HaMirpeset Shelanu -16: Treasures Found at Camp

Parashat Yitro
From Rabbi David Soloff 

Kabad Et Avicha v et Emecha: Honor Your Father and your Mother - A Back Story 
 
A few weeks ago, while renovating one of the girls' cabins, our maintenance staff made a wonderful discovery. It seems that many years ago there had been an open space between the built-in shelving and the windows. Many girl campers often kept mail from home on top of these shelves. Unbeknownst to the campers, some of these letters must have fallen behind the shelves each summer.
 
Tom Merkel, our maintenance supervisor, boxed up this find and sent it to our Chicago office. The archive includes letters from 1955 through 1976. The letters survived these many years through hot summers and cold winters, nestled behind the shelving and huddled against the siding.The addresses on the envelopes list cabins 18, 19, 20, 21.
 
The letters and post cards are filled with stories - about a sibling who found a first job for $60 per week, a dad who shared his golf tournament scores, another dad who jokingly complains that his wife doesn't let him read the good parts of the letters home, stories about parents adjusting without their camper at home, letters signed by mom and dad and the names of the pets.
 
There are letters with rave reviews after visiting camp and meeting friends and counselors, encouragements to master leading birkat hamazon, loving notes from grandparents, and goofy postcards saying hi.
 
There are a few booklets of unused canteen coupons that had been used in the past as the currency for the camp store (Hanutiah) and a couple of packets of 4 cent stamps for letters yet unsent. There are several sheets of doodles with pictures of hearts and names of couples. There is even a beautifully written Hebrew letter from family in Israel.
 
The letters are filled with love and moms and dads encouraging their children to have a great time at camp. These were letters that often took more than a week to arrive at camp.  From the time a camper wrote home and the parents responded it might have been close to two weeks of the summer. Letters came from Dayton, Cincinnati, Skokie, Chicago, St Louis and the Twin Cities.
 
Reading the letters I am struck by how normal and every day they feel.  Kids love camp. Parents were supportive of their children attending Ramah. Some of the letters shared real life drama about an elderly aunt/uncle. Families wrote about life for the family at home but validated the importance of their children's experiences at camp. Parents wrote with a sense of pride at the independence of their children living away from home. Camp is fun and also an important growing opportunity.
 
We will try to reconnect these letters with their intended recipients. Some of these families still live in our Ramah Wisconsin communities and have relatives currently participating at camp.
 
These letters awaken memories, recall special friendships, bring to mind magical times growing up and record wonderful love between parents and children. What a privilege it is to be part of Ramah Wisconsin today as we work together to make Ramah Day Camp and Camp Ramah in Wisconsin such wonderful places for this generation of families and campers.
Shabbat Shalom.