Non-stop Fun with Friends: Winter Camp 2023
There was Jessie Kohn, lit up and singing along with musical entertainer Bobby Doowah. Max Nathan was so excited to get into the pool, bobbling about in the water with the most contented expression on his face. Across the way in the gym, Keira and Jayme danced together and played with a giant red balloon.
This was winter camp, a week of nonstop discovery, activity, and friendship at LifeTown, for over 70 participants.
While Yitzi Rosenbaum had a chance to twirl a basketball on the tip of his forefinger at the basketball show, the over 21 group prepared bikkur cholim brunch baskets, and then created personalized woodwork iPad holders. Every area of LifeTown offered a new opportunity, from art and cooking to the LifeTown Shoppes, the gym, the movie theater, and the always popular playground.
High school students from Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School, a different grade each day, served as one-on-one volunteer buddies for the campers.
“We are so grateful to the administration at Kushner for sending their students to volunteer at a time when so many people are away on vacation. Their amazing spirit helped make winter camp 2023 truly special for the campers,” said Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum, CEO and executive director of LifeTown and the Friendship Circle.
Among all the special moments, whether baking blueberry muffins or playing cornhole in the gym, were those giving campers a chance to make new friends, and in one case, to reconnect with an old friend. Arielle Posner and Dina Kaufman, longtime Friendship Circle participants now in the 21 and over group, first met through the Friendship Circle activities years ago when they were tots; as their schedules changed, they stopped seeing one another. Then, at camp, they came together again. Thrilled, they hugged, clearly delighted to be reunited, able to share time and fun together.
And just like that, they were buddies all over again, cutting vegetables for soup, making blueberry muffins, and sharing in the joy of being together.
