Check out a video of Rodger speaking at the Junior and Pioneer Friday night service on youtube!
Blue Star Blog
Month: June 2011
Blue Star's Teen Village Reaches Out with Community Service
Blue Star’s Teen Village Reaches Out with Community Service
Blue Star’s Teen Village is more than just a place to chillax. Among their many activities, Teen Village are spending quality time with the Boys and Girls Club of Hendersonville.
The club states their mission is “To inspire and enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens”
Their core promise to the community is:
We will uphold high ethical standards…
in every decision we reach,
in every action we take,
in every dollar we raise,
in every membership number we report,
in everything we do and say…
Because our most prized possession is our integrity.
With this in mind, our Blue Star teens have been working together with the Boys and Girls Club teens to help beautify their facility. Grounds were cleaned and mulch was spread as the kids mingled and experienced each others different backgrounds. Later, they all enjoyed team building activities like musical chairs and games like basketball and ultimate ball (ultimate frisbee with a ball!)
Tomorrow the tables are turned, with around 35 of the club’s teens coming to Blue Star Camps. Teen Village will bring the kids along for a typical Blue Star day, including options, pool and slip and slide. Our Teen Village Living Judaism reps, Zach Weinstein and Nichole Farchi-Segal, along with our LJ specialist Jamie Mafdali have worked hard to develop a service that is not only welcoming for our guests but also educational and informative.
Teen Village is looking forward to a summer-long relationship with the Boys and Girls Club of Henersonville and perhaps the beginning of some life time friendships for our youth.
First Shabbat at Blue Star Camps Season 64
Something unique and magical begins to happen every Friday afternoon in camp. As the sun begins to go down and the shadows are cast longer through the trees, the light seems as if it is being tuned by a greater hand. The color temperature saturates and the tones are highlighted. The emotional atmosphere calms as campers return to their cabins to shower and dress for Shabbat.
Donned in their best blue and white, the boys and girls mingle on the blacktop prior to entering their respective dining halls. Once settled, candles are lit and blessings are made over the challah as the Sabbath is ushered in. Meals on Friday evenings are respectfully subdued, which is an achievement seeing as they are usually accompanied by a special dessert treat! Once the tables are cleared, boys and girls meander up through Senior Girl Hill, past the Upper Athletic field to the ever present Elmore Solomon Chapel.
The open walls of the chapel accept all faiths and creeds and offer up a breathtaking view. Our first Shabbat introduced our theme for the summer, this years theme being “Dream Big Live Courageously” with Tzedakah. Our Blue Star Family learned that tzedakah comes from the root “tzedek” which means righteousness or justice. The idea being that by giving, we are helping to create a more just world.
This concept is being put into action during Sunday’s carnival where campers will have the opportunity to participate in the Annie Weber Relay for Life as well as walk and swim laps for Juvenile Cancer Research. With this, Blue Star Camp staff and campers will be actively participating in tzedakah by putting justice into action.
Program Office is off to a great start!
Carnival is right around the corner and the Program Office is working hard to make the day one to remember! We have kept the classic booths, like the dunk tank and the slip ‘n slide. We are also excited to see the campers participate in the new booths like Baggo! In addition to the excitement of the carnival, the campers will participate in a camp-wide Relay for Life to raise money for Juvenile Cancer Research. This involves the campers walking with their unit for 15 minute intervals throughout the 3 ½ hour carnival. Other pool events throughout the day will add to the amount of money raised for Relay.
The day’s events will end with an awesome evening program. Billy Jonas is a crowd favorite and every time he performs at Blue Star, it is a “slam dunk.”
Options are now in full swing! Specialists are doing a great job of teaching their skill areas to campers and the children seem to be having a blast in their Blue Star options. Teen Village had their first Zumba Class with Stacey today and everyone was up dancing and exercising.
Programming is off to a great start!
-Stacey August
2011 Teen Village News
- Teen Village Camp Leader Rachel Faruque and the teen’s Unit Leader J.J. (James Julius from Senior Boys last year) and I are anticipating a great summer in Teen Village. Rachel and J.J. have engineered some new elements into Village life this summer.
- Teen Village is always the best way to “Make Your Own Summer” at Blue Star, and now it should be even better. We have the expectation that kids in the Village will be responsible citizens and therefore are given more access to everything Blue Star has to offer. We want the Village to Dream BIG and Live Courageously.
- FEEL GOOD about this upcoming season’s Teen Village (as we do) once you read this update. Village life is very different from any other camp in Blue Star and has unique programs, trips, and opportunities to earn Community Service hours.
