Crane Lake is constantly filled with lots of laughs, smiles and energy all day long! Once a week, we will share a unit update with you from our unit heads about what our campers have been up to. We hope you get a sense of all the exciting things going on in our Crane Lake community!

Nitzanim
Hello there! We are Rose and Jordan! My name is Rose Levenson and I hail from South Central Pennsylvania. During the year I study Psychology and Education at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA. My name is Jordan Charalampous and I live in London, England. When not at camp, I work for Camp America. This session, all of the amazing campers and staff made everyday an exciting adventure. We love playing all over camp with the kids, from the inflatables on the lake to putting glitter tattoos on at the bunk. Our evening programs were always filled with even more fun. Some of our favorite evening programs were “All About That Base” in which we did different tasks to earn toppings for an extra large-sized pizza. Another favorite program was when we constructed vessels to drop eggs off a balcony without them cracking. Campers had the opportunity to play in tournaments at other camps, go on tikkun olam trips to farms, and to attend a Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. Trip day is always a blast, and this year was no different. We enjoyed the rides, snacks, and water park at Lake Compounce. As our session comes to a close, we are sad to say goodbye to our campers, but we know we are sending them off with new skills, friends, and love for camp!

Lower Bonim
Hi! My name is Judy; I am 21 years old and this is my tenth summer here at camp. I started in Upper Bonim and continued all the way until I went to Israel with my group, did Machon, the Olim Fellowship, and was a general counselor for a few years.  I have been successful in every unit on camp as either a camper, a staff member, and now as a unit head. If you asked me if I could remember a summer without camp I would say no. I am originally from Syracuse, NY but I go to school during the year at The College at Brockport, which is near Rochester, NY.

My unit is very special because we are so creative. One bunk specifically made a list of things to do during the session as a whole bunk and two of those things were roll down the biggest hill on camp and dress up as a bunk all on their own. The most creative evening program we had this session was run by the Machon and was Quiddich. The campers and counselors got super into the Harry Potter reenactment. The soccer and football field was transformed into a quiddich pitch. This session has been amazing!

Upper Bonim
Here’s a first session “rap up”. Upper Bonim first session was the place to be; good friends, tournaments, andfight song places one and three. It’s been a crazy fun few weeks and we wish we had more; from each campfire we had to each marshmallow we s’mored. With four bunks of campers we always had fun; in the rain, in the heat, in the cold, in the sun. We took a trip to six flags to ride on some rides; and we laughed and grinned and smiled with smiles a mile wide. We all headed to Eisner and brought home the Kiddish Cup; we played soccer, Frisbee, basketball and funning and still made it home before sup. We hosted a tzedakah fair to raise money for charity; we researched organizations, planned, and the whole camp came to donate and see. We spent lots of time with our friends in Low Bo; from the pool, to the lake, to all the period we would go. We kayaked and swam and even used paddleboards; song session and services hit all the right chords. We had the coolest cheer in camp and we used it a lot; we had lake and ropes and animals and free play on Shabbat. It’s been a crazy time and it went so fast; Upper Bonim first session was definitely a blast. – Jordan P, B-O-N-I-M Bonim, bonim!

Lower Chaverim
I’m Rob; I am the Lower Chaverim Unit Head this summer. I live in London, England and am currently studying film and television at Nottingham Trent University. This is my third summer at Crane Lake and I truly love coming back to this place.

Lower Chav has been incredible for first session as it is the first taste that the campers get of being in upper camp. We saw some fantastic evening programs this session that were run by our staff. Certain programs that we had were a counselor hunt: where the campers had to find their counselors who were hidden round camp, Minute to Win it: where we had a bunch of mini one minute challenges that the campers had to complete and my personal favourite was when the girls had a card night and the boys had a spa night.

This session also saw a few tournaments for Lower Chav, including basketball and football. We also had an opportunity to go on a Tikkun Olam trip where the campers went to a food bank and sorted through food.

A final highlight to mention about first session is the incredible trip day we had. During the third week of camp we went to Boston for two days and had a great time. We went to Fenway Park, The Science Museum, The Aquarium, The Hard Rock Café, Fanueil Hall, Harvard Square, The Duck Tour and other exciting places. First session was definitely a great one!

Upper Chaverim
Hello URJ Crane Lake Camp community and Shabbat Shalom!

My name is Shahar Peled and I’m the Upper Chaverim unit head. I’m 22 years old from Israel.

4 months ago I finished a 3.5 years of service in the IDF paratroopers brigade and right after camp I’ll start working full time for temple Israel of the city of New York in Manhattan.

The Upper Chaverim campers have made a tremendous progress and became one big unit, boys and girls together. We’re divided into 4 different bunks but when the unit was all-together everyone could see the unit pride and unity that the kids have.

Most of our evening programs were only for Upper Chaverim and were lead by our counselors.  A few programs that were very successful were the boys and girls programs where the kids talked about deep subjects, maturity, leadership, fears, etc. At the end of the night we burned our fears in a big bonfire and sang together in the lake. Another special evening programs that we’ve had were a big paint party and slip and slide, dive inn at the pool, Jewish holidays, the amazing race a secret program where the kids had to work in small teams for a big goal, We’ve dressed all black and eventually made a giant Jewish star that is still located in the main lawn.

Many of our campers participated in different tournaments (home and away). We’ve played football, soccer, basketball, and tennis. We also lead a cheerleading team, participated in a boating regatta and had some big roles in the camp play.

Two of our counselors were chosen to be the head coaches of their teams during Mini Maccabiah and the kids had a great time in a long day and a half of games, cheering, scavenger hunt, tug of war and many other events.

During the third week of camp we had a two days trip in New York City. We volunteered in the food bank of New Jersey, took the ferry to the statue of liberty, ate a special dinner at the Ellen’s Stardust Diner and went to watch “Finding Neverland” on Broadway. We spent the night in ‘Rodef Shalom’ temple and went to the Bronx Zoo, ate some international food in the Chelsea Market and watched a comedy show in the National Comedy Theater. The kids had a great time and enjoyed every minute of their New York Trip.

I hope you’ve managed to get a sense of what a great first session Upper Chaverim have had here in Crane Lake Camp.

Looking forward to another amazing session in the bubble.

Yours, Shahar

Olim
This session, Olim has been all about carrying on traditions. Through our programming, our trips, and even our downtime, Olim has carried the torch passed on by the leaders of camp from years past. Our trip this session was to Montreal. Over he course of 4 days, we luged and practiced our biathlon skills at the Olympic training facility in Lake Placid, got soaked during Jet Boating, had an awesome day at La Ronde (Six Flags Montreal), and stuffed ourselves with Vermonsters at the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory! In our programs, we focused on what it means to be a group during our initiation, and we instilled the importance of being an individual as part of our Choose Your Own Adventure program. Campers split themselves up among 32 different possible storylines, blind to their friends’ choices, and through that story found their similarities and differences within the unit. The last Friday night of first session, we slept at Teva as a unit, sharing an incredible experience waking up with each other in the morning as a family. We’re so sad to see some of our friends go home on Sunday, but we’re excited for new friends to come and experience an amazing 2nd session!

Check back next week for an update!