Rainy Day Activities

Today’s rainy weather was the perfect atmosphere for Madatz peula. Many of the campers (chanichim) spent today making warm and fuzzy’s for themselves. Warm and fuzzy’s are books that the chanichim make and then pass to their friends to write nice messages. The Madatz set up mattresses, soft music and supplies to make the books in our indoor spaces at machaneh and the chanichim spent the morning writing nice messages to each other. Some chanichim like to wait until after they cross the bridge on the last day of camp to open their warm and fuzzy books to see what their friends wrote. The books are a nice reminder of the fun summer the chanichim had as well as a reminder of all of the friendships they created at machaneh. 

The rainy weather did not stop Friday pizza lunch! The buffet was still set up outside, but on the porch of the dining hall (chadar ochel). Inside the chadar ochel the benches were set up just like Hyde Park and we still had our normal Friday afternoon. Instead of the chanichim standing on the rock when they had something to say, they stood on a bench. Many of the chanichim that are leaving on Sunday, thanked Galil for giving them a great summer!

The tzophim also spent today practicing for their kabalat shabbat. Every Friday night a different age group (shikvah) performs an English song, a Hebrew song and an Israeli dance. The tzophim have been practicing all week and are excited to show the machaneh tonight how hard they’ve been working! 

Since this is the last weekend of first session, tomorrow night is final mesibah! Final mesibah is a party that we have on the last night of camp which of course like everything else here has a theme! The theme will be revealed tomorrow night and the mesibah will be filled with fun stations, lots of candy, music and of course dancing! 

We will miss everyone who is leaving on Sunday! 

Shabbat Shalom! 

See Your Friends at Ken Events!

After a great special day all of the chanichim were ready for the last normal day of first session. It’s hard to believe that first session is almost over but we still have some great activities planned for the last few days. 

Today, the tzophim had a great peula on the ken. The ken is our year-round program which includes 1 or 2 activities a month. The events that the ken organize are typically in areas that is easy for many chanichim to get to. However, for the chanichim that do live further away we have started kenim in those areas, such as New York. The tzophim had some great ideas for activities they would like to do this year in the ken and their counselors (madrichim) wrote everything down! 

In the afternoon, the Bogrim headed down to the high ropes course to tackle the Giants’ Ladder and the Zip Line. With lots of encouraging friends cheering from the bottom everyone successfully completed the zip line! The Giants’ Ladder was more challenging for some, but was also completed with the help of a partner! The Bogrim had a great bonding experience and worked together to accomplish challenging obstacles! 

During Sadnaot the Bonim were in the arts and crafts building (Beit Omanut). Their activity today was to use paint to express how they felt about their friends! Of course, most of the Bonim painted on each others’ faces, but all of the paintings came out beautifully! 

Tonight is very exciting for the Bogrim...it’s Bozman! Bozman happens once a summer and is an evening activity planned by the Bogrim. This is the Bogrim’s first opportunity to plan something for the entire machaneh this summer! They have been working hard all week to make sure that tonight is perfect for the chanichim. Bozman has a special theme that will be revealed to the machaneh tonight and all of the activities planned for Bozman are associated with that theme. The chanichim  have no idea that tonight is Bozman so when they find out after dinner they will all be so excited! Be sure to check out the pictures tomorrow from Bozman!

Special Day: Exodus!

Today was Special Day: Exodus! Every session there is a special day that has a theme that tries to tie in education with fun activities. This summer we have been incorporating bible stories into a lot of our activities, so special day Exodus was only fitting! When the chanichim woke up today they thought it was still a normal day because special day was not broken until after breakfast. Special Day was broken with a skit showing Moses and an Egyptian fighting. The chanichim were then instructed to go to the barn (refet) to see a movie that the staff (tzevet) made! 

Building pyramids in Egypt!

After the movie the plot of the day was revealed. The entire day was devoted to Moses’ journey from his time in Egypt, to leading the Hebrews out of slavery. In the morning there was a carnival set up in the parking lot. The carnival’s purpose was to get to know the land of Egypt before Moses freed the Hebrews. Some of the stations at the carnival were basket weaving, building pyramids, riding around on Pharaoh’s caravan, playing in the creek and of course a slip n’ slide.

