By Melissa Grossman, Family + Community Engagement Director

We gathered on the plaza this morning for B’Yachad (joining together as a camp community) to raise the flags, sing our morning songs including Hatikvah and Modeh Ani and laugh at our shticky weather and sports report from some of our seasoned counselors. As I looked around, I couldn’t help but to smile watching our community ready to start their first official day at Capital Camps. I saw backpacks filled with towels, bathing suits and water bottles, sneakers ready for outdoor adventure and sports and watched many campers who arrived to the flagpoles early eager to get started, learning the 2024 camp dance (the song is titled “Lighter” by Galantis, take a listen on your own – your kids will be impressed when they return home!).

There is something about that eagerness of the first day that is very inspiring to those of us who work for Capital Camps year round. In my role, the “planning season” includes recruiting new campers, following up with returning campers, planning events like camper reunions and new camper Shabbat dinners and working with community partners at synagogues, day schools and JCCs to ensure their communities are aware that Capital Camps is the place to be! We have several prospective family days/tours as well as community partner days this summer. We can’t wait to show visitors our summer home, observing children as their best selves – where they will see your children as their best selves – playing sports, making mezuzot in omanut (arts and crafts), jumping off the trampoline in the lake and so much more with their best friends in their favorite place.

By Nate Strauss, Camp Director

In the last 24 hours, I have had the honor and pleasure to welcome hundreds of campers back to Waynesboro, PA for what I know will be an amazing and impactful first session of Summer 2024! Throughout the day yesterday, I got to meet so many families and their campers, hearing all about what our campers are looking forward to and are excited about. Once our campers arrived and handed off their luggage, they got to meet our amazing staff members, play games, have dance parties, and connect with friends, both new and old. Once everyone arrived and gathered by village, they got to meet their counselors and were assigned their cabins. Watching each cabin community form was incredibly special for me as I start my first summer here at Capital Camps. The joy and enthusiasm I saw on the faces of our campers was deeply meaningful. 

Right after cabin assignments were given out, I had the privilege of getting to meet with every village for a “Meet the Director” session, where we talked about our commitment to providing safety and fun for every camper. Campers and staff spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking, exploring their villages, and getting ready for their first dinner in our dining hall.  

After dinner, we gathered for an exciting opening night program where campers got to experience camp traditions such as watching our Leadership Team perform our Summer 2024 camp dance and think about what they’re most excited about for the session. We also formerly introduced the theme of the summer, Am Echad / One People. This theme embodies the global Jewish peoplehood that every camper, staff, and member of our community is a part of and can experience right here at camp. Campers will experience the theme through programming, activity blocks, and much more. 

I am deeply excited to see what else this summer brings and I know that our campers of all ages will have a wonderful session here at Capital Camps! 

Happy May! I hope you and your family had a wonderful Passover full of reflection, favorite foods, and time with family, friends, and community. This Passover was particularly special for me, as I concluded the holiday by officially moving from Michigan to Washington, D.C. Since moving, I have loved getting to be in-person with the Camp Team and larger Capital Camps & Retreat Center team as we work together and plan for an amazing Summer 2024 (including finalizing all of the awesome swag for our campers and staff).   I have started to develop a morning routine to make sure that I get in the car and get to the CCRC office on time. This routine has become a ritual for me, as I can ensure that all I need to accomplish gets done on time. My routine reminds me of some of the customs that we as Jewish people observe during the counting of the Omer, the unique mitzvah of counting the days between the second Passover seder and the holiday of Shavuot. Just as the counting of the Omer is a countdown to Shavuot where we celebrate receiving the Torah, each day that I come to work at Capital Camps is one day closer to the start of Summer 2024! I love the opportunity to rejoice, and both receiving the Torah and the start of camp feel like great reasons to celebrate to me.    The month of May is not just a time to count the Omer, but it is also Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health is at the forefront of our focus here at Capital Camps. Not only do we know how our campers and staff benefit mentally from being outside in nature for the time they’re in Waynesboro, but we also know that the beautiful community we create at camp can help us all feel more connected. So, as you continue to count the Omer and get ready for the celebration of receiving the Torah and the start of camp, I invite you to also take a few deep breaths, spend time outside when the weather is nice, treat yourself to something fun, and check in with yourself and your family to see how you’re feeling. You are not alone, truly, and this community is here for you always.   As we count 20 days of the Omer, 219 days since October 7th and 133 hostages still being held in Gaza, we also count with positive anticipation the remaining 41 days until the start of Summer 2024.  Looking forward to seeing our campers and staff in Waynesboro next month.  Leadership Team Weekend scavenger hunt

Happy April, Capital Camps! As the trees start to bloom and rain rolls in (to help all of the wonderful plants at camp grow), we get even closer to the start of Summer 2024 in Waynesboro, PA. April is a special time for our team, as the annual Leadership Team Weekend at camp starts today! We will gather to dream up the best programming and experiences for our camp community. April is also a special month this year because the Jewish holiday of Passover is coming soon. Passover holds special and unique meaning to Jewish people around the world and for me, Passover is an important reminder that we, as Jewish people, can both remember and commemorate our ancestors who were enslaved in the land of Egypt and experience the freedom we get to feel in our everyday life.  

Thinking more about the idea of freedom, camp is the perfect setting to truly get to experience and feel free. For our campers, freedom is flying down the zipline and feeling the wind rush by them. For our counselors and staff, freedom is getting to create and plan programs that help showcase their interests and passions in front of an inclusive and special community. One of the ways I experience freedom while spending time outdoors is by practicing mindful breathing and meditation, getting to bring fresh air into my body and notice all that’s around me. Never practiced mindful breathing before? I’d love to invite you to try it out right here in this newsletter! 

