ParentSpace Blog

Forsooth! Today hath been replete with a good many extraordinary activities. Breakfast in ye olde castle, and then, by George, helicopter rides into the wild blue yonder. Eyes followed ye chopper’s course around camp, watching as it formeth circles in the sky, ending with a skyshot of a human EPIC ‘11. And after lunch, to give thee a nice addition to the usual schedule, we went to the social hall, wherein Dembi stalled for time. But hear ye, the crowd lost not a smidgen of anticipation for Yaakov “the King of Jewish Soul” Shwekey. For after all, we are Camp Simcha Special, and thou knoweth that we don’t stop singing, dancing, jumping, screaming, roaring, shrilling, bouncing, hopping, or leaping, just because we have a bit of free time. Indeed, when Sir Soul did appear, he was quite warmly received by Ofek L, Boruch N, and Avraham Yeshaya L, to name a few. Amid the clicks of shutters and the bursts of flashbulbs, Shwekey sang hit after hit, concluding with “Ma Ma Ma,” with the one and only Yochi Briskman taking a turn on the drums.

IN ENGLISH: After our inspiring lunch, we headed to the social hall for a special surprise. We we’re greeted by a professional band on stage, and a professional sound and lighting system doing it’s magic.The guest star was a little late, but that was no problem for our awesome staff. Dembi proceeded to psych up the packed crowd with some pumping music (I gotta feelin, Stomp on the Ground, Party Rock), and some crazy dances. We we’re all drenched with sweat before the main show even started! Then Camp Simcha Special welcomed Yaakov Shwekey, The Soul of Jewish Music.  Shwekey wowed us with his usual range of octaves and pitches, and our camp responded with our usual epic energy. Every camper had an opportunity to get up on stage, hold hands, and dance with the celebrity. Shwekey shared the mike with a few campers, and was quite impressed with the raw talent. Some should expect contracts in the mail any day now. The smiles on the campers faces stretched ear to ear, as they were lifted onto shoulders, and danced onto the stage to dance.

Shwekey ended the show by stating the obvious: “Camp Simcha, you are the greatest camp in he world.”

Today Camp Simcha Special took a moment to pay tribute to a very special person when Camp Simcha Special was rededicated in memory of Zvi Dovid and Solomon Obstfeld. Over the years, Solomon Obstfeld went out his way to help further Camp Simcha’s mission. He was a true member of the Chai Lifeline family, and someone we knew we could always count on to bring smiles to our campers’ faces.

Ten years ago, Solomon had a vision to create a camp to meet the medical and social needs of children and teens with disparate chronic and genetic ailments. He dedicated the camp in memory of his father, Zvi Dovid. Since then, it has become an oasis of fun, friendship, love, and hope for children and teens, ages 8 – 18, whose illnesses require continual medical management. One year ago, on 28 Sivan, Solomon passed away suddenly. It is only fitting that Camp Simcha and Chai Lifeline recognize his tremendous contributions to our cause, and we therefore dedicate Camp Simcha Special to him too.

The program started off with a gala lunch, compliments of our in-house master chef. At the end of the meal, we heard an emotional speech delivered by Avi D. who told us how he ended up in Camp Simcha, and how it has change his life in only four short days.

One year ago, Avi was a healthy 16 year old who enjoyed photography. One day, after school, he wanted to capture the Tampa sunset. He had found a nice spot, but there were still trees in his way. He decided to climb a 35 foot electric pole to get a better view. After taking about a dozen pictures, he felt his foot give way. He instinctively grabbed the closest thing to catch himself, an electric cable. His body absorbed 75,000 volts, and he fell down 35 feet to the ground. His heart had stopped, and he was medically dead. He had fractured his spine in 58 places. One of his kidneys had imploded. He had hundreds of scars from the burns. He had one of his arms amputated because his metal bracelets had melted from the electricity, and fused to his arm. Avi went on to say that he had always loved sleep away camp. Last month, he and his mother decided to do some searches to find a disability accessible camp. He found Camp Simcha on a Google search but believed it was too good to be true! After calling some parents, though, Avi decided to give it to try. Avi went on to say that Camp Simcha has made a indelible impression on him. It has given new purpose to life. It has given him the strength to go on and have faith, even in these trying times. And most of all, he thanked the staff and benefactors for giving children with all disabilities the opprotunity to go to camp.

That emotional address was followed by an speech by Rabbi Simcha Scholar, executive vice president of Chai Lifeline. Rabbi Scholar thanked the Obstfeld family for everything that they have done for Camp Simcha. He went on to rededicate Camp Simcha Special in Solomon’s name too.

The program was capped off by an epic upROAR in the center of the dining room, where we showed our guests the amazing work we do here.

Getting a satellite view of Camp Simcha from Google Earth is very cool. You get to klutz in your chair, stare at a screen, and press the zoom button to see our gorgeous camp grounds (see here).

This morning, however, our amazing campers got to do something a bit more exciting. A helicopter came in from NYC to Camp Simcha, landed in middle of camp, and every camper got to board and get a ride. It was a really cool experience to get a birds eye view of the Happiest Place on Earth. To go along with the occasion, every camper got a special Camp Simcha Helicopter t-shirt. The squeals of delight were able to be heard even over the roaring whirl of the helicopters propellers!

