Rosh Solelim Tova Stark Looks Back at Kayitz 2010!

Hey Solelim 2010!

This summer was a phenomenal experience, from the trips to Six Flags and the Rock Cats game to the wonderful and meaningful Shabbat Take Home Projects that we made. I believed that we all learned a great deal about our Judaism, about camp, and about ourselves.

This summer as we kicked off the Daber program we all began to speak and learn more Hebrew. The announcements to the edah and in the chadar ochel (dining hall) were all made in Hebrew with hand motions so that everyone could understand. Both session we worked in groups as an edah and as a tzrif with the Daber program, playing word association games, duck duck goose in Hebrew, passing a ‘tarmil hakesem’ (magic bag) around with different tasks to do, and learning songs. Second session we did some smaller activities as well as a bigger project where we painted signs with phrases that we use in the bunk in Hebrew, such as ‘showering in the shower,’ ‘sleeping in beds,’ and ‘sitting on the porch.’

In Solelim this kayitz (summer), the edah created an amazing sense of achdut (unity) by going with a family theme of the campers being the kids, the counselors – the adults, and the rosh edah – the grandma (so if you hear anyone saying ‘grandma Tova’ you’ll know what they are referring to). Each tzrif (bunk) also created an amazing atmosphere of bunk unity as one can tell by the t-shirts, which were made for each tzrif. Tzrif Tre’ even came up with a hand signal for their tzrif.

Part of Ramah is taking Ramah home with us, so for our Take Home Project we made beautiful challah boards, which we hope everyone will encourage the kids to use at home. We also taught and reviewed with the campers the series of brachot (blessings) that we say Friday night at the Shabbat meal, such as the brachot for the children, over washing hands, over bread, and Kiddush. We made place-mats with the brachot on them.  Hopefully the kids will reference them and we encourage you to do the same.

This year as we brought back the medurah (campfire) back to camp we also brought a great deal of ruach (spirit) with it. Every Thursday night we would gather around the medurah, sing songs, tell stories, and just have a great time!

This summer in Solelim 2010 was an unforgettable experience, we hope you learned, grew, and flourished as much as we did – todah rabah (much thanks) for a great summer!

Tova Stark

Rosh Solelim 2010