Return of the Art Specialty Week

In 2011 we brought in a graffiti artist all the way from the Bay Area in California.  Campers made graffiti hats, t-shirts, signs, and anything else we had around the Art Shack.  Everyone told us that they loved the program and when Cameron Thompson’s picture came up during the slideshow, the campers went crazy!

So we are very happy to announce that Cameron Thompson will be joining us again in 2012 and leading us through some very cool projects.  For those of you who didn’t have the chance to work with Cameron last year, you are in for a treat!  Not only is he great with the campers and the staff, but Cameron works extremely hard (including through the night when necessary) to make sure every project comes to life.

More to come in 2012 updates!

Joining Us Again in 2012

Welcome back Connor Millar!

In 2011 Connor joined the Kingswood family and he made an impact right away.  This coming summer Connor will be joining a new group Sr. Staff that will help program and supervise various aspects of camp.  Connor will be spending the majority of his time at the upperfields as the Asst. Athletic Head and will be working hard to enhance our sports programs. 

Connor is studying Sports Development and Physical Education in Liverpool and plays soccer for his University!  Like many soccer players, Connor appears to have endless energy and spends his day playing a variety of sports… when he’s not studying.

Connor quiz time – Where is Connor originally from?  If you answered Ireland, you are wrong!He grew up in Ireland and has an Irish accent (that is definitely true!), but is originally from Toronto, Canada. 

We look forward to having Connor join our team again in 2012 and we know he’s extremely excited to get back to 04009 and help create another amazing summer!

Returning Home

 

Welcome back Tal Hefter! 

Tal Hefter has been a staple at Kingswood over the years and we are extremely happy and excited to welcome her home!  She might not have been at camp recently, but she has never stopped thinking about camp and she definitely has not stopped loving it.  When you say the word Kingswood to Tal you immediately see her face light up.  Needless to say she’s ready to be back in 04009.

Tal comes to us from Israel and will be joining our leadership team as the Arts Director.  She will oversee everything from dance & gymnastics to arts & crafts to the theater and music.  We’re also happy to report that Tal will oversee our return to Arts Fest!!!  We have no doubt that our arts program and performances will be better than ever under Tal’s supervision.

Planning for 2012 is well under way and Tal is already making a significant impact on what’s in store for everyone this summer.  Everything from the arts department, Israel programming, and all around camp spirit will have Tal’s thoughts and experience woven in.  So be ready for things to be AMAZING in 2012!

Please join us in welcoming back Tal Hefter!

What is all this mishegass?

 

Just last night I was speaking with my mother on the phone.  Actually we were using face time through our iPhones.  Which was really amusing since my mom’s reflexes continued to pull the phone right back to her ear giving me a close up to the side of her head.  Very funny, but not at all on point.

Anyway, I was speaking with my mother and explaining my travel itinerary for the next few weeks. Yes, she still worries about me and insists on knowing where I’m going to be.  She of course said, “Oy Mitchell, you’re meshugge.”  AH HA!  I word I’ve heard 1000 times, but never quite sure what it meant.  Did she think that her son was a really hard worker?  No.  Meshugge means crazy.  Thanks for the support mom.

So I did a little research on the word and found out that the word mishegass means craziness or nuttiness.  I’ve definitely heard mishegass along the way too!  One might see Color War and say, “what is all this mishegass?” or “whoever planned this event is meshugge or meshuggeneh.”

I also learned a new phrase.  If you want to say, “I need it like a hole in the head” you would say “I need it like a loch in kop.”  I don’t think I’ve ever used this phrase, but in the name of getting a little Jewish culture in my day I think I’ll try it.

I hope you have enjoyed your Yiddish lesson for the day!

Get Your Tuchis to Jewish Camp!

Can I be honest?  On a somewhat regular basis I speak with co-workers, parents, grandparents, my parents, and a number of other people and I miss a word here and there.  Sometimes this is a result of not being able to understand anyone with a thick Boston accent.  (I work on this every Sunday at my local diner where I go for brunch with friends and supplement my linguistic research by watching Good Will Hunting and The Town.)  The majority of the time, the confused look on my face is a direct result of working in the Jewish world and not understanding any Yiddish.  No judging.

Yes I’m a Jewish Camp director and yes I spent many many days visiting with my Zeydeh and all his friends.  I don’t know how it happened or what I missed, but I didn’t pick up a thing!  For years I’ve been shaking my head and smiling at the folks in the lobby.  I go to a meeting and everyone starts to laugh after a comment from a coworker… I belt out my best fake laugh.  My mom calls me a name and I’m not sure if I’m in trouble or if I’m being praised. 

Well people of Kingswood and the great internet family… That’s all about to change.  I’m on a mission to pick up some Yiddish and I’m going to share it with all of you.  So if you’re interested in finding out the meaning of “Shlemeil, Shlimazl”, “Alte Kaker”, “Shmendrik”, “Mensh”, and a long list of other words and phrases… then you should stay tuned in to Kingswood.

That’s right Yiddish speakers.  I’m onto your secret language and will get to the bottom of all of this soon enough.  Hopefully no one says anything to me in Yiddish with a Boston accent… that might be too much.

How Old is Kingswood?

We’ve been in the camping business for a long time.  Actually, a lot longer than we originally thought!  Alumni are always digging up fun facts for us and recently Dave Epstein came across this little blurb.

