Our first Shabbat Walk, a new tradition of Crane Lake Camp.

“The gates are open! Crane Lake Camp Summer 2013 has officially begun!” Debby’s voice rang out over the loudspeaker as she and Greg swung open the gates to let the first of the Crane Lake families onto camp. The enthusiasm of the staff had been palpable for days and finally with the opening of the gates, the summer had arrived with beautiful weather to accompany it. Within several smooth hours, we  had checked in all of our campers, parents had made their children’s beds and then said their final see-you-later’s. Moments later, campers and counselors gathered together, playing games to help learn names and get to know one another.

Lunch on the Main Lawn led into an all-camp Flagpole, where we celebrated the birthdays of Camille , Gabriel and Zoe and they, along with several other campers who had lost their teeth, raised the American and Israeli flags for the first time for the whole camp. The day continued with icebreakers within the units, and after dinner, concluded with four different evening programs about the values of camp, and how those values related to each cabin group. As a cabin group, they created a Brit Kehillah that reflected the values that each group wanted to embody for the summer.

Though rain was expected the first full day of camp, there was only a little drizzle! We sang and danced at morning t’filah and flagpole highlighted the morning for Nitzanim and Bonim. The sun came out shortly after flagpole, and morning activities went off without a hitch. Our smiling specialists began their lessons, warming us up for the summer’s activities and preparing us to learn a lot and gain plenty of new skills! The rain seemed to want to send us to a rainy day schedule, but just in time the sun broke back through the clouds and allowed us to go right back to our regularly scheduled day! The first day of Chugim, our choice period, also went swimmingly, with campers spread out across camp, some delving into new reading material, others chasing Frisbees on the main lawn, and a great group of budding reporters helping out with the  first camper-organized Daily Bubble (see all of them here!).

Friday’s late wake-up was the first sweet reminder of the calmness of Shabbat, and as we moved through the day’s activities, we looked forward to the beautiful first camp Shabbat that everyone looks forward to so eagerly. We began with a new camp tradition, brought by our songleaders. All of our campers followed the songleaders down

and dreams, through their stories reminded us why Shabbat at camp is so special. As the sun began its descent in the sky, we enjoyed our all-camp dinner and then headed to the Beit Am to dance and sing our hearts out! After an exhilarating and exhausting Israeli dance session, we said goodnight and headed to bed.

Morning brought our traditional Breakfast Buffet, filled with bagels and lox, donuts, eggs, and an assortment of fruits, yogurts and cereals. Morning services, led again by staff and machon were an insightful and spiritual experience for all. Shabbat’s natural separation from the rest of the week was reflected in our loosely-scheduled day of  supervised breira (free play) around camp, with campers choosing to go swimming in the lake and pool, play soccer, create “mail art” (keep your eyes peeled for some of the mail art to show up in your very own mailboxes!), read a book on the main lawn, or anything else that they could think of! After dinner, we headed to Havdallah Hill as a camp to celebrate the end of our week and the beginning of a new one. And as we now look forward to the week before us, we remember the wonderful way we started camp off and thank our lucky stars that we have so much more time left to enjoy at our wonderful Crane Lake Camp!