Middle School is the Ideal Time to Start Attending an Overnight Camp

One sign that we are moving past the years marred by the COVID pandemic is the number of current 2^nd through 5^th graders clamoring to enroll in overnight camping. At Capital Camps, we have a record number of campers this age applying for spots and have growing waitlists for some programs. At the same time, we are hearing from our current 6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade campers that some of their peers have never gone to camp, are reluctant to leave home, and perhaps feel like starting camp “at the right time” is another item on the long list of things that the pandemic deprived them of experiencing.

Not only is it not too late for Middle School students to start attending an overnight camp, it is especially important for this group of young adolescents who need our guidance to find their way to an overnight camp. Dr. Deborah Gilboa, Family Physician and Resilience Expert, talks frequently about the power of a Jewish overnight camp experience to help children grow and develop. She has shared how camp makes it fun to learn independence and how living with cool counselors or “near-peer mentors” provides the ideal environment to develop resilience. As an educator and camp professional, I couldn’t agree more.

Current Middle School students were 3rd to 5th graders when the pandemic closed most camps. This experience interfered with the opportunity to develop academic and social-emotional skills. Camps, especially those that are attuned to meeting the developmental needs of children and adolescents, are ideal places to help this age group learn valuable life skills. For example, Capital Camps is organized around a village structure that is designed to meet the developmental needs of each age group. Counselors received training related to child development and each village has a mental health professional or experienced educator who works alongside village leadership to address the social-emotional needs of the group.

Middle Schoolers need to put down their phones and spend time outdoors. They need to swim in the pool, jump in the lake, engage in sports for fun, dance, sing, create art, and eat pizza cooked at the farm. Middle School age campers are ready for more complex experiences that include problem-solving field games and activities to build trust, communication and teamwork as part of a low and high ropes course program. In addition, a Jewish overnight camp like Capital Camps provides the foundation for each camper to take ownership of their own Jewish journey. This is especially critical during the years right before, during and after a camper’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah year. Peers and counselors in the role of “near-peer mentors” play a central role in identity formation at this age.

The Capital Camps team recently joined a local middle school during their lunch period. Students already enrolled in Capital Camps came over to say hi and chat with our team bringing their friends with them. Some of their friends were interested in exploring coming to Capital Camps, others mentioned others camps they will be attending. A few had special interests that precluded going away to camp, including one girl who talked about her ice skating career. We were thrilled to share in their excitement. One young man pointed to his friend and commented, “He isn’t going to camp; he’s not ready to leave home”. It is our job to find these kids and with a little help from parents, teachers and camp professionals, help them explore how camp could be the ideal place to develop independence and resilience while, of course, having a ton of fun.

December 2022

From Lisa, our Camp Director…

I am looking forward to Hanukkah 2022 with renewed passion. The main theme of Hanukkah is “pirsumei nisa”, publicizing the miracle. In the Hanukkah story, the miracle is that a little bit of oil lasted for eight days. We publicize this miracle individually in our homes with family and friends as we light the Chanukah candles and publically with the community by placing our Hanukkiah (Chanukah menorah) in a window. The connection between the individual and the community is likewise a central theme at camp. Capital Camps is a place where individuals are supported and celebrated as they discover their “best selves” and at the same time Camp is a place where we create strong communities, in our bunks, in our villages, and throughout camp. In addition, the intentional weaving of Jewish values and traditions throughout what we do at camp inspires our individual campers and staff to go out into the world as more confident, connected, and proud Jews.

Last week Havi, Adina, Ilana, and I attended Foundation for Jewish Camp’s (FJC) biannual conference in Atlanta. For the first time since the onset of the pandemic, hundreds of camp professionals, lay leaders, and advocates were able to gather in person for networking, professional development and to celebrate Jewish camp. This public gathering of Jewish professionals from across North America and Israel both provided opportunities for individual growth and connected us to a strong community of like-minded leaders. Capital Camps is proud to have received two grants from FJC. The Yashar grant provides funding to support increased accessibility for campers and staff with disabilities and aligns with our goal to continue to grow our Atzma’im (inclusion) program. The Yedid Nefesh grant aims to provide support to address the mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health (MESSH) of campers and staff in holistic ways. There were specific sessions at the conference for both of these initiatives. Ilana attended the Yashar session and Adina attended the Yedid Nefesh.

