In August 2008 the first group of children of Sderot will come to the summer camp in "Yaar Lavi" in the forests of Golan.
This project is being implemented by RJCF in partnership with the Israeli organization Green Horizons that specializes in outdoor activities for children. The kids will be living in the tents, participate in all kinds of activities that young counselors from Massachusetts thought up for them. The idea of the camp is so popular that our volunteers in Sderot get lots of calls from parents wanting to sign up their kids for this camp. Equally excited are our counselors of this first summer camp. To become a counselor in Sderot camp is a privilege. Young people had not only have special training; they also had to pay their airfare to Israel and for their upkeep there. For that they had to raise money, that is, to advocate for this project and convince people to donate money especially for their trip to Israel. They had to bring the ideas for entertaining and educating Israeli kids.
Here is the letter from our counselors to Russian Jewish Community:
Dear Russian Jewish Community of Boston!
We would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves to you as the counselors of the first Children of Sderot summer camp! We are Masha Bresner, Vicky Berdichevsky, Mikhail Wolfson, Masha Rifkin, Elizabeth Rapoport, and Rimma Pivovarov (Rimma and Liz are already in Israel) and are all students in various universities on the east coast.Each one of us has grown up in the RSM Summer Camp in New Hampshire. Through it, not only have we gained experience as counselors, but we have learned how to harness and develop the true spirit of childhood.
In case you don’t really know much about the camp, we’d like to give you a few details. We’ll be partnering with the Israeli organization Green Horizons to take 50 children of Sderot to the forests of the Golan. Green Horizons specializes in hiking and other outdoor activities like navigation and wilderness survival. The kids will be participating in these activities as well as the ones we’ll be running – like arts and crafts, theater, sports, and math. We decided to bring our favorite evening activities from our summer camp to Israel – like color wars, capture the flag, pelmeni making races, and skit nights! Basically, we’re going to ensure that the children have such an incredible time that for two weeks they forget where they’re from.
We have found a second home and family at our camp, and know that we will be able to bring the same feeling and spirit to the summer camp in Israel. We could not be more excited to experience this tremendous event and give it everything we have. Thank you so much for your incredible support, and we hope to make you proud!
~ The Counselors of Camp ’08