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Dear NCSY Camp Sports parents,
Our second Shabbos in camp was beautiful. The singing and dancing at davening and the meals was very inspiring and uplifting. Shabbos was truly a bonding experience for all the campers and staff. It was filled with dancing, an oneg, great meals and an opportunity for everyone to catch up on some sleep. Rabbi Wexler led a Wexican oneg with spicy chulent, taco chips and some great words of Torah. Shabbos afternoon we heard an inspiring speech from an alumnus of Camp Sports, Jeremy Lavitt about comparative religions. As Shabbos was ending we all came together to sing and hear words of encouragement from Rabbi Cooper about helping each other out in all we do. Everyone had a great time and the camp really came together as a group and we all enjoyed the specialness that Shabbos brings.
Saturday night was the only Saturday night of the summer we did not go bowling. We had the concluded the learning section that focused on Rosh Hashana. The NCSYers had a contest showing something they learned about Rosh Hashana in a creative way. Each group made a two minute video which was shown to the whole camp. Everyone had a great time and the videos were great. Sunday night we had a 3 on 3 basketball tournament which followed a day of sports.
On Monday we went to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor for an epic scavenger hunt. After the hunt everyone met at historic Federal Hill for a siyum and Barbecue dinner. Mazel Tov to Rabbi Fried who made a siyum so we could have a flesihig barbecue. After the siyum we all walked to Camden Yards to watch the O’s take on the Texas Rangers. In addition to the game each NCSYer was assigned a random player from the active roster and when their player did something special (i.e. stole a base, hit a home run) they received a prize. Unfortunately the Orioles lost, but we did see a great game. On Tuesday we had a day of sports followed by a great game of Family Feud based on the material we learned in learning groups.
On Wednesday after a great morning of learning we headed to Washington, D.C. Some boys first went to the Holocaust Museum as a reminder about one of the aspects of tragedy that is commemorated on Tisha B’Av, and then went to the Mall to visit the Smithsonian Museums. Others went straight to the mall. After dinner on Thursday we had a free throw contest fundraiser for Chai Lifeline and we raised over $1000 . We also spent time during the day going to 7-11 as it was officially slurpee day, July 11th. On Thursday night we had a day of sports and learning followed by late night mishmar and weekly raffle, with some great prizes!
At Thursday Mishmar we had our second annual “ No Google just Koogle event”. After the raffle we served kugel to help kick off a program that Rabbi Wexler introduced before mishmar. We called it the “No Google, just Koogle” campaign, to have as many members of the Camp Sports family, campers and all staff turn off their cell phones during learning at mishmar and Friday morning. Many NCSYers took up the challenge and I hope they can learn many lessons from this experience. You can find the videos we showed to introduce the concept in these two places. The first features many alumni as dancers in this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvwpNkJd82w
This second video is about turning of the phone for the day for a program called “day to disconnect” that was organized last year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XiSIGPIi7s. I hope you enjoy them.
Friday we had some great learning in the morning but even though it has rained a lot this summer, we had our first sports rain out. Instead of sports most of the NCSYers went to Dave and Busters arcade. A few others decided to forego the fun and go to the kosher supermarket in town to stock up for Shabbos and the fast day. Both groups had a lot of fun.
Have a great Shabbos, a meaningful fast, and thank you for trusting us with your son,
Rabbi Jon Green
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