Our work with the Yashar and the Yedid Nefesh grants supports individual campers and helps strengthen our community. While our Atzma’im (inclusion) program makes it possible for campers with disabilities to attend camp, we have always recognized that this program benefits the entire community. Likewise meeting individual campers and staff MESSH needs creates a safe and healthy camp community. Furthermore, these programs align with our camp values such as kindness (chesed), compassion (rachmim), social responsibility (achrayut), and decency (derech eretz).

The word Hanukkah means dedication. As we celebrate and publicize the miracle of Hanukkah, let us also rededicate ourselves to our values. Let us be inspired by our “best selves” to be inclusive and supportive of others. As we light the Hanukkah candles in our homes with family and friends, know that we are connected to our camp friends and families who are likewise lighting candles in their homes. Wishing everyone a Happy Hanukkah!

Adina’s Yedid Nefesh Experience

I am so grateful to have attended FJC’s Leaders Assembly this past week. I attended through the Yedid Nefesh Initative. Yedid Nefesh (beloved soul) is a grant that promotes MESSH at summer camps. I am part of a cohort of 99 other camp mental health professionals that meet to talk about better practices for camp and the challenges that our staff and campers face today. I attended sessions with experts in the fields. This included sessions from Keshet; Bamidbar: the first Jewish wilderness therapy; Transplaining: an organization focusing on trans youth in camping; and S’more Melanin focusing on racial justice and equity in the camp world. Throughout the conference, I kept going back to our idea of challenge by choice. Many of the professionals at the conference spoke about the “struggle muscle” and how we can build that in our campers and young staff. The consensus in the room was that challenging situations use the struggle muscle, therefore, building resilience. So many of the gaps that our campers have in this area can be fulfilled by camp. Two other themes throughout the sessions were meeting staff and campers where they are at and building a culture of kindness. I am so excited to continue to work on these ideas and bring them to Waynesboro in 2023.

Ilana’s Yashar Initiative Experience

I attended Leaders Assembly through the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Yashar Initiative. The initiative focuses on increasing accessibility for campers and staff with disabilities at Jewish day and overnight camps across North America. The sessions I attended focused on understanding and auditing the many sensory experiences at camp, celebrating neurodiversity, best practices for training our staff with tools and strategies to support the various needs of those in our community, and much more. In addition, I toured Camp Twin Lakes, a camp site that hosts transformative week-long camps for children with serious illnesses, disabilities, and other life challenges. We learned about physical and experiential accessibility and left with tangible ideas of ways to increase accessibility at our camps.

As a new year-round team member, I appreciated the opportunity to network with and learn from countless professionals from camps all over North America. In addition to the Yashar Initiative focused sessions, I attended sessions on how we can effectively appreciate our summer staff, the value of taking risks and trying new things, and strategies for staff recruitment.

I am looking forward to bringing the knowledge I gained from Leaders Assembly to our summer Leadership Team and staff, so that we may continue to live out our values of inclusion and being a camp for all, and so we can continue to create the best possible experiences for every member of our camp community.

November 2022

From Lisa, our Camp Director…

November is the month when my thoughts often turn to the idea of gratitude. Gratitude for warm fall days with leaves changing color but also because routines seem more settled. We are past the obligations of the High Holidays, most of our campers have mastered their school schedules, many of our 2022 CITs have submitted their first bunch of college applications and our staff have successfully moved into college dorms or are engaged in this year’s academic or work pursuits. The value of gratitude or hakarat hatov in Hebrew is something we often focus on at camp. At camp, it is often easy to find reasons to be grateful. We are thankful for our camp friends and counselors who create fun and magical camp memories. We are grateful for the opportunity for long hours of play, for being able to splash in the pool and lake, and for singing and dancing on Shabbat. As summer slips into the past and next summer still feels far away, it is important to hold onto the memories and the feelings of gratitude that come with them.

