At the mosaics workshop, campers are diligently decorating candle holders. They are using tacky glue, mosaic tiles, and finally, grout, to create multi-colored unique pieces. Molly is using red, orange, and yellow tiles to decorate her candle holder.

Camp Simcha was fascinated tonight as we watched a show by two jugglers, “The Two Show,” which featured juggling acts, body twists, and even optical illusions. We watched in awe as they juggled balls under their knees and around their backs. After they each juggled three and four balls, they juggled ten balls together! But they didn’t just juggle balls; they juggled knives and fire, too. One of the men, obviously extremely flexible, twisted his body, getting himself through a mini hoola-hoop, through the back of a folding chair, and even through a tennis racket! Then they turned off the lights in the room and used three glow-in-the-dark colorful jump ropes to create different patterns and what seemed to be optical illusions. It was truly one of the most amazing shows we have ever seen!

Throughout the day, our campers received “dollars” for being good or doing nice things for others. After dinner we had the auto show sale – all the cars on display in the dining room were raffled off to campers. Who are our winners?

The purple car goes to… Leah!
The army tank truck goes to… Malka!
The monster truck goes to… Zlate!
The red Harley Davidson goes to… Rebecca!
The purple convertible goes to… Chaya!
The two-door transformer car goes to… Esther K!
The red and white striped car goes to… Hannah!
The green convertible goes to… Lily!
And the biggest prize of the night, the garage, goes to… Evilyn!

Congratulations to all!

Today is auto show day, so what better activity to do than a car wash?! In the fields of Camp Simcha, cars are being covered in shaving cream, and then washed down by our expert camper car washers! Of course, the kids were thrilled when the car wash somehow turned into a water fight. Campers were chasing counselors with hoses and shaving cream, and even the Paramedic staff had fun playing around with them!

The sun is shining down by the lake, and so are the campers’ faces. Music blasting, the pontoon and the speed-boat glide down the lake with campers and their counselors. The kids love to row in the swan paddleboats, bumper boats and kayaks. And thanks to our top lifeguards who are helping, watching, and guarding the campers, the campers are having a great safe time!

This morning campers were treated to helicopter rides around Glen Spey – an incredible experience! They felt great wearing the huge headphones in the helicopter. The aerial views of the trees and lakes are beautiful, and they even saw the Delaware River.

“I saw lots of trees and lakes and everything looked so tiny – like a doll house!” says Malky.

“I saw the whole world!” Rebecca says. She’s been on the helicopter ride five times before this one, and she thinks this was by far the best!

Keeping with the theme of the summer “Great Simcha Escapes,” our two oldest divisions, Goldie’s Gagas and Sarah’s Sparklers escaped to the city! After breakfast, our campers loaded the buses for an exciting, fun filled day featuring a trip to Madame Tussad’s Wax Museum and an exciting Chai Lifeline event in Central Park.

In the museum, our campers got to “meet” and take pictures with famous icons, celebrities, politicians and sports figures. Some of our campers even entered the red-roped White House room and sat behind President Obama’s desk and took pictures with him! A favorite wax model in the museum was Franklin D. Roosevelt, a famous figure in history who our campers could relate to. Singers, sports players, even one that was 7 feet tall amused our campers. As we walked around we kept looking twice to see if the person was real or not! Dr. Shlomo Zakheim even took part in the fun, fooling guests in the museum into thinking he was a wax model! Katie was so excited to take pictures with Justin Bieber… (Katie, Katie, Katie ooh). Yenti, our well known camp singer extraordinaire stood just inches away from singing sensation Stevie Wonder. Bethanie, one of our brave campers, entered the haunted hallway, complete with leaping hands and loud noises. Boy, were we scared!

After the museum, we loaded the buses and vans, witnessing some pretty interesting sights on the streets of New York! We made our way to Central Park where our campers were treated to an amusement park themed event sponsored by LH Financial, “Solomon’s Dream.” Campers received wristbands and tee-shirts to commemorate the day. Inside the park, there was loads of food including freshly popped popcorn, piping hot pretzels, snow cones, ice cold sodas and an out of this world buffet… almost enough food to rival a typical lunch in Camp Simcha… but not close enough.

Mini roller-coasters, high flying swings, spinning boats and a lazy boat ride thrilled our campers. There was a DJ playing our favorite songs, a bubble blower, blowing basketball-sized bubbles, jugglers and other acts entertained us as we laughed and had a blast!

As the sun started to set we boarded the buses back to camp, tired but filled with so much joy at our special day in New York. Special thanks to Shaindy Lowenthal for all her hard work coordinating the trip, LH Financial for sponsoring the beautiful event and everyone who enhanced our time in New York. It was truly an incredible day that we will never forget.

Who are the best Simon Sez players in Camp Simcha Special? Ask Steve Max, the greatest Simon Sez around! Camp Simcha campers are great at listening and doing… only what Simon says! We even played international Simon Sez in different languages! Chumie and Racheli shook hands and wished each other good luck as they entered into an intense Simon Sez match. Then Malky and Shira were challenged to keep a serious face for the longest time but the girls couldn’t stop smiling! Jessica won the staff Simon Sez tournament and then went up against the Chumee Chums. And after a minute and twenty seconds… the campers are our champions!!

As he says, with a name like Yitzchok Simcha, he feels it’s his obligation to put a smile on everyone’s faces. And he surely did – the show brought smiles and laughs across the audience!

At the Camp Simcha Special pottery workshop, the campers each get a piece of clay which they can fashion into any type of pottery piece they choose. They engrave shapes in their clay using different tools, stamps and cookie-cutters. Bailu is making a plate in the shape of an ice cream cone. She diligently smooths out the clay with a sponge and says, “This is my favorite activity in camp!” A great part about pottery is that the campers can transform a piece of clay into their own unique creation!

What a fabulous music show by Morah Music! We started with refreshing warm ups and exercises and then danced and played games to the rocking music! Clap… twist… bend… wiggle… jump… Morah Music had us all jumping up and down in a game of “head, shoulders, knees, and toes.” Thanks to our assistants Bella, Victoria, and Shauna, we had a great game of “copy-cat,” and they each got to be the cat-in-the-hat while helping Morah Music!