Summer 2016

This past Shabbos was Parshat Balak, another beautiful Shabbos in Camp Sports. After the delicious Friday night meal, all the different sports teams split up into their own onegs and tisches. My personal oneg had amazing food and even better ruach.

On Sunday, although it was a fast day, we still managed to have a meaningful yet exciting day. Sponsored by Landers College, each one of us was able to purchase a very own sefer from the seforim store in Baltimore. After the fast, there was an incredible opportunity to do a chessed while having a blast. We made a freethrow competition for Chai Lifeline and everyone participated. It was truly inspiring to see all the guys come together for such a great cause. Looking forward to the last week in camp!

On Wednesday of this week we went to Hershey Park. We started off the day like any other camp sports day with learning groups in the morning. We then boarded the buses and vans after lunch for the ride to the park. I had a blast at Hershey Park. The weather was gorgeous, the rides were tremendous, and the chocolate was scrumptious. We had mincha and dinner at 7 o’cklock and we had another 2 hours afterwards to enjoy more rides. Today in learning groups we started learning about the Mitzvah of Tzitzis. Today I learned about the different symbolisms of Tzitzis and what they represent, ranging from the 613 Mitzvos and how the Techeiles reminds of the Throne upon which Hashem sits on. I cannot wait for another Camp Sports Shabbos and what Camp has in store for us next week. -Yosef Bluth

The week started off as a regular week in camp sports; on Sunday, we learned in the morning and played sports in the afternoon. However, everything changed that night after maariv.
Rabbi Green announced that there were going to be some major trades in leagues, an unprecedented occurrence in camp sports history. Obviously, pandemonium erupted in the beis medresh. A little later, at a peak moment in the action, Rabbi Green announced the commencement of the first ever Camp Sports Color War. It was black and blue against red and white, representing “night” and “day”, respectively. Teams where divided and sent to their first team meeting. Everyone was excited and got a good night’s sleep for the next day.
On Monday, we played some very competitive sports and had an amazing evening at the pool. The following day, an intense Torah Bowl completion was held in the morning. Later that day, we played more sports had an Apache race and even had a camp-wide dodgeball game.
The closing ceremonies began with a dvar Torah from each side. Then each team had the opportunity to sing a hebrew song. After that, the two teams each acted out a comedy skit, garnering many laughs from the audience. Finally, each team sang a unique alma mater song. Before the final scores were announced, both teams joined together in a spontaneous singing of “acheinu,” a true showing of the achdus we have.
The red team ended up winning in terms of points, but both teams had an incredible time and enjoyed the festivities. We are now looking forward to Hershey and the rest of the week.