November is also about family as many of us start thinking about our Thanksgiving gatherings later this month. Our family has a Thanksgiving tradition where we go around the table and each shares thoughts of gratitude. Reflecting on the connection between gratitude at camp and expressing thankfulness at Thanksgiving, remind me of the importance of our camp and family partnership. The values we focus on at camp are introduced and reinforced at home. Parents make an intentional choice to send their child to the immersive Jewish experience which is Capital Camps. Every camper has their parent’s encouragement to leave home for a few weeks in the summer, to start a new, yet unknown adventure.

The most famous Jewish story of adventuring into the unknown is found in last week’s Parsha or Torah reading, Lech Lacha. In this Parsha, God says to Abraham, “Go from your land, your birthplace, and your father’s house to a land I will show you.” We often think of this as if Abraham is leaving everything about his family in the past. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Z”L suggested another interpretation. A close look at the chronology of events shows that Abraham’s father traveled with Abraham away from Abraham’s birthplace. His family accompanied Abraham for at least half of the journey. As Rabbi Sacks writes a deeper truth is “hidden in the guise of a simple genealogy at the end of the previous parsha – that Abraham was actually completing a journey his father began.”

Likewise, we often think that when campers jump out of their parent’s car on the first day of camp they are leaving their parents and family behind. In reality, the lesson learned at home comes with our campers in their luggage. And we are grateful for this. We are grateful for a strong partnership with our camp parents. We appreciate camp parents who reached out to provide feedback about their child’s summer experience, we are thankful to camp parents who are on the Board and who serve on our many committees including our Camp Committee and we are thrilled to have a new bunch of Camp Parent Ambassadors. Whether a parent was a camp kid themselves or chose to have their child start a family tradition of attending camp, we know that each child is completing a journey started and encouraged by a parent.

At this year’s Thanksgiving meal, I plan to share how grateful I am to be part of the Capital Camp’s team. I am thankful to my colleagues, with a special shout out to our newest member, Ilana Kornblatt, who is working tirelessly in the planning season to prepare for summer 2023. And I am grateful to be able to partner with parents to provide campers and staff with a summer full of personal growth and Jewish community building.

May 2022

From Lisa, the Camp Director:

Camp is buzzing with excitement! Hundreds of the best Jewish camp counselors from more than 60 camps across North America gathered this week at Capital Camps for the Cornerstone Seminar. It was great to be at camp along with Larry Ginsburg, our senior Jewish educator and our own Cornerstone fellows, Ari Geller, Gabby Gordon, Hannah Oshinsky and Bella Rosner and our Senior Cornerstone fellow and Jewish Life assistant, Emma Platt. Since Sunday, we have been exchanging ideas, attending workshops, and working on ideas to both strengthen our camp traditions and create new and innovative programming.

As we prepare for summer, I am reminded of the classic poem by Joseph Parry that encourages us to both make new friends but keep the old. We are planning for a more historically typical summer filled with our favorite camp traditions. We are looking forward to gathering as one community for meals as we bring back the salad and breakfast bar options. In addition to having Israeli counselors join us again this summer, we are thrilled to welcome back Israeli campers who will be joining our Reich, Kaufmann and Macks Villages and Israeli campers who come for two weeks as part of a partnership with the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces. Our Macks campers will once again be going on their ACE adventure trip. And most significantly, we are planning to gather with all our friends as a full community to celebrate Shabbat. We are looking forward to putting on our Shabbat whites and having T’filah (services) and dinner together followed by singing and dancing as one community. Shabbat day will also be a communal time with friends and siblings from different villages being able to hang out together. These traditions are like old friends, they are golden and very dear to our hearts.

We are also very excited about what’s new this summer. We have an amazing Israel trip planned for our LITs and have added staff housing in the LIT village. We have doubled our Rookie program from two times during the summer to four times (two each session) and created an innovative partnership between our CIT and Rookie programs. Our new Community Care Coordinator, Adina Golob, has been hard at work meeting campers, parents and staff. Of course we have some amazing new staff members joining our team and will be introducing a new coaching and mentoring program to support them. We will be joining camps across the country to celebrate a new Camp Kindness Day. In addition, we are exploring additional ways to infuse more Hebrew language, add more music and grow our Shabbat experiences at camp.

