Camp Simcha & Camp Simcha Special
Simcha Magic: Feel It In The Air!
Shalom from the holy land. Today is Israel day, and it’s awesome! We have a falafel stand, Egged bus drivers, soldiers, the Kotel, and even the Shuk. That’s right, the Shuk! There was a candle shop, a clothing, and more!
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a helicopter! Right after breakfast, a helicopter landed on camp’s helipad and all the campers got to ride it. Everyone got cool helicopter day t-shirts and frisbees. Camp looks tiny from all the way up high!
Shabbat Shalom,
Moshe
ROAR! It’s a jungle in Africa. Camp was packed today with all of our awesome visitors from Bike4Chai!
By lunch, everyone got a special Bike4Chai t-shirt to wear for the day. After lunch, we headed to the baseball field where a giant tent was set up for us to greet the bikers! We got all the guests pumped up with our dancing while we waited for the bikers arrival. The bikers arrived shortly after and we gave them a welcome to remember! They came into camp, stored their bikes, and then joined us for some more crazy dancing! We then presented them with medals and awards for their amazing feat. Afterwards, we showed them our dance and they joined us when we did it a second time.
Once all the dancing settled down, we went to the social hall where Benny Friedman was waiting to give us a surprise concert! We danced some more to Benny’s awesome music and it was rocking! Toda raba licha Benny.
For dinner, we had a massive barbeque in the tent! There was steak, chicken, appetizers, desserts, and tons more delicious food! I’m stuffed!
For night activity, we went back to the social hall to watch an amazing musical put together by the one and only, Duvy Becker! Aliens, an evil camp director, dancing, singing, plus the universe famous Master Chef Reuven. It was rocking!
Hakuna Matata,
Moshe
What an incredible day! Sports cars, Jamaica day, outdoor laser tag, and to top it all off, color war. We’re exhausted!
Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Porsche! These are just some of the fancy sports cars that campers got to ride around in all afternoon. To go along with the supercar rides, everyone received a Camp Simcha fedora and sunglasses. Engines roaring and tires squealing we had the best time!
Laser tag, but outdoors. What could be better? With laser guns and borders that only ended as far as you could reach, outdoor laser tag was a blast!
“We’re the green mean fighting machine!” “Y! E! L! L! O! Yellow is the way to go!” “Andddddddd the winner of Color War 2015 is the team of green!” Color war is over, but the adrenaline is still pumping! With the cheers, alma maters, everlasting project, and more, color war was crazy! We all put our heart and soul into it and it all paid off, because win or lose, today was incredible!
To top off this jam-packed day, we learned the dance to this year’s fantastic song! It gets even better, though. We’ll be performing it tomorrow for all the people that are coming for Bike-for-Chai! 413 people started this morning to bike from Connecticut all the way to Glen Spey, New York! Over 100 miles of grueling biking, they’ll be arriving tomorrow afternoon and we’ll be waiting to greet them. It’s going to be amazing!
Go green,
Moshe
Hola from Mexico! Today was a non-stop fiesta. Everyone was wearing their ponchos and sombreros. The dining room was set up with a matador ring with a bull that campers could sit on. There was a piñata hanging in the middle of the room that a lucky camper got to break open and make candy rain on everyone! It was sweet. We had Mexican Slice, where campers got to make some yummy Mexican foods.
A very special welcome to our newest golfcart Mater! The Kolko Krew worked long and hard to put him together and he’s awesome! Mater will be joining our ever growing fleet of golfcart characters including; Minnie Mouse, a tank, bus, Pepsi cart, and tons more!
After lunch, everyone went to the social hall where a mariachi band was waiting in surprise! Everyone was dancing and shaking their maracas. It was awesome!
“No nosh, no meds! Close the infirmary, save the canteen! Up with Rafi, down with doctors!” Yesterday’s announcement that the canteen will be closed for the rest of summer did not fare very well with the campers (and the staff). By dinner, Rafi, our canteen director, faced off Dr. Vann in a debate regarding the fate of our beloved canteen. Dr. Vann was quickly booed off stage by the crowd. It was soon revealed to all be a farce and was really color war breakout!
Team of yellow vs. team of green, dancers vs. watchers, color war 2015 is here! Tomorrow is going to be absolutely incredible!
Anyways, a bit of good news, the canteen is not closed for the rest of the summer! Cavities Candy for all!
