Shabbat-O-Gram: Week 6 2024

Dear families and friends,

This week I received three emails from Session I families asking why they had stopped receiving this weekly Shabbat-O-Gram. I realized that while we send it all summer to campers joining us later in the season, we’ve been pulling out Session I families since Intersession, not wanting to clog anyone’s email box unnecessarily. To Session I families, welcome back! 🙂 With the end of session approaching, we’ve added everyone back in for these last two weeks. For our newest campers who have still yet to join us, coming for the first time on August 14th for Mini-Camp, we can’t wait to meet you soon! Your special Mini-Camp details, like a modified packing list and Boston bus information will be coming your way this weekend!

This summer, we started a tradition of honoring three staff at the beginning of Havdalah, the ceremony that closes out Shabbat, traditionally marked when there are three visible stars in the sky. Our ‘Staff Stars’ are recognized for their exceptional work and the way they live our Kingswood values of courage, community, spirit, and responsibility. We always start our weekly all-staff meetings with ‘Shout-Outs’ for staff to recognize each other, but the Staff Stars are the first time staff have been honored throughout the summer in front of campers, and I love that it shows campers in real time how much a great attitude, being trustworthy, and positive leadership are valued here at camp.

Each week, at our Friday night Leadership Team Oneg we nominate staff, and last night, it became a little loud, as supervisors made the case for their exceptional team members. How do we pick just three, when there are so many great examples across camp of staff going above and beyond? It’s hard to narrow it down when we know there’s only one more Shabbat left! As I listened to the ways our staff have been showing up for their campers and for each other, I was reminded of how much I appreciate the privilege (most of the time ;-)) of working with young adults today. Gen Z may take a lot of slack, but in an environment like Camp Kingswood, they’re set up to bring their best, just like campers.

It’s about this time of the summer that staff start coming to talk with me about next year. I love the conversations with returners about their camp path and the role they envision for next summer, a step in their multi-year plan they’ve often had carved out since they were Tsofim campers themselves. I also love the conversations with new staff who may have come to camp thinking it would be a one and done summer adventure, but now they’re seeing what it is about Kingswood that leaves everyone wanting to come back for more.

‘Coming back for more’ has been a theme this week, as we were joined by three staff legends who came out of Kingswood retirement to be with us for the rest of Session II! The stars aligned for these three to return, making our music and theater programs extra awesome for the end of camp. Amy, Lilah, and Ellis, three of our beloved alumni and recent heads of Theater and Music, have returned! When I told Amy’s old campers at Intersession that her graduate program in the UK had just finished and we’d be able to bring her back for the end of camp, you would have thought a celebrity was coming, and not just for Campchella tonight!

Alumni returns were a highlight of the week, but there was so much happening this week at Kingswood it’s hard to keep track! Bogrim’s camping trips to New Hampshire were incredible, with the 8th graders hiking Hermit Falls and the 9th graders hiking Emerald Pool before meeting up for dinner together on the campsite. All the excitement of the New Rec was on display Tuesday night, as campers taking Dance, Gymnastics, Martial Arts, and Yoga showed off what they’ve been learning in their electives at the Gym and Dance Show. We all loaded the buses and headed to FunTown SplashTown USA on Thursday, for a beautiful day of roller coasters and waterslides. While I still have not braved the Excalibur myself (the biggest roller coaster in the park), lots of campers came up to tell me about how they conquered their fears and rode it for the first time. Maybe next year I’ll try it, but I’m happy just watching the roller coasters and saving my adrenaline for the water slides! We honor taking risks and trying new things here at camp, but we also talk a lot about challenge by choice, knowing your own limits, and not doing something just because other kids are doing it. I’ll continue to confidently pass on Excalibur.  😉

Tsofim picked ‘Loyalty’ as their Shabbat theme this week, and as campers shared their creative expressions last night at Shabbat services, I was thinking about all the ways I saw loyalty on display this week here at camp. I think about the Two-Weekers who left earlier this week, and one Olim camper who spoke at the Two-Weeker Goodbye Ceremony. He gave a shout-out to his bunkmate, saying “I knew as soon as we met we’d be friends, and now I know that he’s the kind of friend I want for a long time.” I couldn’t have said it better. First impressions only go so far when you’re living together in a bunk. It’s getting to know each other on a deeper level that makes relationships more challenging and equally more rewarding at overnight camp.

Delia, a Tsofim counselor, spoke to the importance of camp friendships and what loyalty at Kingswood means to her as the closing creative expression of last night’s service, and with her permission, I had to share it with all of you here. We start to lose some staff around now as they have to head back to universities and jobs with August start dates, and Delia is sadly leaving us today for her first year at college. As you read, picture yourself sitting with us on the benches under the trees of the Chapel, and it will be like you were there with us. 🙂

“Hi, I’m Delia and this is my 9th summer at camp, and I wanted to take a minute to tell you what camp has meant to me. During my time at camp, I have seen a lot of staff come and go, my age group has shifted and evolved, electives and programs are different than they once were, and the menu in the dining hall is constantly shifting. Despite all of this, if I had to pick one word to describe my camp experience, it would be stable. However much the details change from summer to summer, at the end of the day, I have always known I can count on this place.

I can count on two flags every morning. I can count on getting flipped off the tube. I can count on dancing on the benches in the dining hall. And I can count on looking up in this Chapel, and seeing the same trees I have been staring at since I was a Tsof.

People who know me well will tell you that change is my greatest fear. But, when I drive through that gate one more time tomorrow morning, towards the biggest change I have yet to face, I know I will be OK because of the sense of stability these people and this place have given me. People like my little sister, who followed me here  and has turned into an incredible leader and person. The future of camp is safe because of you and your friends. Because of the CITs of 2023 – I could not have asked for a better family. Because of my love bugs in G11 – I am so proud to be your counselor. And mostly because of my bunkmate in G14 all those summers ago, a girl from Needham who I could never have guessed would change my life forever.

So, I’ll leave you with this. No matter how many things in your life change this year, hold on to the fact that in 12 short months you will be back here, looking up at these same trees, in the place that you can always count on to be home.”

Wishing you a peaceful Shabbat and a great week ahead,