It felt great to start the camp season early at the Cornerstone Seminar. We are looking forward to an amazing summer full of traditions, new experiences, fun, and friendships.

April 2022

What do our camp philosophy of “challenge by choice” and the Passover Seder have in common? As the Camp Team and summer leadership team shared their Passover family traditions, we realized there are a lot of parallels between what was happening in our homes and what we do at camp. Challenge by choice is the idea that we all participate, we are all part of a communal experience, yet exactly how we participate can differ depending on our needs and desires. Passover is reported to be the most celebrated Jewish holiday. So many of us choose to participate and at the same time we often add our own personal spin that makes our Seder different from all others.

This year, one family had a multi-Haggadah Seder using nine different Haggadot, ranging from the traditional Art Scroll to the unofficial Hogwart’s Haggadah. Some families read the Haggadah cover to cover, while others dressed in costume and acted out the Exodus story. There were a lot of different songs about frogs here, frogs there, frogs hopping everywhere and a health debate about whether the youngest child can require siblings to help out with the four questions. One family always sings “who knows one in Yiddish” while one always sings Chad Gadya during dessert. One family uses boiled potatoes to dip in the salt water instead of parsley and we all seemed to have a different family recipe for charoset. Collectively, we all celebrated the joyfulness of the holiday in our own unique ways.

At camp, we honor our individual differences while at the same time coming together to build communities based on Gemilut Hasadim, acts of loving kindness. This is also the time of year where we ask families to complete all their camper forms. The Health History is a searchable form that allows us to prepare for campers’ physical and social emotional needs. This form needs to be updated every year and includes new questions. Completing all the medical forms and utilizing our medication disruption company, Pack My Rx, helps keep our community safe. Together these forms help us get to know each camper as a unique individual.

Some of the forms help us build our bunk communities. We start forming both our first and second session bunks in early May so, if your camper has a bunkmate request, completing the Bunk Request form is the best way to let us know. The About Me and About My Camper forms are letters to your child’s counselor and can include information about friendships and favorite activities. Reviewing and signing the Camper Code of Conduct with your camper helps prepare them for our community expectations. And an updated photo lets us see how much campers have grown and helps our counselors and our camper care team get to know those they will be working with this summer. A checklist of all the forms can be found on your CampInTouch Dashboard.

At the Passover Seder, we are obligated to remember being freed from slavery in Egypt. Memory is at the core of many Jewish experiences. One family’s special Passover tradition is to add a cooked piece of carrot inside some matzah balls and if you get it, you share a Passover memory. We are looking forward to a summer full of amazing camp memories. We are looking forward to the individual and communal ways we will participate and challenge each other.

From our camp family to your family, wishing you all a Chag Pesach Semeach.

March 2022

From Lisa, our Camp Director…

The term “best practice” has been used to describe “what works”, what methods and procedures result in the desired outcome. At camp we are in the business of building Jewish Identity. Camp is all about children having fun. If fun is not present, none of the serious Jewish identity-building, personal growth and community connection activities can take place and be absorbed. Our year-round team is committed to ongoing professional development and learning. In addition, engaging in numerous virtual learning opportunities, members of our camp team recently attended the American Camp Association’s Tri-State Conference. Summer 2022 will be a new and exciting time for our Capital Camps community. We plan to build on meaningful traditions from past summers while incorporating current best practices.

There were several sessions at the Tri-State conference about the need to reinforce the basics; learning to connect with peers and small groups as we rebuild community. From the conference, we brought home a collection of fun new game ideas. These games will be used in the dining hall to spark conversations, to help campers in different bunks connect with each other, and will be used to encourage meaningful conversation during cabin time activities. Our most recent camp committee meeting was focused on ways to strengthen community building. We plan to intentionally work with our summer leadership team to incorporate the ideas brought forward and to make building cabin, grade level and the full camp community a reenergized priority this summer.

