Picture it: It’s a Saturday night at GFC, camp is in full swing, the Texas sun is setting on the horizon with the smell of campfire filling the air. You hear the sounds of campers and staff alike enjoying Spectacular Day and there I am, in the absolute last place I expected to be after getting married at GFC 8 months before, sitting in a dunk tank behind the baseball backstop. Somehow, I was home.
Rewind a few days, I am sitting at my desk in Denver, and I get a text “Watcha doin this summer?” As a “real” adult with a “real” job and a husband at home, the only response I could give was “working, obviously”. This of course didn’t stop the question that I knew was coming – and somehow, I was lucky enough to be in the position to work remotely and spend 2.5 weeks supporting Niviim as the Senior Unit Head (maybe the first ever Senior Unit Head???).
The moment I walked through the gate, walkie talkie on my hip, it felt like I had never left, and I quickly began to remember what makes camp, camp. My last couple summers on the full-time team I came to be known as “Uncle Jared”, mostly because I was the fun Uncle figure that was only really there for the fun activities, always brought treats with me and was never afraid to jump in and interact with the campers before swiftly rushing off to fix something. I had decided I wanted to keep that reputation going, even though I would have a much different role, I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to give the Niviim campers and staff their best summer yet!
Camp isn’t always easy, there are plenty of tears that come along the way, disagreements between friends and homesickness. As a unit head, I got to work through all of that with both campers and staff, but the beauty of camp is that even when the moments are tough, you somehow remember that this is your Shabbat of the Year and your time together is fleeting. I was lucky enough to watch campers go from arguments to laughter to weird handshakes and reminiscing together from past summers. I got to support young, 18 year-old staff learn how to communicate with their peers when they didn’t fully agree.
Fast forward to the last Shabbat of the session – I’m standing in the back of the overfilled Beit Kensset full of campers, staff and Shabbat visitors, surrounded by old friends and new. The sun is setting, song leaders singing and arms wrapped around each other. In that moment, I came to three realizations:
First, this was the place that has given so much to me and made me so much of who I am today, it’s the place that eventually brought me to meet my husband and the place where we would come back to get married at surrounded by so many family and friends. By far my favorite wedding ever (I might be a little biased),
Second, it’s the place that allows us as a community to be who we are, in a safe and supportive environment filled with so much love and happiness – whether that be Jewish or queer or simply finding yourself. I challenge you to name a place anywhere else like that.
Third, and arguably most importantly, camp is forever changing, and it must in order to survive and continue to be what has been to so many for nearly 50 years. No two summers are alike, we all know that. The camp that I knew, the summers that I spent there were mine to remember and cherish, just like your summer are yours to cherish and remember. This summer will be one that all of the campers and staff will get to hold on to and cherish as their own. Just because things aren’t the camp we remember, doesn’t mean it isn’t still the same special and amazing place we all love. Change happens, and we can’t compare our memories to the present.
Hold on to the memories you made, cherish the special moments and continue to support the place that has allowed us to have them.
With so much love,
Uncle Jared (Jared Pickett), GFC community member, former Operations Manager, and Session 1 Niviim Unit Head