As the sounds of Hava Nashira, OSRUI’S music and song inspired and themed weekend, rang out and echoed through the camp this weekend, quietly, our Moshavah staff has been preparing for the upcoming summer.
Moshavah is designed for those campers who love the outdoors and are prepared to face personal challenges in both thought and action. As a Moshavah camper, you will live in a tent with ten or twelve other teens and two counselors and participate in planning the program with personal responsibility for each part of the day. Specially trained staff and faculty members will supervise and help you and your fellow Mosh campers as everyone participates in two or three multi-day trips: rock-climbing expeditions, backpacking, canoeing, and biking.
Our Mosh staff has been working hard over the past few days to get their Wildnerness First Aid certification, and will put their knowledge and skill to the test as they embark today on a three day Mosh staff trip. The trip is geared to give them real life experience and training with our four types of trips that they will utilize when they take the campers out on trips in just a few short weeks. More importantly, the trip allows our Mosh staff to bond them as a unit, a staff, a community, and a family.
We caught up with trip leader, Scott Goode, Asst. Director of Education & Youth Engagement at Temple Chai in Long Grove, and OSRUI ombudsman who has lead the Mosh staff trip since 2012 to get the details on what will go on deep in the wilderness with our Mosh staff!
Blog: Scott, tell us about your history at camp.
Scott: My first year in camp was in 1995. I was in Tzofim Aleph. I have done Tzofim, Maccabiah, Mosh, and Chaultzim. I was in Avodah, Machon, Mosh staff from 2005-2007. I was rosh eidah (unit head) of Avodah in 2008 and 2009. I lead the Tour L’Agam trip (our bike trip around Lake Michigan for juniors and seniors) in 2014. I have lead the Mosh staff trip since 2012
Blog: How long has Mosh gone on a staff trip?
Scott: The staff trip started in 2002. They used to go on all-unit staff trips and Mosh would be responsible for setting up all the rock climbing and canoeing aspects for everyone, but Mosh staff needed to do real, professional training, aka WFA (Wilderness First Aid) before they were ready to lead trips for others, and the Mosh staff trip was born.
Blog: Has Mosh staff always come during Hava Nashira?
Scott: When the staff trip started, we had to come early.
Blog: Explain WFA to a novice.
Scott: The Mosh staff training begins with WFA training and what it means to be out on trips, thinking through them, and what it means to be a Mosh staff members. They take a two day, sixteen hour course where they go over different wilderness first aid scenarios, how to treat patients in the wilderness when you are more than an hour away from a hospital, how to keep them stabilized in different scenarios.
Blog: What about trip prep?
Scott: We meet Friday and Saturday talking through the four different types of trips: canoeing, climbing, bike riding, and hiking. We go over how to fit backpacks, how to pack backpacks so the weight is distributed nicely, how to make a camper comfortable, dealing with blisters. We talk about how fit bikes, maintain bikes, and help kids ride in groups. Just simple but important skills
Blog: Tell us about the trip.
Scott: Today, after a hearty 5:45am breakfast prepared by Albert, Susan, and the Mosh unit head, Eli, we will depart at around 7am for the canoeing portion on the Wisconsin river around Spring Green, which is about 100 miles west of camp. It is a nice river because its big, wide, and easy to navigate. We will spend the night on a sand bar. We will work through setting up the canoeing trips for campers, teach the campers how to paddle, steer, and load the boats, both getting in and out of the boats, to make sure they don’t capsize. We will work through how to do the nitty gritty of a Mosh trip. The cooking, setting up the tents, light fire, use the stoves, and fun trip traditions like countoffs and cheers.
Monday morning we will shuttle up to Devils Lake where we will bike thirteen miles and learn how to use the gears, get familiar with leading bike trips, understanding how to give directions while leading. We will set up camp for the night.
On Tuesday, we will meet up with our climbing instructor of over 16 years, Bill, and he will teach our Mosh staff how to be site facilitators at a climbing site. Teach them how to belay, how to teach campers how to belay, how to go bouldering, what it means to really create a safe zone on the cliffs. We will then head back to camp and finish up by talking about unloading and cleaning and what happens when a trip is over.
Blog: Aside from the experience and learning how to be great trip leaders, tell us about the bonding Mosh staff does.
Scott: The staff trip is crucial and vital for the staff to bond, to gel, to get to know each other, and become that family and community. Everyone comes together. It is a very immersive experience and the more veteran staff get to show the newer staff the ropes and its a time where those who have done it before become the teachers and those who haven’t get to learn from their peers, which is the best and most effective kid of learning, and the newer staff get to know the veteran staff. The staff trip is so important because it sets the tone for the summer and it allows the staff to not only practice their practical skills but also become not just a group of staff members, but Mosh staff members, better, Mosh family.
Thanks a lot Scott! Safe travels and have an amazing time!!!!
You can catch Scott Goode this summer in Mosh as faculty July 2-19 in Mosh Aleph