It was noted throughout the conference that language and boundaries have changed. Children and young adults are describing their own mental health challenges in way that feel more dire and stressful. Conversations about gender and identify are more prevalent. There is a need for emotional, physical, and behavioral boundaries to be more clearly communicated and reinforced. These sessions reinforced how essential it was that we added a Community Care Coordinator, Adina Golob, to our year-round team. We have updated our Health History form and encourage parents to pay attention to the new mental health related questions on this form. As we design our staff training, we will be adding new sessions devoted to meeting the MESSH (Mental, Emotional, Social, Spiritual Health) needs of both campers and staff.

At Tri-State, there were several sessions devoted to staff recruitment and supporting the needs of staff. We have made staff professional development a priority this summer. All of our summer supervisors will be checking in with their staff weekly using a more formalized system that redefines the role of supervisor as a coach or mentor and incorporates checking in about self-care and areas of professional growth. The camp team will also be eliciting feedback from staff in a more formal way so we can be more timely in responding to staff’s needs and provide additional support as needed. Camp is brought to life by our summer staff; they are exemplary role models who care and nurture our campers. Supporting our staff will ensure that they will be able to provide an amazing, fun summer for their campers.

Lifelong learning is a pillar of our Jewish values. When Moses assembled the Jewish people as they prepared to leave Egypt, he talked about the duty of parents to educate their children. We are thankful that this summer we can partner with parents as we share in the awesome responsibility to educate children and young adults. Learning at camp is done as we inspire our campers and staff to grow as individuals through challenges and shared experiences. We are committed to lifelong learning, incorporating best practices, and providing a safe, fun, and meaningful summer. We can’t wait for summer 2022!

February 2022

From Lisa, Our Camp Director…

A parent recently asked “what’s Capital Camps’ secret sauce for creating such a warm and inclusive community?” My go-to response to this question is to explain how our Atzma’im (inclusion) program has influenced the culture of camp. From its inception, Capital Camps has had an abiding commitment to the concept of “camp for all’. We welcome campers of all backgrounds, denominational affiliation, gender, race, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status, including those with a range of intellectual, emotional, and physical abilities. Our Atzma’im program provides additional daily living and social/emotional support for campers with disabilities, medical or mental health needs. Even though we have a limited number of campers with evaluated needs necessitating extra support, the benefits of having an inclusive mindset help shape our entire community. We live the values of inclusion in how we set up our community, how we guide and mentor our staff, and in how we partner with parents to learn about their individual camper’s needs. Being an inclusive community is not something we do; it is who we are.

At Camp we define fairness as everyone getting what they need, not everyone getting the same. Our Atzma’im program highlights the important difference between equity and equality. When living alongside a camper with a disability, campers and staff gain a better understanding that a person may have different abilities but our goal for all is to figure out how to give everyone a fun and meaningful summer. As a nine-year-old camper once explained to me, it is fair that his friend who has Autism had the support of an Atzma’im counselor in the same way that it is fair that he uses an inhaler for his asthma and another friend needs some extra time from the Yoetzet (camper care specialist) when feeling homesick.

Camper care is a priority for us. This starts with taking the time to get to know each camper as an individual. Before the start of camp, parents complete an “About My Camper” form and campers complete an “About Me” form as a way to begin building a meaningful relationship with their specific counselors. Prior to camp, our Yoetzot (plural of Yoetzet) team works with all our counselors to understand the developmental and social-emotional needs of all the campers they will be working with. For the handful of campers that have more specialized needs, parents can complete the optional Atzma’im Intake Form. Our new Community Care Coordinator reads these forms and works with the camp team and parents to determine what kind of supports may be needed. It may be sufficient for a Yoetzet to be aware of the needs and help counselors make some individualized adjustments. We may set up a system where a Yoetzet has frequent check-ins with a camper. For campers with more significant support needs, we may determine that they should receive extra staff support though our Atzma’im program.

Our Atzma’im program includes a Coordinator, an Assistant Coordinator and a team of inclusion counselors. We have invested in additional training for this team, capital improvements, purchased adaptive equipment, and rented accessible vehicles, etc. In the past, this added cost was shared with families of campers who needed this extra level of support. Starting in summer 2022, campers with disabilities will not be charged an additional fee. This change is aligned strongly with our values, and we are very proud to be able to support all our families.

