Spotlight on Bogrim

Bogrim is a summer of transitions.  They are no longer in the group of younger campers and they are getting ready to start their first year in high school.  As they transition to being older campers, they gain more privileges, which means more responsibility, and they spend their summer learning how to be successful in their new roles.  They also have a lot of fun-Monday night they had an "I Love the '90s" night and each cabin dressed up and performed a dance to a song from the '90s.  Everyone in the audience cheered for the cabin on stage and they all performed their dances with smiles on their faces.

Alex Freedman (Rosh Bogrim):  I started here as a camper in Solelim and then went through to Ramah Israel Seminar and came back on staff.  I was a Solelim counselor once, a Bogrim counselor twice, a Nivo counselor twice, and this is my second year as Rosh Bogrim, so I've had five summers in Bogrim.

As a camper, Bogrim was my second favorite summer, only behind Nivo.  It's the year in which camp became important to me, so it was a really fun place to be.  The year after that is when I started counting down the months to camp.  You have the transition from younger camper to older, the transition from junior high to high school.  It's a year of such growth.  To be a part of an eidah going through those transitions is something I really enjoy.

The program is geared toward those transitions, namely the campers get to stay up later and they have privileges that the younger campers don't have, such as having peulat erev on Friday nights and davening three times a day.  They also got to participate in the Saturday night events of Yom Sport, when the younger eidot went to bed.

The other difference in the Bogrim summer is that the focus is no longer on just bonding as a cabin, but as banim [boys] and banot [girls], and as an eidah as a whole.  So we encourage the campers to think about this summer differently than they have in the past.

We constantly remind the campers that with all the extra privileges come extra responsibility.  One of the cool things we're doing this summer is a buddy program with Garinim.  So each Garinim camper has a Bogrim camper as a buddy.  We eat lunch together on the kikar each Wednesday and we spent a Shabbat afternoon together as well.  So, it's a fun privilege for them that they get to be role models for the younger campers.  We have high expectations for them and they have been stepping up to those expectations.  Growth is a hard thing, so there are sometimes slip-ups, but they're learning and getting better all the time.  I hope this will be a summer of personal growth for all of them.

One of my favorite parts of the summer was Yom Sport.  They had a lot of fun staying up late and playing sports on Saturday night, playing basketball and softball and running all around camp playing Capture the Flag.  Hearing the campers have so much fun was really cool.  The Zimriyah was also a blast.  We had really good songs and the campers really enjoyed singing them.  They were loud and together and it was a nice moment of eidah pride.  Those eidah moments are really what we work toward.

I'm looking forward to our play, Oliver.  I didn't know these campers last summer, but I remember that they had a really strong play and I think they'll rise to the occasion this summer.  They have a lot of energy and they're a lot of fun.

We also have another cool thing happening this summer as we emphasize bonding between the banim and banot.  The banim have been planning a basketball league which we will be starting soon.  Educationally it's wonderful because all the guys are playing and the teams are mixed with guys of different abilities and different cabins.  So they're relying on people they don't know so well and working with people of different skill levels.  The banot are working on a program as well, that is still in the planning stages.  We're all really excited about it.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it all unfolds.

Ella P. (Bogrim):  What I like most about Bogrim is that we get to stay up later, which is a lot of fun.  We've had a lot of fun activities.  Yom Sport was a lot of fun.

Tamar K. (Bogrim):  I like being in Bogrim because we get more privileges and we're treated more like adults.  I also really like that we pray 3 times a day now.  It's a nice way to take a break and have a calm moment during the day.  So far one of my favorite activities has been art class because I love having a creative outlet.  It's nice to be able to go and do whatever kind of art you want.

Kayla S. (Bogrim):  I really like that we get a lot of privileges in Bogrim.  We get to stay up later and we get to be together more often.  I really enjoyed the Zimriyah because we really came close as an eidah and we had a lot of fun.

Hannah R. (Bogrim):  I like being in Bogrim because I have a lot of really close friends now.  This is my first summer at camp, but we've already become really super close in our cabin.  Some of my favorite activities of the summer have been Yom Sport and a trust walk that we did as an eidah where our counselors blindfolded us and led us around camp.