Nivonim: Yom Sport

As we have been discussing all summer, Nivonim is a leadership program.  Throughout the Camp careers of our hanichim/campers, the Ramah experience has been transmitted to them by the amazing tzevet/staff that we have here.  This summer is all about their transition to becoming the transmitters of the Ramah experience.

The last 48 hours was a tremendous step for our edah in this transition.  Over the past two weeks, our hanichim have been working hard to plan Yom Sport for the enitre Camp.

Yasher Koach to Sally and Greg, our Rosh Judges, for taking a huge leadership role in this process!

After weeks of planning, the edah was ready.  The compeition started with an all Tzad Bet game of capture the flag and the games were officially kicked off with a pep rally after dinner.

Before the day started, I challenged the edah to identify itself.  I asked, "Who are you?"  And it was clear to me that they answered that question yesterday.  Who are they? They are Nivonim. They are the leaders of Camp Ramah.

For years they have been enjoying the Yom Sport experience.  Yesterday, they gave that experience to Camp.

During closing ceremonies, I was amazed at how much of the day the hanichim were running on their own.  I turned to one of the madrichim and asked, "What are we supposed to do now?".  They answered, "We just sit, watch, and be proud."  And that is exactly what we did.  Our hearts swelled with pride at the site of Nivonimers taking center stage as leaders for their teams.

After everything was over, I told the edah how proud the tzevet was of them.  They then went with their teams to clean up their meeting areas.

What made me most proud was right after they cleaned.  They had spent weeks divided into teams and working towards this day of competition.  After they finished cleaning as teams, they walked back together to the kfar.  No longer divided by teams.  They walked back as Nivonim United.