Camp Blog

I am a huge fan of the band “8th Day” and I love to listen to their music. I never imagined how absolutely rocking it would be, to actually see them live in concert… and nothing could have prepared me to seeing them live in concert in Camp Simcha Special!! I think that everyone will agree with me that that was one of the most epicly pumping moments in camp thus far. Flashing lights, green lasers, and many disco balls met the compromised enthusiasm of staff and campers alike. Seats were not necessary , as the entire social hall was turned into one giant dance floor with most campers taking a seat high above the ground on their counselors’ shoulders. It was legendary!

For the next activity, I had the great pleasure of rotating Naftali G. for the “fruit ninja” themed activities. First we had a watermelon eating contest. It was no ordinary race. I had to hold up a large round slice of watermelon in front of me, while Naftali had to stick his face into it and eat the entire middle out (with his hands behind his back), before his opponent! I had the pleasure of being the eater a couple of rounds later, and let me just say, it was surprisingly refreshing and satisfying! Next we had a juicing race. The campers were split into two teams. Each camper had a strainer on top of a cup  and a bunch of oranges in front of them. First team to squeeze, squish, and strain an entire cup full of orange juice first, won.  Let’s just say that after that activity, there wasn’t a single one of us that did not feel like a real, juicy, fruit ninja. After that we went to the speedway. For all of you who haven’t yet visited it, you should head over there A.S.A.P! There’s a fully painted race track, a giant bridge, with super fast, agile remote control cars. Believe it or not but once you pick up that remote control, you’ll be surprised to see how hard it is to put it down and give it back to your camper, or at least, that’s what I’m told 😉  . By night activity we beheld a spectacle of daring acrobatics who performed in the air, on chairs, benches, and even while jumping rope. Not to mention a game of super limbo as well. How low can you go?  Overall it was yet another awesome, action packed day here in the happiest place in the world, Camp Simcha Special!

There were some new color war games being played during second and third activity. The wacky Olympics in the gym got wackier, adding two games: 1.A bubble game, where campers had to blow bubbles and aim them to go through a hula hoop a couple of feet away. 2. A valiant egg toss. Two brave campers were even able to make it across the width of the entire gym! There were paddle boat races in the lake, and an actual sand castle contest. There were updates to the props as well. The full size camp made tank is now able to launch real live rockets, that were made in the camps very own rocketry workshop!!

After supper we all made our way to the social hall for the final chapter of color war. The skits were hilarious, the alma mater was sung passionately, and the both team projects were creative and magnificent. The blue team made a new set of very large doors, painted with great detail (and a lot of blue), for the candle works workshop. The green team made five green recycling bins, in a move to “go green”.

At last, it was time to announce the winner. First, dramatically, the scores were announced: 202-199. One could hear the nervous murmuring of the campers. In the climatic words of Ari Dembi, the head counselor: “And the winner of this years color war is….the green team!!!”.

From the games, creativity in song writing,skits,and projects, to the sheer energy and excitement that was experienced in the past 24 hours…It made this an epic color war, and one that this author will always remember.

Color war in Camp Simcha Special is off with a bang! First activity was filled with wacky olympic games ranging from holding a spoon in your mouth with an egg on it and racing to the other side of the gym, to a mummy your counselor  contest, were the object of the game was to cover your counselor from head to toe in toilet paper  “mummy style”. Whichever team covered their counselor more than everyone else in the given time limit, won! It was awesome and all the campers had a blast!!

When it came to lunch time, every inch of the dining room was completely outfitted in color war gear. From Oscar the grouch and Shrek posters on the green side, to Cookie Monster and blue tooth signs on the blue side, the ambience was loaded with energy. The camp creative crew, run by koko, really out did themselves filling the dining room with at least 20 foot long, authentic looking aircraft carrier, battle ship, and tank models in honor of the color war theme. So cool!

Afterwards each team rocked up the dining room with their color war songs, dancing and singing with a wild amount of enthusiasm. It all paled in comparison though to the “good sport” dance in the center of the dining room, where both teams dropped the competition for a few minutes and all danced together in a true show of unity.

Stay tuned for more on this, the greatest color war ever!

Color war has just broken out, here on the grounds of Camp Simcha Special!  The teams are green versus blue. Stay tuned for more details on what’s sure to be the most epic, thrilling, and entertaining color war ever!!

Supper was followed by an extremely unique night activity show. It was something like a crossover between the Broadway show “Stomp” and a full fledged juggling act. You really had to be there, but take my word for it… it was truly entertaining!

Tikkunei ‘12

This year’s camp word is a profound one: Tikkunim. It means to grow. To improve. It’s to gain. To accomplish. You’ll be hearing it a lot as that’s the whole goal of the summer here in Camp Simcha Special. May we all merit to walk away at the end of the summer with many personal tikkunim, as well as having contributed many as well.

Hey everybody, Moishy Pruz (pronounced like cruise- but with a P)  here. It’s my very first summer here in Camp Simcha Special , and I’m super pumped to experience the greatest summer ever! We’ve all counted down every minute to come back to our “home away from home” and the ’12 season of Tikkunim is ready to begin. At about 3 pm the buses started arriving… and it was craaaaazy! This is where you can literally see everyone shed their inhibitions in a total, all out, no holding back psyche-fest. Costumes, face painting, live full piece band, (a gingerbread house?), and a huge amount of psyche headed by Ari Dembi– and we started this soon to be the most epic summer ever, off with a bang! It was completely out of control, and you could literally see the excitement on the campers faces the moment they walked off the buses. To complete the day, by night activity we all watched a super cool, balloon filling, disc juggling, bull whipping, death defying acrobat show that was nothing short of spectacular…and this is just the beginning!!

Our campers love getting e-mail! To send your camper an e-mail, include his NAME and BUNK NUMBER in the subject line of the e-mail. Please send all e-mails to mail@campsimcha.org. Unfortunately, we cannot download any attachments so please include all content in the body of your e-mail.

For technical assistance, please email estein@campsimcha.org