What do you get when you combine girls looking their best, singing, dancing, bingo, a choir, a hilarious skit, and an unbelievable amount of energy? Shabbat in Camp Simcha! Prayers and songs warmed all of our hearts. Our campers put on a skit about a Jewish mother trying to get gowns for her seven daughters. The Jewish humor left us all in giggles. The Israelis put on their very own red riding hood skit, in hebrew. We played a camp-wide game of Bingo. Chavy, Batsheva, Shayna, Shira, and Miriam all shared inspiring stories and thoughts with us. Chavy sang us a song she wrote, about cancer also being for the best. Shira told us that she finally understands why we are called Camp Simcha, because true happiness can be felt here. The Shabbat left us all on a high that I cannot put into words. After it ended we danced the night away, and our hearts will forever keep on dancing!

Hands went up, hands went down, but not one person had a frown. Simon Sez with Steve Max tonight left everyone rolling of laughter. Girls got out, but everyone was a winner in this game. Steve called up our girls to play the game while the crowd cheered them on. At the end of the game one of our very own counselors joined Steve in a chair-balancing on the nose contest.I I won’t name who lost but let’s just say that we have some talented counselors on staff. Simon says put your hands up and give it up for the best campers in the world, the campers of Camp Simcha!

Today’s game is Monopoly! Many girls are donning the Monopoly man’s mustache. Others are dressed up in all sorts of money-themed costumes. Faces flash money, literally, with huge dollar signs painted on. The dining room has a life-size Monopoly board! Activities of the day included baking, candle making, karate, wood working, boating and more. During
“jail break” our campers had to find highly wanted prisoners, also known as our staff in prison suits. Hey, they can have fun too!  The campers received money throughout the day. An auction was held with their money and bunks won prizes such as t-shirt making, a pajama party, and much more.  Looking forward to a great night activity!

Place your piece on start because our gamers have finally arrived! Welcoming them was our camp’s very own performers and live band. Singing and dancing could be heard for miles. Songs were sung to each camper individually, making them feel like the princesses that they are. Girls were thrown up in the air on chairs and put on counselor’s shoulders as they danced the day away.  After the cotton candy was eaten, and the faces were painted, the girls headed down to a mind-blowing magic show. The show was a hit but the volunteers from the audience made it all the better. Chavi was called up for a card trick.  Sari, Malka, and Troni all had their minds read. The magician ended his act with an incredible illusion that left us all with dropped jaws.  It was a magical day to say the least.

Our campers love getting e-mail! To send your camper an e-mail, include her 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.

Before the session begins, we would like to clarify some things about our Facebook galleries, public galleries on our website, and ParentSpace galleries.

Firstly, if your child is photo-release “in camp only”, he or she will only appear in the ParentSpace gallery. Your child will not appear on Facebook, nor on the public side of the site. So if your child is a camper, go ahead and sign up for ParentSpace. Not only will you see more pictures (2x more pictures than on FB), but you will also be privy to a video that will be produced special for you every day, a special blog, the daily camp newsletter, camp schedule, and forums where you can communicate with other parents.

Secondly, we have received emails from some parents who were having difficulty signing into ParentSpace. Please follow the instructions below for the proper way to log in to your account. If you haven’t applied for an account, please go ahead and apply for an account. You should be verified within 24 hours.

To log into your ParentSpace account please click go to campsimcha.org and click on LOGIN in the top right corner.

Then type in your username and password.

You will automatically land on the ParentSpace site.

From this page you can access a special blog just for parents, the daily schedule, and daily pictures and videos.

A COMMON PROBLEM: If you attempt to visit campsimcha.org/parentspace directly, and login there, you will be bounced to another login page. If you type in your username and password there you, will be granted access to ParentSpace. However, until we correct this glitch, we ask that you instead login by going to campsimcha.org and clicking login in the top right corner.

If you are still having trouble with parentspace, or if you have any questions, comments, requests, or suggestions for the blogs, please contact zahavah@campsimcha.org

You can also follow us on twitter @CampSimcha

First day at Camp Simcha and we are anxiously awaiting our camper arrivals! Everyone is hyped up and in vibrant colors. Our counselors are all well prepared after a full day of orientation. Orientation included speeches from our medical staff, division heads, head counselors and more. Even the head director of Chai Lifeline, Rabbi Scholar, shared his encouraging words of wisdom with us. Camp is ready, counselors are prepared, so get ready campers for the best summer of your life. Game on!

Check out and share this year’s music video, Happiness Heals.

The night was filled with emotion, presentations, excitement
and…food. The grand banquet was magnificent, as the kitchen staff
went all out to accommodate everyone’s favorite dishes and then some.
From spare ribs to carving stations, and dozens of assorted hot dishes
in between, the event could only be described as epic.

Following the banquet, we all went to the social hall to watch the
camp video. Before it got started, head counselor Ari Dembi went up on
stage and personally thanked every member of the staff. Many
counselors told me the next part of the ceremony was one of the most
meaningful parts of their year. We all took a moment of silence, and
every camper gave their counselor a sixty second long hug. Despite
this being the boys’ session, I must admit that there were a lot of
guys with tears in their eyes.

The camp video reminded us all just how fast the time flew by and yet
how much we accomplished during these twelve days. The night activity
shows, dancing with all our hearts by the meals, awesome daily themed
activities, creative workshops, quality time together, camaraderie,
and the overall rocking spirit in Camp Simcha Special 2012 played out
in front all of our eyes.

At the conclusion of the video presentation, there was still more to
come. We all made our way to the bunkhouse area. Each camper was given
a giant glow stick as we waited for the fireworks to start. Suddenly
the dark night was filled with light as we all beheld a fifteen minute
long, extraordinary, magical display of “fourth of July” style
fireworks. It was awesome!!

I will cherish my summer in Camp Simcha Special forever.