Camp Simcha & Camp Simcha Special
Simcha Magic: Feel It In The Air!
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Whew! By far the busiest day in camp! It’s 2 am as I write this, and the night is still young!
We started the day with an improv musical. An historic event, the is the first time in world history (or at least my limited knowledge thereof) where an entire musical production was improvised. With a basic idea on storyline, some amazing videos shot on green screen and a couple of dance routines practised bunch of times, the awesomely skilled cast pulled off a hilarious performance!
With lunch came another historic event, with Nosson celebrating his Bar Mitzva!
After lunch we were visited by 8th Day. They kept the crowd jumping with their lively songs, and of course we taught them our own, which they got really involved in!
The remaining time of the afternoon was spent finishing up all our projects and picking them up from all the workshops. With glass fusion, pottery, studio, arts & crafts etc. etc. there were a lot of things to pick up. Next question: How do we fit all these amazing creations into our suitcases?
The evening brought with it a scrumptious banquet. Great food, music and a whole bunch of cover songs featuring our talented campers.
Next stop was the social hall, where we cheered on the campers who graduated this year. 15 campers are moving on, with this being their last time in Camp Simcha Special. Each was presented with a digital photo frame with over 500 pictures each, with all the pictures taken of them in camp over their many years here, some pictures dating back to 2007 and even earlier. We also had a video interview with them, as each spoke of what he gained in camp, a message for current campers and inspiring words to the others graduating.
Next came the video called “Memories 2014.” The media guys have been pulling all-nighters the last few days, putting the final touches on their masterpieces, and the video definitely brought many tough guys to tears!
Next we headed to the hill for a slideshow and fireworks show. Finally the campers’ schedule ended with Dembi’s famous announcement of “campers: to bed.” Of course no-one was ready to waste the few remaining hours here on sleep! With a strong mix of emotions, we spent the time chilling together, strengthening the bonds between us and exchanging contact information.
Staff met at 11:45 pm. Dembi spoke for a while, and then there was an open mike opportunity, with whoever wanted to pitching in with their two cents. After the official meeting ended, informal discussion continued all around camp and in all likelihood will continue through the night until the buses pull away!
It’s been a great summer, (I would add some other superlatives, but none would do it justice, and I think I’ve used them all already. Go ahead, prove me wrong and find one I didn’t use!) and I look forward to seeing you again next year; same time, same place.
Be well
Yaakov
We woke up to a loud throbbing sound in the air. A quick look out the window confirmed that the day had finally arrived: a helicopter had arrived, and we would all get to go for a joyride!
It’s really cool to go up a couple thousand feet in the air! You can see for miles around, and during take-off and landing you get to see the whole camp from a birds eye view – literally!
After getting off the helicopters, we went straight to the lake for our next mode of transport: Jet-skis. Racing around the lake at top speed, hanging onto the driver for dear life! Nothing like an adrenaline rush to start the day!
After expriencing air and sea transport, we had to round off the day with a representative of land, so we had a major car wash. Those who have been following how things work ’round here can already guess that the cars were not the only things to get wet; with a slight sense of dÈj‡ vu, we jumped straight in and made sure to super-soak each other to the bone!
The teams were set, the battle lines drawn. Today was all about war, with the two competing sides in fierce battle for victory. The dining room was divided up, with red & blue streamers on one side, and black & yellow on the other. The team cheers continued without letup through the entire breakfast, and into the rest of the events.
We had major league gaga competitions, banana boat races and for the first time, we had a baseball game!
After lunch, a ceasefire was declared, and we gathered in the gym for an epic stunt show. The troupe stunned us with their amazing acrobatics, contorting themselves into tiny shapes, making human formations and pyramids, and even jumping rope while sitting on the floor!
Supper was another opportunity to excercise our vocal chords, with even more cheers.
As night fell, we assembled in the social hall for the grand finale, with team cheers, speeches and songs. After that, we had a hilarious set of skits, preformed and filmed by our super-talented counsellors and specialities.
The judges convened, the points were tallied up, and the winner is… the blue & red team.
As we made peace here, we pray that our friends in Israel should achieve real and lasting peace, ASAP!
The morning started off with a game of Totally Twisted Twister, which somehow involved and evolved into a colour run! Things seem to transmogrify quickly and crazily here!
After lunch, we got to shave our counsellors. They’ve been saving up their beards for the last few weeks, and today we gathered together for a mass clean-up! We even have a few newly-minted skinheads.
Supper arrived, with its customary dancing. Today however, there was a twist: one of the workshops here is rerecording/making cover versions, with the campers doing all the solos. Now we got to enjoy the fruit of their labour, dancing to the beat of their remixes.
From there, we went straight to the hall for a Camp Simcha Rave! They really went the whole nine yards here: there were black-lights, light-sticks, lasers and, of course, our very own DJ John at the deck.
By now, even we thought the day was so intense it must be over by now, time to head to bed, we were astonished to hear Dembi at the mike announcing the breakout of COLOUR WAR!!! Teams are Superman/Blue & Red/Kindness vs. Batman/Black & Yellow/Faith. After the themes were announced, the captains introduced and the teams divided up, it was time for the two teams to part ways and make their plans.
