By Jake Beckert, Rosh Eidah of Chalutzim
In Chalutzim there is no such thing as a “regular” day. Every day something special is going on, whether it is a special prize for a Hebrew competition, a spontaneous camper talent off, or just an extra special shira (song) session. Every day feels unique.
That being said, there are some days that are even more special than others. We had two of those extra special days this week, Yom Maccabiah, and Yom Avodah.
Maccabiah is an all camp event where chanichim (campers) are divided into four color teams and compete to be the best in sports, arts, limudim (studying) and ruach (spirit). The day culminates in a race through all of camp, where every single chanich has a task to complete for their team. The last leg of the race is the climbing tower at Etgar where all of camp watches on as four chanichim (one from each team) race to the top. Chalutzim chanicha Ellie D, despite starting last of all the teams, had an incredible climb, passing each of her opponents as she raced to the top and quite literally leaping over the final climber at the last second to make it to the top and win the race for her team.
Yom Avodah is a day where all of Chalutzim works to try and make a contribution to our eidah (unit) and make Chalutzim and our camp a better place. This year, in addition to painting the Chalutzim bathrooms, and cleaning the beit tifilah (synagouge) and midurah (fire pit) we also had an educational activity about sviel Yisrael (the Israel national trail) and helped work to clean the kitchens for all of camp. Everyone was able to contribute in making the camp a better place, and have a lot of fun in doing it. The day ended in a barbeque and picnic in Chalutzim, which gave everyone the chance to relax and hangout after a hard days work.
This week is going to be full of a lot of special days too, in fact almost every day of this week has something major and unique that is going to happen. However, since we want to keep the surprise for the chanichim (campers) you’ll have to wait until next week to hear about them!