February is Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month (JDAIM) and is a time to pause and reflect on how our camp community is including individuals with disabilities. The goal of JDAIM is to create a Jewish community where everyone can determine how they wish to participate and where those who need additional support receive it in a seamless and respectful manner. Our Atzm’aim program does this; it extends our continuum of built-in supports and by doing so helps us create a warm and inclusive community for all.

January 2022

Some of the most common New Year’s resolutions have to do with improved physical, mental and spiritual health. We often talk about healthy eating, increased exercise, taking time for meaningful reflection, and connecting with family and friends. As we welcome 2022, the Capital Camps team is likewise focused on ways to enhance our ability to foster wellness.

We have created two new year-round positions; a Clinical Care Coordinator and a Community Care Coordinator. Em Candaffio, who has been part of our summer health team for several years, will be our new Clinical Care Coordinator. She will be working with families to strengthen communications about physical health and medications prior to the start of camp. Em will oversee the process of collecting updated health forms, guide families through the process to arrange for campers to receive prescriptions and over-the-counter medications while at camp and help recruit additional nurses and doctors. We will be working with a new pharmacy, PackMyRx, and Em will also help integrate PackMyRx into our camp medical program. The great Jewish scholar, Moses Maimonides, wrote that “when keeping the body in health and vigor, one walks in the way of God”. Having a Clinical Care Coordinator will strengthen our ability to foster physical wellness.

We are also proud to announce that we have been selected to be part of the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s (FJC) Yedid Nefesh initiative on mental health. Yedid Nefesh means “beloved soul” and is also the song that some congregations sing just before the Kabbalat Shabbat service on Friday nights. This song imagines that as we usher in Shabbat we are also opening ourselves, body and soul, to being uplifted and healed. As part of this initiative we will be joining a cohort of camp professionals working to address increased mental health needs. Being part of this initiative means that we’ll be receiving a grant from FJC to help fund a year-round mental health professional, as well as supporting additional summer staff training. We are looking forward to adding a Community Care Coordinator to our team of seasonal Yoetzot (parent liaisons). Our Yoetzot are licensed social workers, therapists, clinical psychologists, school guidance counselors, and experienced educators. Our nurses and doctors focus on the physical health of our campers and staff, and our Community Care team focuses on social, emotional, and mental health.

The term MESH — Mental, Emotional, and Social Health — was coined by the Association of Camp Nursing and is widely used by the American Camp Association. Jewish camps, in recognition of the importance of Spiritual health, have added an “S” to create the term MESSH. Our commitment to MESSH is both our New Year resolution and an example of our uniquely Jewish approach which incorporates values and mitzvot into all that we do. One way we focus on spiritual health is through our annual participation in FJC’s Cornerstone Fellowship program. Three to five outstanding staff members are selected to take on additional responsibilities at camp as role models and mentors. The focus of the Fellowship is the true blend of Jewish values and concepts into camp programming – at the staff level, in the general camp program, and in bunk-based programs. We have already begun accepting applications for our 2022 Cornerstone Fellows.

Jewish tradition calls the mitzvah of health, Sh’mirot haguf which means “guarding the body”. This mitzvah is generally understood as taking care of both the body and the soul. At Capital Camps we have always been committed to supporting physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual health. We enter 2022 with a renewed commitment. Our ability to foster individual growth and build strong Jewish community demand this focus.

December 2021

As our campers and staff put down their school books and head into winter break, I want to share with you some of the ongoing learning the year-round staff has and will be doing. For many of us, education and lifelong learning are top priorities and Capital Camps is proud of the immersive, informal Jewish education experience we create every summer. At camp, we give everyone in our community the opportunity to live Jewishly and embed values such as teamwork (avodat tzevet), social responsibility (achrayut), gratitude (hakarat hatov), kindness (chesed), and curiosity (sakranut) into everything we do. We use some of the time during the “off-season” to continue our own learning journeys.