Today is one of those SUPER JAM PACKED, yet very typical Camp Simcha Special day. We have amazing things going on all day, so make sure to stay glued to your computer.

I 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 will only appear in the ParentSpace gallery. He 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, and camp schedule.

Secondly, we have received emails from some parents who were having difficulty signing into ParentSpace. Please accept our apologies for not addressing these issues sooner. It seems that there was a bug in the messaging system that alerts us when a parent asks to be approved for an account. We have looked into the issue, and we believe it is now resolved. If you have signed up for an account, it should now be verified. So go ahead, sign in and see the awesomeness. If you haven’t applied for an account, please go ahead and apply for an account. You should be verified withen 24 hours. We once again apologize for the hassle we have caused.

If you are still having problems with your account please contact us at webmaster@campsimcha.org

If you have any questions, comments, requests, or suggestions for the blogs please contact estein@campsimcha.org

You can also follow us on twitter @CSimchaSpecial

—>This public service announcement has been brought to you by the letter E (for Epic) and the number 11.

La la la la
La la la la
Dembi’s World (da da da)
La la la la
La la la la
Dembi’s World
He loves his megaphone
His frog hat too
That’s Dembi’s World!

Today Camp Simcha Special had a blast escaping to Sesame Place. Experiencing Sesame Street live is A LOT more exciting than experiencing it from the couch! As the campers walked into the dining room for lunch, they were greeted by life sized Sesame Street characters. Campers got their portraits taken with the characters, and some even got an autograph! By lunch, our campers squealed with delight as they watched the division heads compete in a cookie-eating contest. Surprisingly, cookie monster did not win. And of course, lunch was capped by another Epic Eleven uproar where the campers rocked to the songs of Stomp on the Ground, I Gotta Feelin, and Friday (how apropos?).

After lunch, Moshe F. decided to do some baking. Of course, he topped his challah with SESAME seeds not poppy! The room smelled so awesome that I couldn’t resist sneaking a chocolate cookie from the oven, and another, and another, and another!

Cookie Monster would love the Camp Simcha Canteen. The canteen is stocked with everything from hot pretzels, to gushers, to ice cream: ALL ON THE HOUSE! That’s exactly where I found Baruch S enjoying some chocolate chip cookies. He seemed to be enjoying his snack, devouring it cookie monster style.

Towards the middle of the day, the rest of Glen Spey had some rain. In Camp Simcha though, we only have Sunny Days. That, of course, is the reason why so many people ask us how to get here. During the rain (in the rest of Glen Spey), our campers had an awesome Sesame activity in the social hall. When I walked in, I found campers immersed in puppet making; and tables scattered with tube socks, paper bags, glue, markers, and fabrics. Naftali G. was hard at work creating a Peter Pan puppet from a paper bag. He topped it off with a hat cut from green felt and a sword made from Popsicle sticks. He even added a nice big feather to Peter’s hat. After creating their gorgeous puppets, the campers performed a super creative and entertaining puppet show for their peers.

Epic Camp Simcha weekend here we come!

Balls, pins, knives, battle axes…you name it, Two can juggle it. Jason and Matt, brothers and natives of Maine, also known as Two, dazzled us with their three-part performance consisting of juggling, contortionism, and a light show. Matt’s wicked contortions culminated in him passing his ENTIRE BODY through an unstrung tennis racket, earning him shouts of delight from the standing-room-only audience. And when Jason said the show would be epic, the crowd went wild. Then the lights were put out, and the brothers used glowing ropes to create an otherworldly wave effect (think sine and cosine), followed by a fire-juggling act.

What a way to end our awesome day.

Earlier this morning, Dembi had a feelin’ that today was gonna be EPIC.

Oh boy was he right!

First, our staff welcomed our amazing campers Camp Simcha Style. There were costumes, painted faces, and an inexorable amount of energy. One by one, every camper was greeted and given his own personal introduction. After that, the campers were taken for a check at the infirmary before coming back outside to meet new and old friends. They also picked up fresh popcorn, cotton candy, and snow cones from the “concession” stand.

After the last bus disembarked, the campers had a few moments to catch their breaths before heading to the dining room for a scrumptious dinner. From supper, the camp rushed to the gym for our special night activity. We were greeted by acrobats who mesmerized us with their flips and tricks. There was limbo, a balancing act, jump roping, and aerial aerobics.

After a great start, however, it was time to get a good nights sleep before tomorrow’s amazing program.

The staff of Camp Simcha Special is eagerly awaiting the arrival of
the greatest campers on Earth! They have spent the last 24 hours
getting oriented (lots and lots of speeches), disoriented (“soap”
sliding down to the lake), and straight up psyched.

The Greatest Show on Earth is now ready to begin! The staff is all
dressed up in the wackiest costumes, and not a face has gone
unpainted. The place is in TOTAL uproar. As one staff member (R.
Black) says: “We, we, we so excited, we so excited, we’re gonna have a
ball today” – very well put.

ENTER EPIC ELEVEN

Earlier today, the outstanding staff of Camp Simcha Special Boys 2011 were oriented and informed about all the magic of the upcoming camp session!

The staff heard from the medical staff, head staff, and division heads about the excitement they have to look forward to. As new faces and old came together, the atmosphere pulsated with the eager anticipation of the arrival of the most spectacular campers in the world.

Camp Simcha Special Boys 2011… Are you ready?