Welcoming new Ramahniks to camp!

It’s a special joy each summer to get to welcome new chanichim/ot (campers) into our Ramah family!! We love getting to grow our kehillah (community) and adding new friends to our tzrifim (bunks) and edot (divisions) around camp.

We have lots of new campers at camp each summer. Even in our Tzad Bet (B-Side) edot! (I want more people to know that we do still get a bunch of new campers on B-Side, in our older edot! It’s never too late to start at Ramah! Actually, several of our best madrichim/ot (counselors) at camp in the past few years started as older B-Side campers.)

We are very intentional and planful about how we welcome new campers into our community. We are very careful to make sure that we’re helping new campers feel comfortable, to learn their way around camp and to learn how camp works. At the same time, we’re always looking for how best to subtly “friendgineer” new friendships and relationships, helping kids to make new friends and integrating our new campers with our returning campers.

The programming across the edot is designed with these goals in mind!  For example, many counselors plan treasure-hunts around camp, which are fun romps across camp that also help kids learn their way around! Counselors also take kids on tours of our Chadar Ochel (Dining Hall), teaching the ins and outs of all the different food options we have to offer.

Yesterday in Kochavim (our edah for rising 3rd and 4th graders), the kids played some fun games including one where chanichim had to guess which fun fact belonged to which of the other campers in their tzrif! It was a great way for the kids to get to know one another. In Ilanot (our edah for rising 5th graders), the counselors ran a game of Ramah Rainbow Tag, in which the campers had to complete different challenges that involved learning all about different mekomot (locations) around camp! In Solelim (our edah for rising 6th graders), their Peulat Erev (after-dinner activity) yesterday was all about the kids getting to know all the madrichim (counselors) in the edah! They started by gathering and learning some fun facts about their madrichim; then, each tzrif got “Sophia Bucks” (Sophia is their Rosh Edah) and had the opportunity to bid on items in a blind auction. Shoafim (our edah for rising 7th graders), meanwhile, played a ruach-filled game of edah-wide Jeopardy to get to know each other better, and to get to know their amazing tzevet (staff)!! (Categories included: Ramah, Israel, Tzevet, Miscellaneous, and Judaism.) See photos below! In Amitzim and on Tzad Bet (B-Side), counselors ran team-building peulot tzrif (bunk activities), and also a buddies program in which new campers were paired up with a veteran camper to take a tour of camp together.

After a beautiful and fun-filled first week together, we’re already starting to get excited for Shabbat, which will be led this week by adat ha-Magshimim! We can’t wait!