Camp Ramah New England Special Camp Experiences: Second Session 2026

Here are more incredible stories of special chanich/a (camper) experiences from Machzor Sheinei (Second Session) 2026, shared by our madrichim/ot (counselors):

Camper Growth, Confidence, and Feeling Seen:

A kid that didn’t open up to me all second session finally opened up and we had a good talk about what he wanted to do at camp.
One of my most homesick campers decided in the last 3 days of the mini-session that he loved camp and had the most amazing time and cried when he left. He’s already signed up for a month next year.
I teach Gan swim lessons level 1 this session – so kids that are afraid of the water. One of the campers, on his last day of lessons, jumped in and swam across A-water on the kickboard (with support). I stopped the lesson to congratulate him and after the lesson his dad approached me and told me he has never seen his son wanting to even touch water before agam lessons this summer.
In my omanut chug I had 3 girls from the group of kids from northern Israel. At first they didn’t show up at all and didn’t participate. With time I made great connections with them, I talked to them and got to know them. On the last day they all gave me a hug and told me they are going to miss me.
As a Tzad Aleph madricha, it was really hard to switch gears when Six Flags was postponed earlier in the machzor (because of bad weather) and we had to pivot to going to the trampoline park instead. However, like all my peers around me, I was determined to make the most of it. Because we didn’t have our phones, I was “bein” (“bein haChanichim” – with my campers) the entire time and overheard the most precious conversation between my campers as we were bouncing. One of them said “I love having counselors so much because they aren’t too old that they can’t do fun things with us, but they are old enough to make us feel safe and cared for.” This one sentence is the reason why I’m a counselor and affirmed the difference we are making in these young peoples’ lives.

Reflection, Harga’ah, and Vulnerability:

Every Friday we do a special harga’ah where we all share (based off new prompts) meaningful/vulnerable feelings from the last week and hopes for the days to come and then conclude by teaching a zmirah.
When the power went out, we all sat in a circle in the tzrif and everyone answered questions about themselves. It really bonded them across friend groups.
Each week my tzrif did a sweetness circle, where we ate a sweet snack and complimented/wished something sweet for the people sitting next to us.
Earlier this session I did a “starga’ah,” a stargazing harga’ah. My girls set down towels and blankets in the Gagarina, we played slow music, had deep conversations, and enjoyed the gorgeous nature camp provides.
There was a power outage yesterday, so for the harga’ah, we decided to go stargazing. Because the whole camp was dark, the sky was honestly the most beautiful thing ever! We also taught them a really sweet Camp Ramah song, and it was just such a wholesome moment.
At the treehouse, I led a guided meditation on the roof under the stars, and several campers came up afterwards to say that they really appreciated it.
We went stargazing and shared special sneak-out drinks and memories about one of our campers that left early.

Music, T’fillah, Shabbat, and Jewish Meaning:

Matan L. and I led a music-based alternative t’fillah for Magshimim. Personally, it was my favorite t’fillah of the summer, and campers seemed to really connect too. We played the guitar and chanichim drummed and we created a song from the ground up based around gratitude. Campers shared what they were grateful for and contributed to the music however they felt fit.
This session for harga’ah, we taught them sappy but sweet songs that I learned as a camper. For example, they learned the songs “Towers” “All I Want” and “Linger”. They all really appreciated it and said they’re going to continue singing them and teaching them eventually to their campers. It warmed my heart!!
A camper from our edah (Machon) came up to me and said she really wants to read Torah on Shabbat but doesn’t know the Torah trope. Usually there isn’t a chance to teach Machon during the summer, so I managed to record a reading for her, and she studied it and read Torah for the first time in her life this Shabbat!
My campers requested to lead harga’ah one night after a meaningful limud session with Moti. They taught our bunk a song that was written by a soldier killed on October 7th who left behind 5 children — his children went on to produce the song and release it to the public. It was very meaningful for the whole bunk to learn the song and to have this meaningful activity be lead by the campers.
During lightning protocol, we starting singing medurah (campfire) and Seudah Shlishit songs which then spread around to other campers.
When we were stuck in the bunk on Friday night during the power outage, all of the girls sat around together and sang Shabbos songs, they then transitioned to singing Hamilton in order to include a camper who loves musicals but don’t know a lot of Hebrew.
This session, we had Ilanot campers lead t’fillot almost everyday. It was so incredible to watch the chanichim take ownership of and be leaders of their own t’fillot. My favorite part was at the end, when we would say “yasher koach”, watching the chanichim cheer on their tzrif-mates.

