Camp Magic in the Winter – Father Son Retreat

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By Bill Choslovsky, participant on the Father & Son Kallah

 

If I told you I spent a weekend mostly snowed in and prayed, you would probably think that sounded boring. But we did it — and loads of other stuff — at a father son retreat at OSRUI, and it was fantastic, almost magical.

The weekend featured just the right mix of physical and spiritual activities. Yes, there were sports, ropes climbing, and even crav maga — Israeli martial arts — where we did the very manly thing of breaking boards. We also played games and even built model rockets, launching them high into the sky on Sunday morning to end the weekend.  And weaved in throughout were Jewish values, prayers, and songs. Of course, there was plenty of time to just be goofy.

Taking part was about 30 dads (as well as grandfathers and uncles) and their sons. Without ever using the word, it was real “bonding” time, the stuff some kids will remember for a lifetime. Simply sharing a spartan room with your son and talking about everything and nothing is uniquely wonderful as well. Facilitating it all was a great camp staff, and doing it all with a bunch of other dads and sons created a cool sense of community.

No matter how “religious” one is or whether your kid is a veteran camper at OSRUI or instead will likely never attend summer camp, I’d recommend the weekend retreat for anyone.

And as for the couple inches of snow, it just made for some good sliding and a few snowballs.

 

Click here to see our rocket launches!