- We are continuing with the Village Photo I.D. Card which enables you to pick up your mail, visit the Health Center, Central Supply and most importantly, Granny’s Store without a counselor. You may take a counselor with you, but the I.D. Card will make your daily life easier to navigate.
- The first Shabbat of each session this summer will include Dinner and Services at the Top of Mt. Pinnacle at the spectacular Blue Moon Pavilion. The Pavilion at the Peak is the highest elevation in Henderson County overlooking four states. The Pavilion will provide shelter for the entire group if needed. This should be a wonderful evening and it is the first time Blue Star has been invited to use Blue Moon’s unique Pavilion.
- We have scheduled for both sessions, two days of activities with the Boys and Girls Club of Hendersonville. One day we will host a group at camp including Shabbat Dinner and Services in the Chapel. For the second day, we will help them prepare a neighborhood park. Participation is optional. We will need your school’s community service forms while you are still at camp in order to receive your credit for these approved service hours. We have tentatively scheduled two more days of service opportunities during Second Session.
- Thursday, June 16th we will be floating on a guided tubing & rubber kayak trip down the Tuckasegee River. (Attached is a NEW waiver form that both camper and parent will need to sign. This replaces the one previously sent). Since that puts us near Cherokee, N.C. we will take in the new production of “Unto these Hills” which is the story of the forced relocation of the Cherokee people from their mountains to Oklahoma. This is a new version of the story, produced by the Cherokees themselves – The Trail of Tears. Sometime between the end of the River float and the start of “Unto These Hills”, we will have dinner at a local restaurant.
- This summer, the Teen Village three-day, two night trips are to Savannah, GA for First Session and to Charleston, SC for Second Session; the itineraries will be shared with you at a later date. You may remember that the trips include stays in hotels and meals in restaurants as well as visits to outstanding beaches and swims in the warm summer Atlantic Ocean. Don’t worry, we always take a Lifeguard and Wilderness First Responder from camp, as well as a camp videographer. There are many cultural highlights, and you will hear the stories of the Jewish people who first settled in these oldest of American cities.
- Each session in the Village is unique and very distinctive. On Wednesday, July 20 we have booked seats in the first eight rows of The State Theater of North Carolina’s, Flat Rock Playhouse for the production of the musical Hairspray. Last summer, the Village enjoyed their Second Session theater trip to Flat’s Rock’s production of The Producers. We are also scheduling “day trips” on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our part of the Parkway, including several amazing stops, runs from the Great Smokey Mountain National Park near Gatlinburg, Tennessee all the way to Boone, North Carolina. A day trip on the Parkway is a lifetime memory!
- Perhaps the most important feature in the Teen Village program the last couple of summers is the time you can spend with the campers in our Junior program. The Juniors adore their Village buddies and who doesn’t like being adored?
- The first Tuesday of each summer, the Village hosts the Junior Camp at a Bar-B-Que dinner. The time shared enables you to discover if life as a counselor is attractive. You time with the Juniors is voluntary, and you may opt out, but the Juniors have their Beach parties with Teen Village and other time together is always scheduled.
- There are many other aspects of Teen Village not highlighted in this post; this little glimpse shows you how exciting the Village can be…the choices are yours!
See you soon,
Rodger
Time flies when you’re having fun!
So, this is my first time “blogging” and I have chosen a momentous occasion to begin. Today is not only the first day of staff training but also my Mom and Dad’s fortieth wedding anniversary! Continue reading “Time flies when you’re having fun!”
Gearing Up in Full Summer Mode!
We are now in full summer mode! On the weather front it will be 90 today, and we aren’t expecting rain for at least another week. We are very very specific when placing our weather orders for the summer. Starting June 1st we specify a “farmers’ rain” between 2 am and 5 am.
Our Unit Leaders’ week training has confirmed for me that we have a great group this summer. Candy and I hosted all the Camp Leaders, Unit Leaders & Program Directors at an open house Monday evening. We had a chance to relax and exchange Blue Star “stories and myths”. Some were fact, most were fiction, almost all were funny.
Yesterday, Stacy & Jake Programming and all the Camp & Unit Leaders practiced protocols for out of camp bus trips during a trip to STRYKES; one of the venues we use for bowling. After a blistering competition the two highest scores were bowled by “not quite Mad Max” Benlulu Pioneers Boys Unit 3 (172) and Sosa “the Cincinnati Kid” Unit 1 Senior Boys (171).
After bowling, we ate surprisingly good Mexican food in Hendersonville and celebrated Suzannah (Unit 1 Pioneer Girls) Feldman’s 20th birthday. After dinner all who wanted to watched the Miami Heat vs. The Dallas Mavericks. The Heat fans ended their day happy…
Dream Big – Live Courageously,
Rodger