Simon says hands up! Simon says hands down! Hands up! Ooh, I didn’t say simon says. You’re out! The incredible master of Simon Says, Steve Max, gave us an awesome show tonight.
The campers got to go on stage and see who could beat the simon says master! Simon says it was lots of fun!
Adios for now,
Moshe
Ni hao from China! Everyone was dressed up in Chinese clothing, wearing kimonos and straw hats. The dining room was set up with a Chinese hut and a giant gong!
Right before lunch the amazing 8th Day surprised us with an epic concert! The dancing and bouncing that ensued was crazy! We showed 8th Day how Camp Simcha rocks a concert! Thank you very much to 8th Day for coming by.
For night activity, the awesome Freestyle BMX riders taught us how the pros ride bikes! They performed for us crazy tricks, jumps, and even flips! Who ever saw someone flip on a bike? It was incredible!
Farbreng all night,
Moshe
Today was America day! We woke up hearing the national anthem and seeing red, white, and blue everywhere. The patriotism was in full force and the American flags were flying all around. There was even a massive liberty bell in the dining room!
After lunch, we had the first ever Camp Simcha Alumni Day! Over a hundred alumni came with their families to spend the day and everyone got an alumni day t-shirt. We had a color run, BBQ, alumni camp trivia, and more. After everyone’s brand new t-shirts got soaked in paint from the color run, we had a crazy dance party outside with all of the alumni! For dinner, we had a delicious outdoor BBQ catered by our amazing chef Binyamin! After the BBQ, we had the first ever alumni day trivia. Alumni got to answer questions like how old is camp, who was the previous head counselor, and what does Ephshap actually do in camp?
To end off this amazing day, we all headed to the gym where we got to watch the Harlem Hoopsters face of our very own Simcha All-Stars. As cool as their basketball tricks were, the Simcha All-Stars showed them how it’s done!
Thank you to all of our alumni for making today truly epic!
More exciting things to come,
Moshe
Our first Shabbat in camp just ended, and it was amazing! After the usual pre-Shabbat pictures, we ate another delicious meal courtesy of our amazing cook Binyamin. After lunch, Ben the magician gave us a super magic show! He made things disappear, read minds, and even got out of a straight jacket! Throughout the day, everyone got to go back to the social hall to learn some cool magic tricks. Later we had a bingo game and the winners got some really sweet prizes! After Shabbat, we had some more partying and dancing in the dining room. It was awesome!
Have an awesome week,
Moshe
Ciao from Camp Simcha! Today we traveled around Italy and it was awesome! The dining room was set up to look like Venice, with an actual gondola floating on the stage! After breakfast, we had pizza making in the dining room. The campers rolled their own pizza dough, put on tomato sauce, cheese, and whichever spices they like. It was super yummy!
We started all of our workshops today! Greenscreen, Lego Mindstorms, candlemaking, DJ beats, pottery, and tons more! Today was seriously jam-packed!
Have a great Shabbat,
Moshe
Welcome to Camp Simcha Special 2015! Camp has finally arrived!
A big welcome to all of our campers, new and old. Today was crazy! The campers started arriving in the afternoon, hopping off the bus straight into the fog tunnel where our wonderful staff members were waiting to greet them. Coming out of the tunnel, the campers joined the staff in a non-stop dance party hosted by our very own DJ Jon. Everyone was dressed up in crazy costumes. With superheroes, cartoon characters, clowns, and even an astronaut, the party was rocking! Afterwards, we ate dinner and then went to see our first show of the summer. The word famous Skyriders really started the summer on a high! With their jumping, flipping, and crazy trampoline tricks, the night was awesome!
Stay tuned for more to follow,
Moshe
Who knew staff orientation could actually be fun? The buses from all around arrived this afternoon and after lunch we had orientation. All the staff acquainted themselves with one another and then broke the floor with our crazy dancing! Ari Dembitzer, our head counselor, walked us through the upcoming weeks. This summer is going to be incredible! Shaindy Lowenthal, our program director, introduced us to this year’s theme. We’ll be going on the Simcha World Tour, where we will be traveling to a different country every day. It’s going to be awesome! Our wonderful medical staff gave us the run-down on everything we need to know in order to make our summer fun and especially safe.
Afterwards, we had our staff orientation ice-breaker. Slip n’ slide kickball, slippery tug-of-war, volleyball, and more, everyone is definitely ready for camp!
Your tour guide for the summer,
Moshe
