Follow us on Twitter to get the videos from this year! http://twitter.com/#!/CampBenFrankel
For the last few days, every single event was the last of the year. On Thursday we had the last club frankels and last normal weekly activities. Friday we had our last shabbat walk and started to pack up camp. Saturday was our last shabbat, in which several campers were recognised as mitzvah superstars for participating in shabbat services every week.
Saturday evening we had our closing ceremonies with a song session, an enormous bonfire, and the fire sign that our Israeli scouts made. Finally, we had the lock in. The younger campers had fun at the dance part of the night and the older campers stuck around through the night watching movies, having food fights, and playing games. Don’t be surprised if your kids are a bit tired for the next couple days. Our season ended this morning with packing up and a final friendship circle. We had an amazing summer filled with memories, friendships, songs, dancing, and new experiences. Camp couldn’t have gone better. The senior staff agreed it was one of the best staff they had ever worked with, our angry puppy experiment turned out to be several campers favorite part of the year, and our programs were inventive and fun. This was a season that set the bar for the future of Camp Ben Frankel. Though no one has any doubt that Camp Ben Frankel is truly the best camp in the land.
Until next year campers and readers,
Shalom
NEW: Follow us on twitter! http://twitter.com/#!/CampBenFrankel
Last night, our staff pulled off a brand new program. The goal of the program was for the kids through various tasks to learn and fight for Israel’s independence. We haven’t had a lot of programs centered around a specific time in history so this was quite a fresh idea. The kids seemed to enjoy it and this program will only get better when we run it again.
Short messages from our Israeli scouts to their families:
Israeli Socuts Send a Message Home
After Maccabia and the movie night, our weekly schedule is back in full swing. The program from last night is a Camp Ben Frankel classic. Street smarts is a game that the whole camp plays together, in which campers have to decide if random people in Carbondale who were interviewed answered random questions correctly. The kids were entertained with how much more they knew compared to those that were interviewed. Especially entertaining was how long it took for some to come up with our vice presidents name.
After Maccabia, the whole camp was pretty exhausted. Everyone needed a nice day of rest yet it was only monday. The staff figured this might happen after such an exciting day so we had something in mind that would keep the kids cool and relaxed. The entire camp went out to see Zookeeper in theatres. The kids had fun and didn’t melt from the heat wave we’ve been experiencing. We needed them rested up so they could stay active and excited for our last week of the season.
Maccabia is one of the most exciting days of Camp Ben Frankel! This year was filled with new exciting competitions that kept the kids moving. We had a ping pong championship, gaga tournament, horseshoe games, and a giant kickball game in the morning. Then our relay had the bat spin, balloon shave, mummy wrap, leap frog, pyramid and, everyone’s favorite, the pie eating contest. After some team planning and rest, the teams camp back for the waterfront competitions. We had the strongman, a floating dock battle, canoe race, sand castles, and volleyball. More team planning and themed meals led up to the CIT step off. Then the kids performed their skits, songs, and flag that they made as teams. In the end of the day, the blue team took it all with a close battle with the red team. The kids had an amazing time. No one should be surprised when they hear the kids raving about Maccabia back home.
We’ve had activities, club frankels, angry puppy, Israel day and the Fourth of July this week! All of us at Camp Ben Frankel needed a nice day of rest. This Shabbat was as peaceful as the last couple. Sleeping in, free swim, the staff production we have every week and our beautiful Havdallah service. The night ended with a surprise for our campers. They were lead up the camp path to find two counselors in togas holding torches. We were instructed to follow them to the end of camp where we found more counselors in togas surrounding a fire. This was this year’s opening ceremony for our Maccabia games! Filled with challenges and competitions the camp was split into teams to win this year’s ‘Greek Mythology’ themed Maccabia. It takes spirit, athleticism, creativity, artistic ability and much more to win the day. The kids went to bed excited for the following day of constant fun!
NEEEEW: Follow us on twitter! http://twitter.com/#!/CampBenFrankel
Tikkun Olam, repairing the world, is a Jewish concept that Camp Ben Frankel takes seriously. Mitzvah night involved stations where the campers could give back and learn how to repair the world. One station had the children making tote bags for children in the hospital. Another had campers making friendship bracelets so the sick kids would know someone is out there for them. There was another station where campers and staff wrote notes inspiring hope with wishes to feel better and get better soon. Finally, we had a station that taught our kids about being better to the earth and our own environment. They were reminded of the recycling options we have at camp and to pick up our trash to conserve the nature that surrounds us. The program was touching and the campers were happy they could give back to kids that weren’t able to go to camp.
The senior staff of Camp Ben Frankel was proud to premier something they had invented just this year: the Angry Puppy. Our older campers, 7th-9th graders, will go on a small camping trip. They canoe to their camp site, put up tents, swim in the lake, make food together over a fire and sleep at the site overnight. We had the 9th and 8th graders on their angry puppy yesterday who will be followed by 7th graders tonight. The idea behind the Angry Puppy is to be a preview of the Maddog trip the CITs take.
Speaking of the CITs, we’ve been very impressed with them this year and last night was no exception. They ran their own program that they themselves created. The campers chose from different categories and point values to decide the kind and difficulty of a song that would be played. The CITs played the song and stopped it in the middle challenging the campers to sing the lyrics that came next. The kids absolutely loved this well planned program. They also invented small competitions between the lyrics challenges. Here as an excerpt of last nights program:
Don’t Forget the Lyrics
Last night Camp Ben Frankel was running a very old program called Yiddish Lotto with the entire camp. Until it was suddenly interrupted when a counselor ran in to tell us that our beloved director had been murdered. The campers were quickly split into teams and had to earn clues from witnesses by performing odd tasks. There were clues about different people so the campers had to all come together and figure out which staff member had the most evidence against them. The kids found the murderer and had a great time playing detective.
The day after we celebrated Israel, Camp Ben Frankel celebrated America! We started the day off with the annual camper vs. counselor baseball game. For lunch we feasted on some barbequed hamburgers and hotdogs like every other American family in the country. We of course had apple pie during dinner right before our trip to fireworks. The fireworks show has been rained out quite a few times in CBF’s past. This made the spectacular show even better for our return and new campers who couldn’t take their eyes of the sky.
