By Skylar Chasen, LIT Counselor
Our Leaders in Training (LITs – rising 11th grade) spent the first week and a half of camp on an exploration trip throughout the southern region of the country. On this trip, the campers learned about the history of the Civil Rights Movement through a unique Jewish lens.
This trip really opened our eyes to how deep-rooted America’s history is in our present-day life. Something that stood out is that each block of the cities we visited finds a way to honor the city’s history – whether good or bad.
We were fortunate enough to hear from several speakers who shared about their life stories and taught the campers the importance of learning, remembering, and passing on stories from the past. This is extremely important in Judaism and ensuring we preserve the stories of our ancestors for generations to come.
In addition to the Civil Rights museums and engaging speakers, we did endless fun activities that enabled the campers to bond with each other in an entirely new way and space. We swam in the Mississippi River, went bowling in Alabama, and tried all kinds of new foods in Atlanta. I truly saw the kids’ bonds with one another strengthen throughout the week and look forward to watching the lessons on this trip impact their leadership and camp experiences.
Now that we are back on camp, the LITs have been learning what it means to be a leader on camp. We’ve had incredible leadership blocks, including real and meaningful conversations with leadership team members. We’ve had interactive activities such as Camp Is Cake, where we look at all the ingredients of a cake separately in order to represent how camp is composed of many different parts and creates something amazing when put together as a recipe.