Friendship, Bunk Bonding, and Community:

My favorite moment from this past session was when a kid in my bunk who was less integrated taught the bunk this version of Werewolf Hindered and we played for harga’ah.
Walking back from our sneakout, my girls were all talking about the movie we watched (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) and they kept relating the movie to their own experience of having amazing, true friendships with the girls in their tzrif. The movie is about female friendship and they really picked up on that — they were talking about how special it is to have those kinds of relationships.
My bunk of Bogrimers and my friend’s bunk of Machoners assigned our campers to each have a “big and little sister” in the other bunk and they now all love each other, my Bogrim girls keep going to their Machon “bigs” for advice and are talking about how excited they are to be the leaders of B-side as Machon and Niv next year.
One special moment was when we did our first sneak-out, and on the way back from the lower migrash, they started talking with each other about how much fun they were having this summer.
I work on ropes staff, and while I was staffing Nivonim night swing I turned 18, and a bunch of them ran over and sang happy birthday and gave me big hugs and it was very sweet.

Adventure, Nature, and Special Camp Experiences:

One special moment was when we did our first sneak-out, and on the way back from the lower migrash, they started talking with each other about how much fun they were having this summer.
We had morning boating, and at first the campers were very disappointed that it was foggy, but then when they got onto the agam they had such an amazing time and thought that the fog made the whole experience even cooler and more special.
We did a morning boating session with them and I think that was the fastest I’ve ever seen them waking up in the morning. They really were excited to team-up for canoes.
A great memory from this year was that for our sneak-out, we slept in the treehouse. It started raining at 5:30, but it was OK because all the campers were loving the rain.
On Shabbat during my chofesh (free time), I went on the water toys with my campers. We had so much fun.
My campers all got really into a harga’ah that I was giving about hiking yam le yam in Israel, and they all were asking questions and exclaiming at the exciting parts of the story.

Sports, Games, Playfulness, and Fun:

I plank with the kids every night before bed, and they get really excited to hit new PR’s. (One of them got 16 min.)
We got super hype about the Carolina panthers and rooted for them during the pre-season game during our sneak-out.
My campers are all obsessed with sports cards, so on my day off, I bought a bunch of sports boxes, and every menucha we unboxed them, and we ended up getting a really cool/expensive card. They all loved it and it was really exciting.
A great memory: Night basketball used to be a thing at camp, I believe, but I haven’t really heard about it in a while, so we decided to do night basketball with our bunk where we played basketball on the A-Side courts with our tzrif once it got dark. We got a glow in the dark basketball and it went so well that the campers keep asking if we can do it again.

Creativity, Themes, and Bunk Traditions:

We decorated the bunk according to our theme (safari) with the campers and wrote the words to the bunk’s anthem as a part of Yom Tzrif.
My entire bunk has memorized the preamble to the constitution as a part of our bunk theme this session: the American Revolution. We have 13 campers, each camper is a “colony” and knows facts about when their colony was founded and the founding fathers.
We started our bunk Assassins game, where they are all given a target in the bunk and try to eliminate them. The way they protect themselves is by wearing a sock on their non-dominant hand, and the way they get other out who aren’t wearing their socks are by throwing their own socks at them and yelling “sock up or you’ll get a blister, mister!”

Gratitude, Appreciation, and Counselor Impact:

I co coach tennis Roo with a member of Voc-Ed, and one of the girls on the team noticed that my co-coach’s grip on her racket was really worn out and gave her a new grip and wrapped it for her.
My campers surprised me with a thank you poster the day before I left camp (because I had to go to college).
My campers all asked me to pick out their Shabbat outfits, and it was so cute!
My campers love to complain about the camp food and so, to help them appreciate the work the cooking crew does, we went on a kitchen tour as a bunk. They all expressed how fun it was, and how cool it was to see how everything is made.