Rav Ropes: July 2011

Welcome to my periodic postings and pictures from Palmer, MA where I spend a month working as the head of the Ropes/Adventure Course at Camp Ramah, New England (and trying to write sentences with lots of alliteration - see above. Of course, if you don't care about my writing and just want to see pictures, skip below!)

With the opening of the Session II today, the notion of home seems to be a recurring theme. In addition to seeing friendly faces from home dropping off their children, the concept of Camp Ramah as home has come up in several contexts since I arrived:

1) HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS: As we pulled off the Mass Pike at the end of the 7.5 hour drive from Maryland on Sunday, I told Elianna, Micah and Oren, "Welcome home!" to which Elianna responded, "That's right - the other 11 months of the year are a vacation, but this is really home!" It's hard to know which is more intense - her love of camp or my love of her love of camp!

2) HOME IS WHERE WE CAN ALWAYS RETURN AND FIND THINGS JUST LIKE WE REMEMBER THEM - OR SOMETIMES JUST FIND THINGS! This is now my fourth summer coming to Ramah to run the Ropes course, and it truly does feel like a home away from home. This is aided by the fact that we have had the same cabin for the past 3 years. Each year, despite my fastidious cleaning of the cabin before we leave, we have found some object that we left, sitting right on the shelf waiting for us when we come back. Last year, it was an umbrella. This year, we walked in and found one of Micah's kippot (complete with his name written on it). Or at least we thought that was our big find! Due to my recent back troubles, I was able to arrange to get a new mattress and box-spring. With the help of some friends, we moved the old mattress and box-spring out and put the new one in. As I was making thenew bed, I looked down and see a silver round object on the floor - my wedding ring that I had lost on the last night of camp two years ago! We had turned the room over looking for it before leaving that next day, but it must have been stuck somewhere in the old bed and landed on the floor when we moved the new bed in. Knowing that things left behind will be waiting when we return adds to the feeling that camp is home.

3) Home is where we feel safe and comforted, even in moments of crisis: As many of you are aware, after a beautiful morning and early afternoon, what appeared to be a typical late-afternoon Palmer thunderstorm came rolling in. We could see on our mobile phone weather apps that it had a strong intense pocket, but we soon discovered that a torando warning had been issued. It was truly remarkable and a testament to Ed Gelb, Josh Edelglass, the roshei edah and all of the staff to see how quickly and calmly they were able to move the entire camp into basement shelters. For those who were on A-Side, it meant walking briskly through the rain to the Library building (about 5-7 minutes) and having about 250 people in a crowded hot space (see picture below). Once there, each bunk and unit did a head count to assure there were no missing campers. Josh told one of his renowned stories, each edah sang their edah song and then various staff members took turns leading songs and keeping everyone happy. During the 45 minutes - 1 hour of this process, there was never a sense of panic, despite all the conditions being right to expect such a reaction (first day of camp, uncomfortable physical conditions, etc). It was truly remarkable to watch a talented and well-trained staff implement a rarely needed emergency plan with such efficiency and with such care for the campers. With staff setting the appropriate tone, the campers also responded calmly and with good spirit. Crisis, while always undesirable, are also a good test of character, and Camp Ramah, its staff and its campers passed this test with flying colors.

After experiencing a far more damaging tornado, Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz reminds us, "There's no place like home." I am pleased to call Camp Ramah, New England my home for the next four weeks and look forward to sharing it with all of you who are in your own home, but who have entrusted your children to our care.

Please enjoy the pictures below (sorry no B-side pictures - the tornado came right at the time I was planning to head over there - will try to get some tomorrow). Meanwhile, enjoy this video from Shirah in the Chadar Ochel (and if anyone knows how to upload Youtube videos from a flip without all of the annoying delay times, I would appreciate your advice!)