Danya’s Shabbat Message – Week 1: This Camp is a Community
Here we are again! It’s the first Shabbat of the summer. Except it’s not Shabbat anymore, and we had a beautiful Havdalah service last night. As my trusty camp clock ticked closer to Shabbat on Friday, I could see I wasn’t going to be able to send my Shabbat message before it started. After a few close calls last summer, I considered writing a few of these messages during the off-season. One day in the spring, I actually sat down at my desk and started typing stories that could have happened at camp as if I were sitting in my office in Webster. But it read like something from Chat GPT and had zero heart. Camp is too in the moment and too personal to have a script.
So, I cut myself some slack because Friday afternoons at Herzl Camp are busy! I always forget how long the days are at camp. Not long in the sense that the day drags on, and there’s nothing to do – it’s quite the opposite. So much happens at camp in the span of a day. Two campers who did not know the other existed might end up sitting next to each other at breakfast on Saturday morning and by dinner Saturday night – Bam! Future best friends. I’ve seen it happen!
During staff training, we talked a lot about connections between campers, between staff, and between campers and staff. One evening, I led a session called Speed Learning – think speed dating but emphasizing getting to know each other. Over 100 staff members from all over the world and various Herzl origin stories sat across from one another with a single prompt question between them. The kind of hard-hitting questions that get to the core of a person’s background and values:
- If you were forced to participate in a food fight, what three items would you prefer to be thrown at you?
- How often do you think about chocolate chip cookies?
- If friendly aliens invited you to beam back to their planet, would you?
As expected, at first the staff sat with their friends. But once we got a few rounds in, we shook things up, and more unfamiliar faces were seated across from each other than familiar ones. As timekeeper, I walked around the room, totally eavesdropping and loving everything I heard and saw. By round 3, I noticed the staff using the piece of paper with the prompt to make origami during the round transitions rather than needing help to start the conversation; they were opening up, laughing, sharing – something was clicking.
But all good things must end, and it was getting late. I thanked everyone for participating and said goodnight. While cleaning up, an Israeli staff approached me and thanked me for a fun evening. He then paused, looked right at me, and said, “This camp is a community.” I’ve heard that phrase uttered hundreds of times and said it many times, but something about how he said it – someone brand new to Herzl, from halfway around the world – made me happy. Just one week into his summer, he knew.
And that’s what we strive to create for your children’s experience, too.
We’ve had an incredible week with our Taste campers—the largest Taste group since COVID. In ten years, they might not remember the Chug (activity) they signed up for or their favorite meal, but they’ll remember their counselor’s name and the other campers in their cabin.
We have another week ahead with our 1st session campers – the largest group in 3 years and over double the number of campers since the session structure shifted to three sessions. It may seem bold to say we can build community in one or two weeks – but we do. Whether campers live in the Twin Cities, Kansas City, LA, Israel, or Guatemala – that’s right, we’ve got two awesome campers who traveled very far to experience Herzl – or any of the other places around the world campers travel from – they are part of something that spans languages, time zones, and generations. The Herzl community is reaching farther than ever – thank you for being a part of it.
Thank you for giving me a little grace this week. I’ll be back next week, on Shabbat, with another glimpse into the summer.
Shavua Tov,
-danya
Senior Director of Camp & Culture