After we got to know the land of Egypt a little better, the next skit was Moses discovering the burning bush! Of course it wasn’t a real burning bush, but one of our staff members (tzevet) performed poi with fire and put a show on for the machaneh. During this skit the burning bush instructed Moses to go back to the Pharaoh and to ask him to let the Hebrews go. 

The next activity of the day was recreating the 10 plagues. The chanichim were split into teams and they each were given a plague that they were going to be able to dumb on a tzevet member. For example, one of the plagues that was dumped on a tzevet member’s head were wild beasts. The wild beasts we used were feathers and syrup. The chanichim had a blast dumping various things on their counselors’ (madrichim) heads.

Finally Pharaoh let us go and we all went to lunch! Lunch was a special BBQ outside in Hyde Park with homemade french fries! The next step to leaving Egypt was of course crossing the Red Sea! This was a pool party and the chanichim and madrichim had a great time cooling off in the pool. 

The afternoon was focused on escaping from the desert with various challenges such as a maze, dodgeball and training to fight Egyptians. The chanichim’s favorite station was the snack (kibud) station. We had a Matzo bar with all different spreads to put on the Matzo! 

Dinner tonight will be a passover seder at Zydie and Bubbie’s house! Dinner will be set up as a Dinner Theater and there will be an elevated table with madrichim pretending to be a family at a seder. 

After dinner we will travel back in time again to when Moses receives the 10 commandments. This will take place on the ropes course and Moses will act out the scene on the zip line! When he receives the 10 commandments he will jump off the zip line and everyone will go to the Golden Calf Bash! The Golden Calf Bash will be the party (messibah) at the end of the day and there will be 8 golden calf pinatas spread across the party that the chanichim can smash. 

We’ve had a busy day but all of the chanichim are having so much fun! Make sure to check out all of pictures from today! 

Camp Galil's 3rd Annual Alumni Day!

To all of Galil's alumni from 1946 to 2012: You are invited to the 3rd Annual Alumni Day at Camp Galil!

Please join us on Sunday, August 5th from 1pm to 4pm at Camp Galil.

12:45pm: Check-In Begins

1:00pm: Lunch

2:00pm: Opening Ceremony

3:00pm: Chugim

This is a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with Galil, see old friends, and meet new Galilniks.

Galil will also be organizing photo and video archive opportunities so please come with a picture of yourself at camp, an old Galil shirt you would like to donate to a quilt that will hang in our new Moadon, and stories to share with future generations of Galil campers!

Please RSVP here.  For the safety and security of our campers, all guests must RSVP before arrival.  Thank you for your understanding.  You can read more about Alumni Day on our website, our Facebook page, or the official Facebook event.

If you have any questions or would like to be involved, please contact the Alumni Committee (Hank Albert, Arielle Wernick, and Ilana Goldfus) at alumni@campgalil.org.

We hope to see you on August 5th!

ZAP, Go Back!

The Bonim are back and had a great time on their hiking/camping trip (tiyul)! They went to Ricketts Glen, a state park in Pennsylvania. They spent the day by the lake which was great because it was so hot today! 

Today at Machaneh to keep cool the Bogrim had a water fight during workshops (sadnaot). They played water games and had a sponge fight on the basketball court before sitting down and learning about the garden (gan). Also, throughout the day we had sprinklers, misters and fans set up near the indoor spaces around Machaneh to keep it cooler. The pool has been the place to go lately during these hot temperatures. Today during free swim record numbers of chanichim made their way to the pool. And of course all of the chanichim were really excited for instructional swim today!

Although today has been really fun, tonight is the night that every chanich has been waiting for...ZAP! Zap is a game we play for evening activity (tochnit erev) once a summer and it’s one of the most anticipated nights. Zap is played at night because the object of the game is to not be seen. The chanichim are told to dress in all black after dinner and some chanichim go as far as painting their faces and arms black! Everyone starts at the refet and the object of the game is to get to the other side of machaneh. The trick is that there are machrichim and madatzim scattered around machaneh in various places with flash lights. If they see any chanichim trying to get past them they quickly shine their flashlight on the chanichim and say “Zap, go back.” The chanichim then need to go back to the last check point that they made it to.  

Before the game begins the chanichim are taught different types of strategies in order to make it across machaneh successfully. Some skills they are taught are how to crawl quickly and how to drop to the ground if they spot a flashlight ahead of them. Additionally, maps are provided in the beginning of the game to help the chanichim figure out where madrichim are placed and how to get around them.

