Greetings from Maple Lake!
After an unprecedented start to our 20th summer, we are so thrilled to be celebrating the first Shabbat together with all our campers. The irony of talking about the ‘calm before the storm,’ in last Shabbat’s message, the night before the power outage, is not lost on us. Thank you to everyone for their amazing support as we had to make the challenging yet necessary decision to postpone the start of camp. One day later, the campers arrived at camp with an even greater sense of anticipation and excitement, prepared for the best summer yet on Maple Lake!
This week, the weather has been hot but that hasn’t stopped us from bonding with our cabin groups and making new friends, all while exploring camp and participating in all the exciting programs and activities Camp George has to offer. We spent lots of time in the water keeping cool!
On top of all the fun, the food has been great. Our food services team has been working hard to plan and cook delicious meals that are nutritious and tasty. Some of the meal highlights this week have been fajitas, perogies, spaghetti and meatballs, and chicken Caesar wraps.
In just a few days we have watched our community come together and forge strong bonds – both within cabins and units as well as across the whole camp community. From learning unit cheers, to creating cabin rules, to swim tests, evening programs and lots of adventure programming, it has been an amazing few days. Here’s a sneak peek at what our units have been up to:
Nitzotzot: All of our Nitz cabins went on Point adventures and had a blast cooking hotdogs and making s’mores on the campfire!
Lehavot: L1 and L3 had a blast on their Island Adventure, filled with singing and s’mores! Lehavot got dressed up as superheroes and had a fun superhero themed day where they created comics and climbed on the ropes course. All the cabins also had fun on their bunk nights bonding as a cabin!
Kochavim: The campers of Kochavim are off to a wonderful start of camp! They enjoyed a super fun Egg Drop program at the Ropes Course, overcame fun challenges during Olim, and had a delicious version of Cake Boss! They are super excited to go on their overnight trips next week!
Barak: 14 of our Barak campers had a great time on their canoe trip! All of Barak enjoyed a decades themed synchronized swimming EP and are helping to lead Shabbat this week with Nitzotzot.
C.I.T.’s: The CITs have been having a blast getting used to their new roles as future leaders at CG! They have been learning a lot through their hadracha (learning) and their mini-placements and are looking forward to beginning their first full placement next week!
Moving ahead into the session, we have a lot to look forward to. Coming up this week, we are excited about:
- Musician Jacob “Spike” Kraus as our “Artist in Residence”
- Campwide social with DJs from Bounce Entertainment
- Intercamp at Camp Ramah
- Barak Beach Day
- And tons more…
We loved having our Nitzotzot 7 Day campers with us this week and will be sad to see them head home on Sunday. We know that they are heading home with amazing new memories that will keep them thinking about camp all year long.
Wishing you a wonderful Shabbat.
Jeff Rose
Director