From the Camp Clipboard: Always Room for Evolution in Programming and Chugim

One of the essential parts of a Herzl Camp day (outside of Shabbat) are our chugim, or activity rotations, where campers can discover everything from a new guitar chord to the joys of windsurfing. As head of the specialty areas and chugim, my day is made with every smile and every personal victory the kids have during these activities. But I’m also happy that we can be flexible with the needs and skills of campers and staff to make Herzl a more engaging place to be.

Here are three examples of what I mean: When campers saw that there was no Tennis chug last week, they spoke up about wanting the chug. I get it — I met some of my closest friends playing tennis at Herzl in 2009. So this week, we have tennis chug up and running!

For our Outdoors specialty area, the Rosh Outdoors (we call our specialty area supervisers “rosh,” which is Hebrew for head) had an idea for a new chug focused on outdoor meditation. We decided to give it a try, and now, Moment of Zen is a very popular chug where campers can center themselves in an otherwise jam-packed day.

And lastly, Lucia Brimmer, a bunk staff, noticed that we weren’t running a Ceramics chug for campers because our art staff don’t know much about pottery and clay. Seeing as she took AP pottery in high school, Lucia offered her skills to lead Ceramics, getting elbow deep in clay to teach campers about the art form.

Herzl is made better every day by the campers and staff who call it home. And that makes my day better, too. A shout out also goes to Elie Simon, our fantastic Rosh Logistics this summer, for her great skill, positive attitude, and flexibility in helping to schedule these chugim.

Lev Gringauz, 2021 Rosh Specialist