Since the last blog post was written Israel day has come and go, the Odedim went on tubing and canoeing trips, Bet campers pitched their ideas for brand new evening programs (G6 and B11’s ideas are being run tonight!) and we are currently in the thick of Aleph Session Yom Sport!
Our camp tzofim (Israeli scouts) and shlicha (Israeli emissary) Chen Midany spent a week getting ready to transform the camp into Little Israel and their hard work payed off! Camper’s and staff sipped tea in a Bedouin tent, made pita in a Druze village, milked cows on a kibbutz, went through basic training in the IDF, fished giant puzzle pieces out of the Sea of Galilee to create a map of Israel and stuck notes into the Kotel (Western Wall), which will be delivered to the real Kotel!
The Chadar (dinning hall) was covered in blue and white streamers and Israeli flags, the campers’ faces were painted with Jewish stars and Israeli pop music poured out of the loud speakers all day long. It was a day filled with cheering, singing, dancing, hebrew and ruach (spirit).
The Aleph campers have been battling it out for Schechter glory in Maccabiah for the last two days. They completed their water sports competition yesterday and had their Yom Sport relay race all over camp today. Tonight is the big Zimriyah (songfest) competition where teams show off their best dance moves and cheers!
The tubing trip is back! Thanks to our incredible grounds crew and volunteer trailblazers we can now offer our Bet/Gimmel campers, Odedim and staff an all-in-camp tubing trip down the Deschuttes river. The trip takes about an hour, with about 20 minutes of that on the water, and the rest of the time spent hiking through the back country of our 180 acre property. It’s amazing to see campers realize just how big our camp really is. It’s even more amazing to see our veteran staff members explore huge areas of camp that they never knew existed.
Well, it’s Thursday evening, so that means BBQ down on the lower field! Time for me to go eat and get ready to help run B11 and G6’s evening program and watch our Aleph campers perform their Zimriyah songs. It’s been another full day here at CSS!
Rad Hayom,
Josh Niehaus