As we prepare to take our LITs to Israel this summer, Austin has been working hard on finding new and exciting ways to bring a taste of Israel to all of our campers and staff. He is currently enrolled in a Graduate Certificate program in Israel Education through the iCenter and George Washington University. He is one of 30 in the 4th Cohort of this program which consists of two Experiential Jewish Education courses and two Israel Studies courses capped off with a week-long seminar in Israel. This week he is finishing up his final papers on Experiential Jewish Education and has spent time learning best practices for creating fun informal educational experiences.

On the end-of-camp staff satisfaction survey, we received feedback that we can do more to professionalize the role of counselors. Melissa was invited to be part of select group through the Foundation for Jewish Camp called SURGE that took a deep dive to address the current staffing challenges across all camps. Camp Directors and Assistant Directors from 24 Jewish camps discussed why it is harder than ever to recruit and retain staff, as well as how staff development during the summer is so important. In addition, Austin, Melissa, Penny and I all attended workshops specifically focused on addressing the needs of staff. Learning leads to action and early in the New Year, we look forward to sharing professional development initiatives for our staff.

Havi, our CEO, Brad Stillman our Board Chair, Samantha Notowich, our Donor Relations Manager and myself, were recently accepted into The Harold Grinspoon Foundation J-Camp 180’s GIFT Leadership Institute. This learning opportunity focuses on implementing culture change and understanding roles within an organization towards creating a meaningful Culture of Philanthropy. This learning opportunity aligns nicely with the value of social responsibility and community mindedness (achrayut).

At camp, we have and will continue to focus on mental, emotional, social and spiritual health (MESSH). While the acronym MESH has been used widely, Jewish camps have added an “s” to represent spiritual health. The Foundation of Jewish Camp offers Mussar study groups for professionals. Mussar is the Jewish practice of character development. I was part of this study group last year and am continuing to do so this year.

The values listed above can all be found on the “Making Menshes: A Periodic Table”. At camp we are in the business of Jewish identity building and creating menshes. Ongoing lifelong learning is essential to our ability to continue to challenge our campers and staff to grow as individuals and to build Jewish community.

As formal education pauses for winter break, we hope everyone finds time to explore curiosity (sakranut), wonder (malchut) and love (ahavah) with family and friends. Thank you for being part of the Capital Cam’s community. We wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year.

November 2021

As the days get shorter and it is darker outside we know the festival of lights, Chanukah, is around the corner. This year, Chanukah follows right after Thanksgiving. In many ways, Thanksgiving mirrors Jewish celebrations. Some historians believe that Thanksgiving was modeled after Sukkot since they are both harvest festivals that take place in the fall. The main theme of Thanksgiving comes from the name itself, reminding us of the importance of giving thanks. We traditionally say a blessing of thanks before and after every meal. The additional blessing after the meal is significant because even after we are full and satisfied, we take the time to pause and be thankful. At camp singing, Birkat Hamazon, the blessing after the meal, is a ruach (spirited) communal experience full of hand motions and camp traditions. And maybe most importantly, Thanksgiving gives us an opportunity to gather with friends and family.

Chanukah is also a holiday that brings us all together. The Chanukah candles and dreidels remind us of miracles long ago. At camp when we light the Havdalah candles or candles at the lake, we remind our campers that sharing the light from one candle to the next doesn’t diminish the flame. As the light grows and spreads, it’s just like spreading kindness and good deeds throughout our community.

A Thanksgiving prayer by Rabbi Naomi Levy beautifully captures the essence of both these holidays:

For the laughter of the children,

For my own life breath,

For the abundance of food on this table,

For the ones who prepared this sumptuous feast,

For the roof over our heads,

The clothes on our backs,

For our health,

And our wealth of blessings,

For this opportunity to celebrate with family and friends,

For the freedom to pray these words

Without fear,

In any language,

In any faith,

In this great country,

Whose landscape is as vast and beautiful as her inhabitants.

Thank You, God, for giving us all these. Amen

The Camp Team is grateful to be able to start attending in-person events. From ice skating with our Rookie campers to Chanukah celebrations in Baltimore and Northern Virginia we are looking forward to the laughter of children and a chance to reconnect. Like the light of a candle, please spread the word that we will be hosting in-person and virtual meet-and-greets to introduce Capital Camps to potential new families. We continue to appreciate the importance of spending a summer at camp.