Session 3 – 4 days left: Mamma Mia!
Hi Herzl Family!
Settle in folks this is gonna be a doozy…
Chef gadol, Pickleball Pro, and Kadimah’s Mamma Mia!
We had two professionals pop in today, awesome volunteers worked with campers in Mickeys Mitbach and out on our Pickleball Courts.
The volunteer chef came in and conducted a top chef competition with the kids, teaching them basic knife skills, some advanced cooking skills and, of course, an awesome recipe of some kind of Chex mix which the kids got to bring back to their K’far…not their cabin.
The other was a pickle ball professional who spent three hours on that Court in 90° heat working on drills and getting everybody involved and playing games. The kids loved it and, of course, Chofesh tonight was like walking into Pickleball tournament. Everyone is now a professional.
What we keep learning is that whenever there is a specialist or special guest professional that comes into highlight a certain area it enhances the program all the more. Kids tend to get more into it, and it rejuvenates our staff and gives them some skills that can carry on.
A perfect example of this is, you may not remember because you probably didn’t read first or second session Ted Talks, we had a weight training professional come in right at the beginning of second session and he taught four of our staff members ways to engage, teach, and train 14 and 15-year-olds. It was super successful.
That chug, which started a little slow, has been not only consistent and active, but the staff leading it are more dialed in, more connected, and eager to learn more and committed to its success. It also helps because our campers take better care of the facility when they understand how it’s used and what can go into it. We see it really well on our golf course, we’re seeing it better and better on the Pickleball courts and tennis courts, and of course the weight room.
Their deeper connection to activity brings a deeper love of camp and a deeper love of the facility and ultimately, you know where I’m going with this, a deeper love of themselves.
But the big buzz on the Poad (remember it’s not a path, it’s not a road, it’s a poad) today was the Kadimah play, Mamma Mia.
It was amazing! Our porch is directly across from the Ula so since we have a lot of meetings and talks in here, we’ve been watching these kids, prepare and prepare and prepare, and all 77 of them were into it each, and every one of them!
The kids who can’t dance and hold a beat dance their heart out and worked at every choreographed move and took it incredibly seriously. The kids that have these awesome voices and know how to shine when they get up on the stage, shined brighter than you’ve ever seen, but aside from the awesomeness of the Kadimah group and the play and the talented kids and them having so much fun with the project that they’ve been working on quite literally since day one, the rest of Camp was fully invested in cheering them on.
After every song, it was like you were at a rock concert with the crowd cheering for more and every choreograph dance move, there were yells and screams and cheers, rooting them on and praising them for putting themselves out there and the smiles on the stage where a mile wide. The kids who know how to ham it up a little bit (I don’t know if I should say ham it up at a Jewish camp), but they ham it up even brighter and funnier and you can just expect an awesome laugh and a good time and pure celebration of kids loving other kids and taking pride in what their group or themselves are doing.
It was a great performance, great play, and there’s an electricity in the air tonight of pure enjoyment of camp.
We got only a few days left and it’s as if we are hugging the air. Shabbat is going to be awesome …and a little sad. But you can smile because…
All is well, safely rest.
Thank you for sending your kid to Herzl Camp.
לילה טוב
Tommy