Shabbat-O-Gram 8/21/26

Dear Kingswood Families and Friends,

A week ago, Barak, Yael, and Yonaton played One Day in the chapel for the last Shabbat of our camp season during Alumni & Friends Family Camp. A few days later, on Tuesday, our Mini Campers headed home. On Thursday, Chef Jennie cooked the last meal of the summer, and the bus with our last group of summer staff pulled out of the gate.

For the first time since June 1 there are no campers or counselors here on Woods Pond. The summer is really over!

But “over” is such a funny word when it comes to camp.

Family Camp brought back alumni who once lived in these cabins themselves, now walking around camp with their own children. Mini-Camp brought a group of eager first-timers, imagining themselves as Kingswood campers for the first time.

Both programs made me think about how much of camp’s value is built over time.

There are a lot of things kids can gain in one summer at camp. A new friend, a little more independence, the confidence to try something scary, proof that homesickness passes.

But it’s the summer after summer impact that makes the Kingswood return on investment so profound.

A camper comes back and discovers that the thing that was terrifying last year is suddenly manageable. The camper who needed their Chalutzim buddy to show them the ropes becomes that older buddy to little Olim campers. The camper who barely looked up last summer is up on the mic giving shout outs at meals. The camper who got on the whole bunk’s nerves for two summers, becomes the friend they don’t want to leave out. Friendships deepen. Confidence builds. Camp becomes not simply a place they go, but part of how they understand themselves.

At camp, not every moment is easy.

Camp is full of hard moments. Kids miss home. They have conflict with friends. They lose games. They feel left out. They get disappointed. They try things and fail.

But those moments exist inside a much larger experience.

Once kids get home, something interesting can happen. They no longer have Ruach, Sunday S’mores, Color War, their counselor making them laugh and the hundred ordinary happy moments that surrounded the hard one.

Sometimes the difficult moment stays vivid because they remember how it felt, while the rest of camp becomes harder to recreate from home.

So a camper who came home glowing can, a few weeks later, suddenly express reservations about coming back.

For first-time camp parents, that emotional shift can be confusing! They came off the bus thrilled, but now they’re making themselves nervous thinking about coming back? It’s tempting to hear their hesitation as a final decision, but in most cases, kids are so much better off when we don’t.

We don’t let kids walk away from most important things the moment it gets hard. We push through school, teams, lessons, family obligations, and other commitments because we understand something kids can’t always see yet. Growth often happens on the other side of discomfort.

Personally, I think overnight camp, and particularly Jewish overnight camp, deserves to be thought about that way too.

Not as something a child should be forced to endure if they are truly miserable. Of course not. But a values-based Jewish overnight camp that’s focused on the growth of children is not as just another summer activity.

The real return on camp is cumulative. Check out Liam’s creative expression from the last week of camp posted today if you’re not sure what I mean.

That kind of impact doesn’t come from one perfect summer. It comes from returning. It comes from having enough summers for camp to become woven into who you are.

So as families start thinking about Summer 2027, my advice is simple:

Think beyond next summer.

Think about the eight-year-old becoming the twelve-year-old.

The twelve-year-old becoming the CIT.

The CIT becoming the counselor.

Think about who your child might become if they get enough time in a place where they are known, challenged, trusted, loved, and given room to grow.

There’s a reason we have Kingswood kids who celebrated their 7, 10, 12, 15th summers at camp.

Apparently we’re very hard to quit. 😉

At some point, “going back to camp” stops being the decision. Figuring out how not to go back becomes the harder one.

Wishing you and your family a peaceful Shabbat,

P.S. You have 10 more days to register during our Summer Special promotion, when registration is only open to returners and camper’s 2026 space is guaranteed! After that, registration opens to new families, and registrations will be processed in the order they are received. We anticipate wait lists for 2027 in most age groups and sessions – please do not wait! Nothing is worse than having to tell a returning camper that they do not have a space for next summer. Click here to register.

P.P.S.Access our 2026 Kingswood Parent Survey here. Please complete the survey by Friday, August 28.

P.P.P.S. Moving forward, you’ll receive my Shabbat-o-Gram monthly, The Kingswood News quarterly, and emails from our team as needed to communicate about Kingswood events and deadlines. Follow us on social media for additional parent and camper-facing communications throughout the year. You can follow Camp Kingswood on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.