What a whirlwind winter we have had! You may think a camp director works hard in the summer, but the off-season is really just as busy. Our primary focus is staff training – at all levels. From our newest counselors to our experienced full-time staff, everyone has opportunities to learn and grow. Regardless of their future professions, we want our counselors to become leaders in their communities, involved in Jewish causes and civil rights, and the strongest role models for our campers. Thus, we invest in training and enriched programming at all levels.
We are expanding our Machon program to better serve kids at camp and to offer new opportunities for leadership development to many more high school seniors. In addition to training to become general cabin counselors, Machon participants will be able to specialize in areas including kitchen and culinary arts, office management, maintenance, swim instruction, ropes course direction, and many others. We know that this intentional approach to staff development will result in stronger staff and a better camper experience.
Counselor training continues to be one of our true differentiators. First- and second-year counselors have the opportunity to participate in the Olim Fellowship, a two-year program they share with staff from URJ camps Eisner, Harlam, and Coleman. This year, more than 100 counselors from the four camps met at kallot throughout the year. The Olim Fellowship provides a great transition from high school to college, and encourages college freshmen to get involved in their campus communities and not to stand idly by. Third-year counselors – this year we had 10 from Crane Lake – can participate in the Cornerstone Fellowship, supported by the Foundation for Jewish Camp and geared to more experienced leadership topics. With so many of our staff going through these programs, we are close to reaching our goal of having at least one counselor in every cabin who has had this additional training. We also conduct training sessions in Israel, so that our Israeli staff arrive in June with a strong understanding of how we approach Reform Judaism, how American kids live and differ from Israelis, and the basics of how we run Crane Lake Camp. This way, all of our staff are on the same page when they begin pre-summer training in early June. In fact, I am with them in Israel the week of April 4th.
This summer, we have many returning staff who were previously campers. During every interview, counselors talked about wanting to give back to our community because their counselors had given them so much in the past. Check out our Summer Staff Preview to see who will be at Crane Lake this summer.
Finally, many of our full-time Crane Lake and Eisner staff had the opportunity to attend “Tri-State,” the American Camping Association’s annual conference. We attended workshops and seminars covering topics ranging from staff training to introducing new activities to camp safety to psychology topics related to children and adolescents.
And… we also had a lot of fun shopping for new toys for camp! The conference includes a vendor showcase selling the latest, newest, and coolest stuff for camp. I’m excited to tell you that we are upgrading our sailing program and will have new boats, kayaks, and paddle boards. And look for a surprise new attraction at the lake!
Even bigger news, we will have a new game room on the lower level of one of the new cabins. Each bunk will have scheduled time to enjoy all the cool stuff: ping-pong, foosball, tables for board games, a four-way ping-pong table, an arcade-style Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) game to keep everyone moving and having fun, and a massive screen for videos.
And the biggest news: new bathrooms! In addition to the six new cabins, we are completely gutting and rebuilding the bathrooms in the five older cabins (Mountainview, Lakeview, Gardenview, Lodge, and Hilltop). They’ll all have new sinks, showers, toilets, and hot water heaters!
Finally, we are working with a nutrition company to revamp our menu. If you have ideas, please email me at dshriber@urj.org. I’d love your suggestions!
Now all we have to do is wait for the snow to melt, the spring flowers to bloom, and June will be here before we know it. We are set to have another amazing summer!
L’Shalom,
Debby