The Best Day Yet!

Hi everyone!

Today was my favourite day of camp so far this summer and I'm so excited I get to blog about it. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Ali Ciobotaru and I am one of the heads of waterfront this summer. The weather today was unbelievable, the perfect kind that we want for our swim docks. In the morning, we had instructional swim with the gibbies, goshies and kochotniks. Everyone was getting in the water which was so refreshing and enjoying some time in the sunshine. In the afternoon, since it was so hot outside, we decided to cancel all of the normal activities and have an open waterfront. For those of you who don't know what that means, every single boating dock in camp (canoe, ski, sail and paddle boat) is opened as well as the main pool, diving board and trampoline for general swim. We played music all day and the campers got to go to whatever water activity they wanted... everyone was having a blast! Don't worry parents - we made sure they were wearing lots of sunscreen, drinking lots of water and enjoying some popsicles along the way!

To top off an amazing sunny day at Camp Kadimah, tonight we surprised the campers and staff and ran a program that we do annually at camp called "Hagganah Night". The concept of this program is to reenact the exodus of Jews from Europe and their difficult journey to Palestine (pre-1948). Campers and staff were put into "families" and had to create characters in order to convince visa officers, identification officers and checkpoint guards that they should be allowed into Palestine. These families had to perform a bunch of different tasks and activities, while being chased by runners representing different obstacles that the Jews had to face after being displaced. If a family was caught, they got sent to jail. However, if a Hagannah decided to help a family, they could more easily get to Palestine (or in our case, the other side of the bridge). At the end of the program, everyone in camp ended up in Palestine, and we all celebrated together that we safely arrived. This program is an extremely fun one, but also highly enlightening for many campers who are unaware of the Hagganah organization and the role they played in aiding the Jews after the war.

In my opinion, we could not have asked for a better day here at camp. We had great weather, a bunch of exciting activities to choose from, and a camp wide evening program at night. There was not one camper without a smile on their face! It is only the end of our first week here and I am truly amazed at how well everything seems to be going. I know that this summer will prove to be the most amazing one yet - with partial thanks to mister golden sun and of course, great Camp Kadimah programming.

Signing off,

Ali Ciobotaru
Co-Head of Waterfront and Camp Kadimah Lifer

New Video Posted! First Shabbat at Camp

Hi everyone,

A new webisode has been posted to the website showcasing our first shabbat at camp. Shabbat at Kadimah is one of the things that makes the summer really special and campers look forward to it all week.

While you may not be able to smell the freshly-baked challah or dance with 300 other excited young Jews, hopefully this video will give you a small taste of what it is like to bring in shabbos at Lake William.

All the best,

Dan