Find out tomorrow what happens to the wildest and happiest place in the world when they go to war.
Today was a slow day. A day to reflect. To ponder the destruction and sadness, and work on revitalising, repairing and rebuilding.
With a less structured day than normal, the workshops were all open for drop-ins. With woodworking, arts & crafts, rocketry, green screen rooms, studio remixing & karaoke to name just a few, there was a whole lot to do.
We also had a fabulous bubble show, including a basic science lesson, bubbles over four feet tall and even blowing bubbles inside other bubbles!
Rumors abound that something very exciting is happening tomorrow: Watch this space!
Today, we bring you a super guest blogger, all the way from Manchester, UK. Meet Moshe Chayim Barron, along with his devoted counselor Yitzchok Davies.
At 8:30 am Duvie Becker announced during his usual morning broadcast that the super talmid award raffle was going to take place at breakfast. I had ten awards and I decided to get up early.
At breakfast I watched as all the prizes were raffled off. Ari Max, my bunkmate won two prizes. For a second I thought Yitzchok had won a prize because Duvie announced his name, but it was just to call him to the front for a message. I was pretty upset that I didn’t win anything, but in learning program Rabbi Filer said that the real reward for learning well comes in the world to come.
We then went to canvas painting; I was just painting randomly and it began to start looking like a Palestinian flag, so I changed it to a super hero logo!
I then played as the red team against the blue in a super intense game of Hockey. Our team won, of course, 6-5. I managed to pull off some pretty cool blocks, passes and goal setups. Amichai (my bunkmate) scored a hat-trick, Yitzchok was keeper for first half and Illan (another bunkmate) for second and Yackov (bunkmate) did a good job in goals for the blue team despite losing.
After lunch I went to the movie room and watched Spiderman 2, which was great. Then at leather works I banged away at the leather with Reuven Cooperstein for a while but then loads of others started banging and it got really noisy so I chose to leave.
On my way to snack I practiced some epic stone to stone hopping, before meeting Daniel (my rotator) at candle works. I chose not to have the salty pretzels and went with Daniel to woodwork.
I worked hard on making a key holder, itself in the shape of a key. Double whammy! I will finish this off in a second woodwork session.
I then rejoined Yitzchok for supper, before going over to the social hall to check out the Mentalist show (mind-reading/magic show). I wasn’t so impressed, because I know how these people force you to think in a certain way… instead I rocked out in the woods for a few minutes before going to the Xbox room and playing FIFA against Yitzchok. I was Manchester United playing against him as Tottenham.
We had a race to the canteen, which I won. Once we got our nash we sat down with Ari and Yosaif. We enjoyed saying over the laffy taffy jokes and hearing the description of what happened to Ari in the carnival on Friday. Basically he was high in the air on the bungee jumping and his counselor pulled him down and let go. He flew over and the bar went vertical. For a second it looked really dangerous but Ari didn’t feel a thing!
We then headed back to our bunk for bedtime. Yaakov Langer came in and handed out Camp Simcha t-shirts and cardigans (for you Americans out there, that means a sweater). Yehuda Weiss from next door was our story teller. Awesome times.
Moshe Chayim and Yitzchok, enjoying the Friday carnival.
Last night three campers were commended for acts of unmitigated selflessness, in helping the housekeeping staff in their work, aiding other campers during activities and courteous treatment of waiters. Each of them also received an MP3 player
This afternoon we had hysterical skits by our staff, including a “competition” called “How Pathetic are You?”, with couneslours to tell the most embarassing story they could about themselves, and then a Camp Simcha version of Scenes From a Hat, with Team 1 competing against Team 770 to come up with the craziest lines for various situations. We cried with laughter at all the crazy lines!
Then came the bi-annual bingo game, with Duvie “the Legend” Becker calling out the numbers and announcing who won the great prizes, including MP3 players, GoPro video cameras and even a Samsung Galaxy tablet!
Today camp was invaded by pirates. Jolly Rogers flying high on the speedboats, and even the stage turned into a pirate ship!
In that spirit, we had a wild game of capture the flag, running and chasing each other all around camp, though the weather meant that at times we were not quite seaworthy and had to go into port!
Today we also had an epic funfair! There were rides, games and even funfair food – unlimited cotton candy and popcorn!
Good Shabbos, see you tomorrow night!
Today we welcomed the cyclists of Bike4Chai to camp. Over 300 people rode all the way to camp, fundraising for Chai Lifeline!
We greeted them with confetti, wild cheers and high-fiving them as they arrived. Once they got into camp, there was a gigantic tent, with a stage, screens and bleachers over two stories high.
We cheered and danced non-stop for ages, they got to taste a little of what camp is really all about!
Once that was over, we had a camp-wide water fight. With hoses, buckets and bottles, there was not a dry eye to be found. Nor a dry shirt, or even socks. In short, everyone was soaked!
At night we had a cholent challenge. Grouped by division, we made cholent, but with a twist: in order to get the ingredients, there were quizzes, challenges and joke-telling. Add to that chant and cheers, and it was a real blast. Tomorrow night, after simmering a whole friday, we will be able to taste for ourselves who made the best cholent.
Stay tunes for the results!
