My Camp George Story: Summer 2005

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By: Rachel Saslove, alumna

Camp speaks to my soul in a way that no other experience I’ve ever had can compare. Having spent every summer at Jewish camp since the tender age of 6, it is safe to call me a “camp-lifer.”  One might think that all my summers would blur together, and to be honest, the summers of my childhood do. So, despite the fact that my Jewish camp journey actually started in 1988, my Camp George story is often where I refer to the start of it all; it was this chapter in my life that definitively shaped the outline of the rest of my life story.

I had decided that I wanted to be a Camp Director sometime after my first two or three summers as a counselor (shout-out to cabins C4 1999, L4 2000, and K4 2001) and I focused my energy on achieving that goal. Each summer I diligently returned to camp working to “build my camp resume” all with the mindset that one day, I would be a Director. While I would define each of my 10 summers on staff at Camp George as pivotal, the Summer of 2005 could easily be described as a true turning point. This was the summer I made my most notable transition at George – a move to Hanhallah (senior leadership staff). A transition into a leadership role at camp is significant, sure, but for me, the shift in mindset is what had the biggest impact. The summer of 2005 was my first as the C.I.T. Director (which became a four-year tenure for me), and my first true taste in the field of Jewish Camping – the prep work, the intense pre-camp planning, the curriculum writing, the supervision, the evaluation-writing process, and of course, the future-camp-leader-training. I loved every single moment of it, and it only solidified for me (and in me), a genuine passion and love for Jewish camp and its magical powers of transformation.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that a key element of my success in this transition summer was the group of C.I.T.’s themselves. They were a unique and special bunch (as every group is), but it felt extra significant and special because this group of kids had been my campers almost every other summer leading up to this one. They were my L4 and Lehavot campers in 2000, my K4 and Kochavim campers in 2001, and my B4 and Barak campers in 2003.  We grew through the Camp George system together, and it felt appropriate and important that we experienced this transition together, too.  We made magic together that summer, along with the incredible C.I.T. staff, and no matter where I am when I hear Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” or Matchbox 20’s “The Real World”, when someone makes a “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” reference, or when I’m watching certain reality TV shows (lookin’ at you Bachelor, Amazing Race, and Survivor), I am instantly transported back to Maple Lake and that transformative, fun, exhausting, and powerful summer.

There is no doubt in my mind that this summer, and the nine other summers I spent on staff at Camp George paved the way for my professional success. In each camp environment I’ve been fortunate enough to serve as the Camp Director/Assistant Director, I have woven elements of the Camp George spirit into my work. Camp George holds an inimitable and distinct place in my heart, and somehow I never feel quite the way I do as when I’m there. My husband Joel (whom I met at camp, though not George), has spent time with me in all the camps where I’ve worked, and he observed that connection immediately when I brought him to CG. It was his idea to take our engagement photos at Camp George, and when we were standing in the middle of mifkad after having stepped out of the car, his first comment was, “I’ve never seen that look on your face at camp before.” It doesn’t seem to matter how much time passes between visits, each time I step onto Camp, I feel… connected. Dorothy Gale said it best in her famous (and cliché) line: “There’s no place like Home.”

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