Session 2 – Day 5: Send love and prayers for Camp Mystic

Hi Herzl Family –

This is going to be a little off the beaten path of Ted Talk but I think it’s prudent. The last two years, I have made fast friends with many people across the Camp community both at ACA conferences and Jewish camping conferences. The one thing that every conference has an abundance of is emergency and safety procedures sessions, best practices, discussion groups, etc. 

Our hearts are in total pain and solidarity (If that’s even the right word) with our Camp family down in Texas. The news that is coming out of there is quite grim and it’s causing pause for all of us to, not only send prayers and thoughts of hope to our friends at Camp Mystic and their families, but also to take the moment and revisit our safety and emergency procedures.

We are very confident of our safety and emergency procedures and protocols that keep our kids safe. We have procedures and practices everywhere from the waterfront, to the high rope course, to out of camp trips ,and the simple… just being in their cabin. We have our staff come up to camp a week early and, in some cases, the leadership, waterfront, and climbing staff comes up 10 days early and we spend a significant part of that prep time going over safety procedures and practice a variety of different scenarios.

This is one of those Ted Talks that if it was a letter from Camp, I would spend a few hours or days on it, but I wanted you to hear it from me, from the heart, and in real time. We know how sacred our job is and we know we hold the health, safety and security of your precious gifts – your children. Every staff member here, including our Ozrim…as they develop into staff, are getting a very sobering reminder of the importance of their job. I don’t know how else to say it and I’m sure I could have some critics, but we love our jobs and we love the awesomeness of this responsibility. Pardon the deviation from the normal Ted talk cheer and joy… I just couldn’t go there tonight. 

One of the beautiful things about being a screen free camp, and the staff properly trained and knowing what to keep our focus on, our campers are blissfully happy! They’re coming off of an awesome Ozo Shabbat and a beautiful Havdalah. Yes, there was a lot of very heavy dew, but we camped it up…There was puddle jumping, dancing in the rain, and genuine Camp happiness!  

So I hope the following words bring you a little more comfort tonight…

All is well, safely rest. 

Thanks for sending your kid to Herzl Camp

‏לילה טוב

Tommy