It ends up that we’ve been spending summers on Woods Pond in 04009 for almost 100 years.  When we saw 1913 it was mind blowing.  That would make us one of the oldest camps in the country!  Do you realize how many lives have been positively impacted on the exact same site?  How many kids learned to swim in Woods Pond?  How many people made lifelong friendships?  The amount of people who realized their own Jewish journey?  It’s really pretty amazing.

Over the past few months we’ve had the opportunity to connect with various alumni and hear stories about their years at camp.  People are passionate about Kingswood and their memories of being a camper/counselor.  We’re determined to reignite our alumni and get people involved.

Currently we are looking at the following:

• Beginning a new Kingswood Committee to help lead the camp through lay leadership.  We’ve already begun this step and encourage you to reach out to us to join our group (mmorgan@jccgb.org).
• We’re looking at dates to host both an alumni event in Boston and an event at camp in 2012.
• Starting an alumni association with benefits including quarterly updates, events, and discounts.  More to come on this one in the next few months.
• Converting old pictures, slides, and video to digital copies and then uploading them to facebook and youtube.  This has already begun…slowly but surely!

 Needless to say there are a lot of people out there that love Kingswood and we want to make sure we keep you connected.  In the meantime we are heavily into recruiting season and we’re happy to report that so far we haven’t seen this many people sign up in a long time.  This only means good for the future of Kingswood!  That said, we are expecting our scholarship requests to rise with the number of campers and the economy.  Lately we’ve had a lot of requests for donation information. 

The easiest way to make a donation to camp is through the JCC’s website: http://www.bostonjcc.org/About/Online-Donation.aspx.   Every little bit helps – yes even gifts $10 – $100 make a huge difference.  Just make sure to designate your gift to Kingswood and it will make it to us! 

We’re all part of something very special and it’s our job to keep it going for another 100 years.

Announcing: Kingswood Pride – First Fridays!

It’s time to start showing your Kingswood Pride!  On the first Friday of each month, we as a community, will wear our Kingswood gear to school, to work, around town, or anywhere else that you might be.  Take a picture of yourself or with some of your Kingswood friends and upload the picture to our facebook page.  If you don’t have gear, just hold up a sign that says Kingswood.

We have an amazing camp with amazing people… it’s time to start telling the world who we are and what we’re all about!

If you need gear or you’re just looking for something new go to our NEW online store: http://www.amerasport.com/KINGSWOOD/departments/1166/.  We’ve partnered with Amerasport to provide great products all year long.  If you’re local you can even go to the store and try the stuff on.

The our 1st – First Friday is TOMORROW!  Dec. 2nd WEAR YOUR KINGSWOOD GEAR!

Don’t Miss the Reunion!!!

We’re back at it and committed to blogging once per week to keep you up to date on all things Kingswood and keeping you in the loop on happenings in the world of Jewish overnight camping.

We can’t believe November is almost over!  You can always tell when Thanksgiving break comes around, because we see summer staff peeking in daily to say hi and talk about next summer.  We’re the first to admit that we’re kind of camp geeks, so we looooovveee talking about camp.

Most people probably don’t know that we had a team with a lot of rookies in 2011.  We wanted to ensure that we all had an understanding of all aspects of Camp Kingswood.  We also wanted to give all the new folks an opportunity to show new ideas.  Needless to say during staff week we did a lot of learning.  Something that was brand new in 2011 was an Israeli dance – Ya’lili.  It was huge during staff week, not so much first session, but it gained a following 2nd session.  We even tried to get Fun Town to allow us to do a flash mob dance… They didn’t agree.

The point being it was a lot of fun in 2011 and we’re excited to build on the traditions of the past and to try new things in 2012 too.

This weekend we’ll be displaying and talking about a few potential new items for 2012… So don’t miss out on the JCC Maccabi Camp Kingswood Reunion on Sunday Nov. 27th from 2-4pm at the Leventhal-Sidman JCC in Newton, MA.

Going through old pics and videos we found a video of the staff learning the Israeli dance – Ya’lili during staff training.  I think we’ve now watched it 10 times so we figured we should share it with all of you.

Enjoy!

Yalili

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New to Kingswood!

Meet Lou Bichard from South Yorkshire in the UK.  Lou is excited for the summer, partly because he’s been busy studying all year, but mostly because he loves camp.  He has spent many years at British summer camps including another camp named Kingswood! 

 Lou will be working on the waterfront and continuing his work as a lifeguard.  He’s been looking at pictures of camp and can’t wait to see it in person.  In his free time he plays guitar, rugby, and works out.  You can usually find him checking out live music somewhere around town.  An interesting fact about Lou – he is the only person that he’s met who can wiggle their ears individually! 

 We look forward to working with Lou this summer… only one month to go!!!

So Hard To Choose…

Time for a new boat!

We have a great team of waterski instructors this summer.  Some of the staff have been waterskiing for more than 15 years! Sure they can pull campers around on tubes, but these folks also specialize in waterskiing, kneeboarding, wakeboarding, and slalom skiing.   They are currently putting together plans to teach campers the basics and then take their water skills to the next level. 

Sign up for waterskiing if you want to learn how to:

• Get up on skiis for the first time.
• Go in and out of the wake.
• Ski with no hands!
• Jump the wake and learn a variety of tricks.

With all this stuff going on at the lake we decided it was time for a new boat.  We’ll give you an update when we know what we’re getting… Until then start thinking camp… It’s almost here!