By: Summer 2018 C.I.T. Noah

My name is Noah. I have been coming to URJ Camp George for seven consecutive years. I first came to camp as a Lehavot camper, which is the second youngest unit at camp. Over the years, I have moved up through the units, through Kochavim, and Barak. This summer has been my C.I.T. summer at camp, and let me tell you, it’s very different than being a camper.

On a normal day, after breakfast, a camper at Camp George would have three activity periods in the morning, and two in the afternoon. These five periods, with the exception of one in the afternoon for the older campers, are all done in cabin groups. As well, after dinner, there is a program run for an entire unit, by one or more staff in that unit. For C.I.T.’s, the day’s schedule is as follows. After breakfast, C.I.T.’s are in their placements for the three periods in the morning, which would either be with a cabin or on a specialty area. For the first period after lunch, the C.I.T.’s participate in a program called Hadrachah, which are learning sessions that help the C.I.T.’s prepare for their future jobs at camp in ways that the placements cannot provide. C.I.T.’s are in placements for the final period of the day, and for the evening programs, the C.I.T.’s run programs in groups that they have prepared for the rest of the unit.

There are other things that the C.I.T. program provide for us. More than anything, the program provides fantastic leadership opportunities that one could not receive in a better setting. We have five placements throughout the summer, where we would have three cabin placements and two specialty placements, or vice versa. As well, in the middle of the summer, the C.I.T.’s go on a trip to Ottawa, where we went white water rafting, as well as explored Ottawa. It is a great bonding experience for the C.I.T. unit as a whole, and in my opinion, brought us closer together than we ever have been.

The C.I.T. summer is all about the transition from being campers to staff. At the beginning of the summer, I was overwhelmed by the fact that in one year, I would be responsible for the kids who I had been campers with in the past. Now that we are at the end of the summer, and we have completed all five placements, I am feeling ready to be a staff here at Camp George, my home away from home, in summer 2019.