Thursday July 25/19 Tamuz – First full day of camp!!!!

The chanichim (campers) here look so happy to be back!
Walking around camp today, we saw so many smiling faces, with campers and staff enjoying the first full day of Camp Stone Second Session 2024.

Our staff (Tzevet) arrived last Thursday and have been excitedly training and preparing for the campers’ arrival. Today was the first full day that they could put their training into practice.

The Roshei Moshava, Lia Solomon and Sammy Rosenberg, with all of their Roshei Eidah (division heads), hadracha (counselors) and tzevet (specialty staff) have been planning since before Shabbat for today’s opening…and for the whole month really! (Lia and Sammy have actually been planning since February!!)

Eidot Alef through Daled: The weather was beautiful today, everyone unpacked ,and it is starting to feel like home. Kima (wake up) this morning was at 7:15. Every eidah (division, by age) meets before davening for a few stretches and a “boker tov” message from their Roshei Eidah (division heads) with a pump-up speech to take on the new day! Tefillah is by age group in Machane Stone, with each group making their tefilah age-appropriate for them. We all meet at breakfast, which is followed by shiur and nikayon (clean up).
Today’s shiur was about the promise of Eretz Yisrael that God made to Avraham. The focus was how this promise has been handed down for many generations and the mitzvot relating to living in the land of Israel.

Following T’filah, breakfast, and Shiur, the campers finished unpacking, had Aruchat Eser (mid-morning snack), and began their first day full of camp. So many of them have been looking forward to this for eleven long months. Today’s schedule was packed with all the peulot (activities) the chanichim love: sports, dance, swimming, the agam (lake activities), ceramics, slip n’ slide and a peulah for unpacking.

In addition to shiur, which is our formal learning opportunity for campers, the Roshei Eidah (division heads) and Roshei Moshava (Head Counselors) create and perform educational skits and other informal activities to teach campers about the Tochnit. Today, they focused on the life of Theodore Herzl. Lots of fake beards were worn.

For the night tochnit (night activity) each eidah had its own gibbush (bonding activity) and hang out time, and eidah aleph had a “layla tov” so they could go to sleep after a busy tiring first day.

Tomorrow is Friday!!!! Erev Shabbat! We are so excited for the first Shabbat at the Holy Machane Stone! We’ll tell you about all of the special activities in tomorrow’s post, but we will be sending all of the campers out on hikes around camp!

Kaytana: These first-time campers began their adventures in Camp Stone with a wagon-ride (that was set up to look like a Noah’s Ark) down the road to the horses’ stalls. They will be learning the very early parts of Jewish history, starting out with Sefer Bereshit. Today, they spent the first part of their day baking bread in the Village – an extra special treat, as they were the only group in the Village today – more on the Village next week 🙂 . After baking bread, Kaytana set up a tent for guests, and practiced Hachnasat Orchim just like Avraham and Sarah.

As I walked into the brand new Kaytana building tonight, the group was singing Shma and Hamalach Hagoel, before heading off to bed. It was very cute to see the youngest kids in camp singing all together.

Machal: At the other end of the camper experience (for some, after 7 years of being a camper here) Machal chaninichim and chanichot began their month with a “shelet eish” which is a ceremony in which they watch their name – Re’im – in wire letters burn bright, right when the sun went down. They received their מספרי ברזל – their numbers, for the whole month, for all roll calls. They sat and had an important initial discussion about the goals for Machal this summer – building community, developing more independence along with a sense of social responsibility and commitment to your nation. They will learn these lessons, because they will live them! They slept in machane (camp) last night and did their first hike this morning. Tonight is their first camp out, where they will be sleeping in tents and cooking their own dinner. The campers have been looking forward to this for so long and are so excited to have their counselors guide them through the Machal experience.

Looking forward to a healthy, happy, fun and meaningful summer, iy”h!!

Make sure to follow @shekemshack on Instagram to get frequent updates!

Each night, after the day’s activities and learning, a blog post will be uploaded here, under Camp News. So, check in late at night or first thing in the morning. In case your kids are not writing enough letters (too busy here!!), I will give you all the info you want and need!