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Dear NCSY Camp Sports Parents, Last Shabbos was unbelievable, with tons of singing and dancing during the meals and davening. On Friday night we enjoyed a camp wide oneg with delicious food such as deli roll, pastrami kugel, and more. Shabbos day was very exciting and we were lucky enough to hear from the world renowned Rabbi Yissochor Frand, who shared an inspiring message about reaching our own potential. We shared in a beautiful ebbing session until the end of Shabbos. On Saturday night, we spent the night bowling and eating the best kosher pizza in Baltimore. We all had a blast. Sunday morning started with interactive small learning sessions with all of the campers and upper staff Rabbis. The discussions were geared towards reflecting on what each NCSYers has gained from camp, and how to make it last beyond these 4 weeks. In the afternoon, we enjoyed league sports and had a great time with a night of open sports. Monday continued with an amazing trip to the Inner Harbor, including an interactive scavenger hunt. Then we headed to Federal Hill for a beautiful barbecue overlooking Baltimore's inner Harbor. Everyone then walked to the Baltimore Orioles game to watch a great game and luckily the Orioles won. To make the Oriole's game even more enjoyable, each NCSYer was randomly assigned a player to follow during the game and won prizes if that player did different various plays during the game such as; steal a base or score a run. An added highlight to everyone was that our camper Sam Hofstetter, had seen every major league baseball team play except for one, and that one was the Texas Rangers- who played against the Orioles that night! After learning groups on Tuesday, we had a special opportunity to shop for seforim from Shabsi’s Judaica, the Judaica store here in Baltimore. Touro Lander College graciously sponsors one book for each NCSYer. Each NCSYer and staff member got to pick out a book together. Each book was inscribed with a note by a staff member and then handed out to each camper on Thursday night. After our shopping spree, we went back to play sports but we got caught off guard by a random thunderstorm. While we weren’t prepared for a storm, it started to rain, so we rescheduled our league games for later that night. Luckily, each NCSYer were true team players and handled the delay of sports incredibly. On Wednesday, we had a great day learning in the morning and then we headed out on a day trip. All campers got to choose between 3 options of activities. Most of the guys went to paintball, some enjoyed the ropes course, and then others went on a hike and boating trip. Each group reported back that they had an amazing time and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Thursday was one of the best sports days we had all summer, the playoffs brought out the competitive side in the NCSYers. Thursday night, many of the NCSYers cashed in on the prizes that they won, some enjoyed a pool party, and others went on a trip to Dougies The theme of the prizes was “keeping the camp spirit going past the end of camp.” We gave away a barbecue, some speakers, some food. We had a great night of learning with our famous “Super Seder”, and an exciting mishmar with delicious food and great prizes. Today, we had meaningful learning groups, and spent the afternoon playing sports, spending time with each other, going on an outing to Walmart, and getting ready for Shabbos. We are looking forward to an amazing last Shabbos here in camp and I look forward to reporting back to you about it in the post camp newsletter. Have a great Shabbos, Rabbi Green |
