Camp Blog

Our ladies who lunch were decked out in fanciful garden dresses, lace gloves and hats with flowers. Stepping into the CSS Garden (we continue to be be surprised by the different faces of the dining room), they let themselves take it all in. The tables were set with heavy brocade floral tablecloths, delicate china tea sets, bouquet centerpieces. A buffet of finger sandwiches, napoleons, custard cakes and petit fours graced the back table. Yet another station was set up where campers decorated straw hats with ribbons and bows and lace. Classical music played in the background as we dantily sipped out tea. ‘Twas simply lovely.

Welcome back. This is Leah with member station WCSS. Thank you for joining us for today’s segment of “Simcha Special Activity.” We bring you reports of Ted Saint James, psychic entertainer, in a humorous and entertaining show. This mentalist involved every member of the audience in mind-reading games. We wrote down personal information that he could not possibly know and then gave him the cards. He blindfolded himself and then astounded us by guessing what we had written. Ted even correctly guessed the birthdate of Melanie C.

Rochel D. said,

“I loved it.”

In an official statement camper Ilana F. said,

“It was freaky, like how could he read minds? Was it really real? It was wonderfully amazing.”

Good afternoon and thanks for joining us today for this edition of Workshop Watch. I’m Leah and I’ll be your host. Today we are getting reports of activity down at the Woodworking shop where Mr. Engel is helping campers fashion unique pieces out of wood. From piles of sawdust, emerge napkin holders, key racks, jewelry boxes among other things. Campers first saw the wood, then shape it, sand it, glue together any pieces, then finally stain and decorate it.

Yocheved Krakauer (no relation to Jon) contributed reporting to this story. She spoke with campers. Here’s what they had to say:

Mara C. said she

“worked so hard and made a napkin holder.”

Ilana F. made a key holder. She said,

“the best part was when I helped to cut the wood.”

Another camper, Karen, said,

“I made my name and the best part was working with Risa on the saw.”

The flowers we planted this morning are now being watered by a delicate rain. Our ladies who lunch are enjoying an extended garden party in the terrace dining room and learning camp cheers. A special activity is planned for later in the afternoon.

Today will be a leisurely walk in the park. In fact, a garden, complete with trellises and climbing ivy seems to have sprung up in the dining room overnight. As this reporter’s mother says about children, “give them plenty of water and sunshine and they’ll grow.” Here in Camp Simcha, there must be something in the water, because it seems like we’ll all grown together over the past week. But don’t think we’ll be resting on our laurels. Camp is packed with activities. Among the scheduled activities is gardening. We’re going to get our hands dirty. Stay with us for more updates.

Camp Simcha gets an A+ on a perfect regularly scheduled fire drill. All was in order. But what was that smoke rising from behind the pool?

It’s Leah here, investigating from the scene. There appears to be a small fire surrounded by stones and wood. Expert witnesses tell me this is called a bonfire. The natives are dancing in a circle around this structure. They’re holding hands and swaying back and forth, singing to the music. Aviva Honickman and others are strumming away at their guitars. The natives are cooking hotdogs, popcorn and smores on long sticks. Other campers are busy decorating masks in honor of the Purim party. The sun may set and the fire may die down, but memories of tonight will flicker on.

The day just keeps getting better and better. In the afternoon, the Musical IQ team guided us in a vibrant program of music and rhythm. The program opened with a drum performance. Then campers were given a special drums to play. Called a djembe, this drum comes from the West African country of Mali and is played in community settings. Our guide Ross told us that the group energy, not the instrument, is what makes the performance unique. We learned the two sounds the drum can make: the low sound from the center portion, called the bass and the higher sound from the side, called the tone. The interactive, hands-on approach to creating music and meaning helped us further cohere as a CSS group. The program was both energetic and inspiring.

Rachel L., Rachel B., Bracha D. and Sara made up their own beat and performed it for the rest of camp.

Ari and her sister Tali H. were talking about home. Ari commented that Tali’s favorite place is home.

“No,” corrected Tali, “My favorite place on Earth is Camp Simcha Special!”

Hear ye, hear ye. It has been decreed by Queen Rivky that all Camp Simcha campers should receive masks in honor of today’s Purim Party. We also gave mishloach manos (candy-grams) to our friends.

Stickers, glue, glitters, scissors, colored paper, cut-outs litter the tables in the scrapbooking room. We’re making scrapbooks and calendars. Here’s what we have to say about it.

Baila Perel D.

I made a calendar. It looks the cutest you have ever seen. It has pictures in the background of what we dressed up as and the theme. And we made the letters colorful and I have very good taste, all different colors. It has just the two months of camp so you remember what we did each day and what we dressed up as. I can look at it when come home from camp.

Juliette

We made calendars with lots of pictures describing a different day that we were here. We put it down on the calendar to describe the experience.

Emily R.

I liked scrapbooking because there were cool patterns and papers and different supplies. I made a scrapbook page and I’m going to put the pictures that I am taking here so that I can have memories of camp. I love camp because I get to do things I never thought I could do.