Staff Week Begins Today!

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by Solly Kane, Assistant Director

Today marks the beginning of staff orientation week at camp! The sun is shining, the excitement of staff members seeing each other after 10 months away from camp is palpable, and the Rashei Eidot (unit heads) are itching to start working with their staffs.

Different cohorts in our staff community have been arriving for the last two weeks. Moshavah staff has all been certified in Wilderness First Aid and they spent three days on a staff trip practicing their facilitating skills and strengthening their community. They were joined back at camp, last week, by the staff of Kibbutz Hatzofim and together they set up both eidot (units), literally building their communities from the ground up. (The tents in Tzofim and Moshavah have never looked better and we have  many new tents this summer!) Our Israeli staff arrived on Wednesday last week. They have been acclimating to their new surroundings and working on Israel programming and Hebrew education skills. And, of course, our Rashei Eidot have been hard at work planning how to welcome the rest of the staff and creating an unforgettable summer for the chanichim (campers).

The next seven days will be jam packed with programming and training for our staff. We have some exciting speakers coming in during the week focusing on anti-bullying methods, body image and inclusion at camp. Our staff will spend time meeting with our mirpa’ah (health center) team, our aquatics staff, and Denise Heimlich, our camp registrar, focusing on how to keep each camper healthy and safe. We will also have time for t’fillot (services), singing, staff-bonding and fun. (And this is just the beginning of the list of what we are doing this week!)

As our staff gets to know each other this week, we want to make sure that you have the opportunity to get to know them from home. So, this week, look for a blog about each Rosh Eidah (unit head), where they will introduce themselves to you. We will also be posting updates about the training and specific highlights from each unit all week long.

As always feel free to contact us with any questions as the summer grows closer. For information about our summer contact information, click here. We are so excited to welcome our staff and campers to another great summer in Oconomowoc!

Solly Kane is the Assistant Director of URJ Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute. He has been a part of the OSRUI family as a camper, staff member and assistant director since 2001 and can be reached by email or in the camp office at (262) 567-6277.