Shabbat Shalom GFC!
Our names are Hazel Sachs and Maiara Kahn and this summer we are at GFC for Kibbutz Session 2. We look forward to camp every summer, and we’re excited to share our camp stories here with y’all!
Since I (Maiara) started coming to GFC a few summers ago, I have always looked forward to spending time with good friends, and being at camp helped me feel connected to Judaism and lean into my identity fully. For me (Hazel), camp has been a part of my life forever. Every year my summer plans don’t change; everyone in my life knows where I’ll be – right here in Bruceville. We had been campers together at the same time for a short while, but only really got to know each other at the beginning of this summer. What’s amazing about Kibbutz is the power of community. We do everything together every single day at camp, and it was inevitable that we’d become best friends this summer.
A little background about the Kibbutz program at GFC: everyday we move through the schedule as a unit, doing work groups in the morning and evening (we have cooking group, cleaning group, and gardening group), and we do fun evening programs every day. In between are the parts that make us love this year so much. Every day we do 2 hours of the ropes course, and we believe that this is crucial to our unit bonding. We cheer each other on, play fun games together, laugh together, and overcome challenges as a group. Even though it’s hot out there, we still feel lucky to get this opportunity to be together at camp. We also spend a lot of time on Kibbutz in our hammock village. This is the time we get to truly get to know each other and make camp memories that will last a lifetime.
We feel like camp gets better every summer. We looked up to this Kibbutz year with such excitement in the past, and to have lived it this summer was magical for us. There’s never been a shortage of activities to do in any year on camp, but the opportunities we’ve had to learn and have the best summer ever have been deeply felt during our Kibbutz year specifically. This session we went on a trip to Austin and had the best time at the JCC. We went to Schlitterbahn and Barton Springs, bonded even closer, and had an overall blast. Back on camp, we got to help plan all-camp programs like Erev Yisrael, and we even planned a Shabbat service that we led in front of the whole community. Earlier this session we got to pair up with the youngest campers on camp for Kibbutz-Bonim day and show them what they have to look forward to as they move through the years at GFC. We could go on and on, but the point here is that continuing to come back every summer is worth it because there’s always so much more to experience. Whether you’re here for old friends, inevitably making new friends, or are here to just try new things or be around other Jews, everyone has a place here at GFC.
We are so grateful to have the opportunity to experience the magic of camp, especially as Kibbutznikim. They say that camp is the Shabbat of the Year – we wait for it in anticipation and can’t wait to celebrate with our community every summer. We look forward to continuing our camp journeys maybe in Israel next year, and definitely as Avodahnikim (counselors-in-training) and staff members one day.
Shabbat Shalom!
Hazel and Maiara