The chanichim have no idea that tonight is Zap, but when they find out after dinner they will all be ecstatic! Hopefully this year many chanichim make it to the end!  

Check back tomorrow!

We Love Repairing the World!

Today was a busy day! The Bonim left today for a 2 day hiking trip (tiyul) and will return tomorrow afternoon! They were all very excited to be able to spend the next 2 days with their age group (shikvah) while camping! 

They weren’t the only campers (chanichim) to leave machaneh today. The Amelim, Chotrim, and Sayarim went on Tikkun Olam today. Tikkun Olam means repairing the world. Every summer the chanichim do a tikkun olam project usually outside of machaneh. Today, the chanichim went to Urban Tree Connection in Philadelphia. Urban Tree Connection creates community gardens in urban areas as well as distributes produce in low income areas. The particular garden the chanichim went to today was in West Philadelphia.

Today they weeded the garden and picked up any trash where plants were growing. We pulled up invasive weeds, composted those weeds, and even played with bugs! The neighborhood kids came out to the garden while we were there to help us out and to play with the chanichim! Everyone had a lot of fun together! After all of the weeding was done we ate a picnic lunch and drank lots of water! All of the chanichim had a really meaningful day and really grasped the idea of repairing the world. Look out for pictures from tikkun olam tomorrow! 

As you can imagine machaneh felt a lot smaller today because only the Tzophim, Bogrim, and Madatz were here. However, the Tzophim also had a special day. Today was Yom Tzophim. Yom Tzophim (Tzophim Day) is a day planned by the chanichim themselves and they spend the entire day together. In the morning they had a small sleep-in which everyone was excited about after a tiring visiting day! The tzophim then had breakfast in their cabins (tzrif)! In the morning they played different games together that they planned for each other. As the day went on, it also got warmer outside so the next activities involved water games! One of their favorite activites today was the slip n’ slide that they built for themselves! They built the slip n' slide on the hill near the parking lot with tarps, soap and hoses. They all had so much fun sliding down the hill! In the afternoon they went on a short hike in the creek together from the parking lot to the other end of the creek. 

The tzophim had so much fun together today and the best part about the day was that they planned it for themselves! 

Tonight we are having a fun evening activity (tochnit erev) in the dining hall (chadar ochel ). The theme is Vegas and during dinner there is going to be different shows put on by the staff (tzevet) and different card games going on. Pictures to come tomorrow! 

Visiting Day!

We had a great Shabbat this weekend! The Chotrim had a very funny Oneg Shabbat on Friday night. Oneg Shabbat happens every Friday night after dinner and before Israeli dancing (rikud). Each week a different age group (shickvah) puts on a short play written by themselves or their counselors (madrichim). 

The play always has a theme and is always funny filled with inside jokes from the summer. This week the Chotrim performed their oneg shabbat in front of the camp (machaneh) and everyone enjoyed it. Although Shabbat was lovely, all of the campers (chanichim) were anticipating today....visiting day!

We had a great visiting day today! All of the chanichim, madrichim and parents had a wonderful time! The food everyone brought looked delicious and all of the chanichim were very happy about the amount of candy their parents brought for their kupa! 

The day began with all of the chanichim anxiously waiting at the top of the hill in the parking lot for their parent's car to pull into machaneh. As soon as the car is spotted the campers (chanichim) ran down the hill to greet their parents with a big hug! Each family scoped out the best picnic area and enjoyed a picnic lunch together. Our "adopted campers" today were well fed and had a lot of fun hanging out with their friend's families!

After lunch everyone gathered in front of the Moadon for the traditional Visiting Day song and a welcome speech by the director of camp (rosh machaneh), Kali Silverman. The chanichim sang Splendor Bridge by Sam Flesher, a Habonim Dror alum. Everyone then split up by age groups (shkavot) to play fun games with the parents, chanichim, and madrichim. Despite the rain everyone still had a great time and we were able to utilize all of our indoor space at Galil! 

After all of the chanichim said goodbye to their parents and families we went back to a normal schedule. Everyone went to their interest groups 

(chuggim) and were gladly sharing all of the food with each other that they received today! Everyone is stuffed but had a great day and we are all looking forward to movie night tonight!