we really enjoyed this week were soccer, mountain biking, and lacrosse. We definitely bonded while challenging ourselves in some new activities.
O9
Everyone in O9 is eager to participate in all activities and open to trying new things, like working on our balance on the whale watch at low ropes. We also love playing teva (nature) games, especially 10 seconds under water. This week one of the campers lost a tooth and the tooth fairy came, everyone enjoyed treats together!
O10
We love spending time together as a cabin, during one of our free periods we played board games in the moadon and it was a great bonding experience. We also had a lot of fun at our tennis cabin activity, the cabin has already requested to go back and play again!
N1
N1 is spending a lot of time getting to know each other and bonding as a cabin. Those of us who knew each other before camp are getting closer while new friendships are emerging both in the cabin and in the village of Noar. Our favorite cabin activities have been teva (nature), drama, and basketball!
N2
N2 is having a great time loving playing cards together with others in the village. We use a free cabin activity to build forts in the woods, everyone had a blast! And one of the best activities we did this week was boating. Everyone loved jumping in the water and swimming out to the aquajump.
N3
Everyone in N3 is getting along, we especially like to talk about music and share it as a common interest. We loved our time at the lake, it was a great way to cool off on a hot day. We also bonded over a special moment when we made a memorial service for our counselor, Idan’s, shoe. They all get silly talking about special memories they had with the shoe!
N4
N4 loves to hang together and spend time in hammocks that are hanging right by cabin. All of our activities have been a blast, but especially time at the lake, lacrosse, and fitness. Gabi, one of the counselors, is a great story teller and it has become a nighttime ritual in the cabin. The stories always fun and silly!
N5
The N5 girls are hilarious and are constantly smiling! We love dancing during meals, cheering at every opportunity, and making hundreds of string bracelets. We also loved leading our own yoga sessions with a gymnastics twist, going on the paddleboards in the lake, and working out with the fitness specialist, Ido.
N6
N6 started a tradition at night where we each share a highlight from the day and something we’re looking forward to tomorrow. It’s a great to bond as a cabin! This week we went on a staff scavenger hunt all around camp, we had so much getting staff to answer wacky questions!
N7
N7 has loved all the activities this week, especially soccer, lacrosse and boating! It doesn’t matter if we are pro athletes, we just love playing and spending time together. When we have some time to hang in the village, you can find us on the platform by our cabin listening to music, reading, making bracelets, and getting to know each other better!
N8
N8 is bonding as a cabin while also branching out and making new friends in the village. We had a special moment during a water fight in the village and then taking some time to enjoy the sun and listen to music after. Some activities we enjoyed were paddle boarding and kayaking in the lake. We also loved low ropes which helped us bond as a cabin group.
Solel
Solel is off to a fun summer already! We have renamed ourselves as Adam Sandler, and the campers have made so many cheers to make it known throughout camp. The village has been filled with ruach (spirit), support, acceptance, and laughter from morning to night. S1 enjoyed their time at Live Wise with Rabbi Shana, and playing/leading baseball, kickball, and football with the rest of the village. S2 has been relearning classic card games from summers past and enjoying their time on the deck. Their bond is really strengthening, especially with some awesome team building in Low Ropes. In S3, the cabin has been enjoying making tons of friendship bracelets, while also teaching each other how to do special designs. They’ve been spending a lot of time on the deck and getting to know people throughout the village. S4 already has memories to share from this summer, especially from when they made a hip hop dance in cabin activity together and spent the night talking together as a cabin. Our evening programs have been filled with Adam Sandler jokes, understanding each other’s favorite type of tree, and laughing throughout the whole night. As a village, we learned to master the art of Laser Tag, where campers competed on teams and tried to capture the opponent’s flag first. We can’t wait for more adventures within Solel and are looking forward to more and more time spent on the deck!
Tosafot
Tosafot has had so many great activities this week! Our first morning we went to the lake and had a blast tubing (and falling off). We had the most extreme time in extreme outdoor adventure with Ranger Ryan. Who knew that DaBaby and ballet went so well together? We did in our DaBallet evening program! We’re really bonding over our nightly campfires. We sang songs and some campers played their guitars for us. We also made memory jars during the campfire and each campers has a mason jar in which they put a new memory every night.