Mindful Breathing with Camp Director Nate 

• First, stretch your arms up over your head or lift your shoulders up towards your ears and then lower your arms or shoulders down 
• Next, do the same thing, but this time, take a deep breath in as you stretch your arms or shoulder and breathe out as you lower 
• Try this three times, breathing in as you lift and breathing out as you lower 
• Now, try to take three breaths with your arms down, breathing in slowly, but this time, breath out loudly, just like the roar of a lion 
• After you’ve tried this, shake your arms and your legs a few times to find movement, and see how you feel after breathing 

Want to see an example of this mindful breathing? Check out this Instagram post on my new Camp Director account. If you have Instagram, be sure to give me a follow! 

This Passover, let us keep all who are struggling in Israel, in the United States, and around the world in our thoughts, prayers, and most importantly, our actions. As we gather with our families around our Passover seder and hear the saying, “next year in Jerusalem,” maybe we can also add, “and this summer at Capital Camps!”

Happy Passover! 

Ben Weiner, Atzma’im Counselor and Capital Camps Intern

I became aware of the Atzma’im/inclusion program’s existence at Capital Camps only in my 10th grade summer. I believe that that speaks volumes to the incredible job that Atzma’im counselors have done and will continue doing to allow their campers the ability to gain independence and help support them, all while ensuring they never feel singled out.

For the past two years on staff, I have been an Atzma’im counselor for several campers requiring vastly differing ranges of support. There is no better feeling than seeing your camper be accepted, included, and appreciated by their cabinmates no matter their physical, emotional, or intellectual disability. Through my work as an Atzma’im counselor, my camp view has completely shifted. Not all campers love dancing in a loud Habimah/central area or can handle silent prayer on Saturday mornings. Although these were staples throughout my camp experience, the Atzma’im program is about providing campers with equitable accommodations to best support their needs while also supplying them with a meaningful and enjoyable Jewish experience.

There is no one-size-fits-all model for Capital Camps and the Atzma’im program is the perfect image of that. All campers gain a better understanding of how to support those different from themselves and gain inclusion skills that can be found nowhere else. Since my involvement in the program, I have volunteered with several disability inclusion programs at Clemson University. Inclusion starts with Capital Camps but it most definitely does not end there. I’m forever thankful for my involvement in the program and I can’t wait to see what camp experiences are forever impacted this summer as a result.

Hannah Stoller, Director of Inclusion

While I love countless aspects of Capital Camps, what has kept me here for 16 years and continues to fuel my love for this place is the Atzma’im program, our fully integrative inclusion component. Through various support structures, we ensure that campers with a wide range of disabilities and neurodiverse identities can experience the magic of camp.

The “what” and the “who” of the Atzma’im program are pretty simple. Campers who need some extra help in order to have their needs met at camp are assigned a “go-to” counselor who provides 1:1 support. What’s a little more nuanced and commonly misunderstood is the “why” of Atzma’im. Inclusion is a longstanding Jewish value, and we have the Torah texts to back that up. B’tzelem Elohim is the idea that all people are created in God’s image, and it is introduced at the very beginning of the Torah. This value guides our understanding of why we continue to cherish and nurture our Atzma’im program.

The concept of B’tzelem Elohim teaches us that every single person has inherent value and beauty to bring to the world. We know that every child has their own strengths and gifts to contribute; accessibility limitations should not prevent campers from being able to share their gifts with us and experience others’ gifts. When we keep our doors open to campers of all abilities, we can all experience each other’s different strengths and subsequently become more independent, more empathetic, more justice-oriented. There is no one party that benefits the most from the Atzma’im Program. It simply enhances our entire community, and its impact is woven into all aspects of camp life. We are committed to inclusion because it’s right and just, but also because it’s the best. 

Art comes in many forms here at Capital Camps: it could be through the literal making of art in Omanut (our art room), dancing during Shabbat, acting in our annual camp show, creating music during shira, and even cooking a meal down at the farm. Whatever it may be, all these things make a lasting impact on the staff and campers here from generation to generation. 

I find it so special walking around camp and everywhere you look there is something that has been left behind by people from years gone by. If you peer into Habima (our theatre space) you will see decorated wooden plaques from Maccabiah (our color war) dating all the way back to 2003. Wandering around to our amphitheater the walls of the stage are adorned with brightly colored paintings depicting our community coming together at Shabbat. If you take a short walk down to Omanut, you will see artwork on the walls from 15 years ago and messages and names written on the benches by campers and staff from years gone by. 

As well as artwork, the arts are engrained in many other experiences throughout our community. As the whole of camp congregates before each meal on the plaza for byachad you may see the dance and Rikkud specialists lead this year’s or even 2016’s camp dance that is forever in campers’ and staff’s memories. Another whole camp event is when everyone comes together to watch the annual camp show, this year being ‘High School Musical’. As the campers prepare to perform the musical that they’ve been working on so incredibly hard for every day, fellow bunk mates will be chanting “C is for the camp show, A is for the amp show, M is for the mp show, P is for the p show!”, a chant which was started who knows when! This year during our Shabbat services, we have also sung songs new to campers but familiar and known to staff members who may have been here for 18 years or more! 

Whatever it may be, art is an integral part of bringing together our whole community, and each and every camper and staff member have added to the painting which is Capital Camps. In many ways, without the arts Capital Camps would simply be an idea on paper, which in itself was a creative artistic spark 36 years ago that started the camp we have today. A quote that perfectly encapsulates the way I believe art impacts and truly changes everyone who passes through capital camps every year is:

“Art pulls a community together.. Art makes you feel differently. That’s what artists are doing all the time, shifting and changing the way you see life.” ~ Lister Sinclair 

Your Arts Coordinator,

Sophie Irons