BMD Kicks Off With Nightime Bowling!
By Yehuda “No ‘H'” Fenton
It’s 9:25 pm, and the Bochurim of B.M.D. are winding down. After the first hectic day of camp everyone is ready to go to sleep. The loud speaker keeps the bochurim informed as to how long they have until lights out, the counselors get ready for bed, and it is unanimously decided that it is highly unlikely that all 65 campers can take a shower within five minutes.
Suddenly a voice can be heard over the loudspeaker, testifying to the fact that we have all had an amazing first day. And to end off the amazing day, Head Counselors Shimon Gorkin and Shmulik Moskowitz say, there will be…wait for it…BOWLING!!!!
Everyone’s out of bed! Sweatshirts are grabbed, flashlights pulled out, shoes jammed on, and we’re off to the buses! We get to the bowling alley ready for the amazing night that is to come!
Every Bochur chooses the ball of his choice and the games begin! Sixteen lanes, 96 bowlers and one awesome time! Strikes, spares, and the occasional gutter ball punctuate the evening. One camper even beat the odds by winning an iPod at the arcade game!
(Editor. The highest score is still a matter of great contention and can only be truly resolved once tapes of the night are examined.)
It was an incredible night and a truly wonderful beginning to camp at Machneh Gan Yisroel B.M.D.!
Camp Staff Have a Ball
Staff members of Camp Gan Israel of Parksville and Camp L’man Achai had an actual ball during a training session.
By COLlive reporter
Where is the best place for staff training? In camp!
With the latest push by staff members on taking the summer seriously, two Lubavitch overnight camps invited life and leadership coach Rabbi Shmuly Rothman to their Upstate New York grounds.
Camp Gan Israel in Parksville and Camp L’man Achai hosted Rothman for intense staff training on their camp grounds, ahead of the campers’ arrival.
“This is a huge step in the right direction for our overnight camps,” Rothman told COLlive.com. “In traditional secular overnight camps, staff spend a week to 10 days on camp grounds training for their positions.”
On Monday, June 25, a full day program took place in Parksville, the first overnight Chabad boys camp, and participants quickly learned that serious business can be fun too.
The training program began with an 8-foot colorful beach ball. Staff members were told lie in two rows and pass the ball from the beginning to the end of the line. Within seconds all the staff were interacting, laughing, having fun and supporting each other.
Rothman then moved on to discussing important topics such as “nurturing unzere kinder,” personal goal setting and internal inspiration to be a good counselor all day and every day, the skills and tools for viewing each and every camper as Hashem’s only child and positive discipline and “friend-raising.”
“Having Shmuly on camp grounds while the counselors were settling in made all the difference,” said Rabbi Nachman Dov Vichnin, senior Head Counselor at CGI Parksville who arranged for the program. “Staff had ample time to ask their specific questions, and get the support they needed. It was total ‘tachlis.'”
The many hours of training were interspersed with brain teasers, ice breakers, games and initiatives that put staff up close and interacting with each other.
Rothman, a resident of Pittsburgh, spent the next day at Camp L’man Achai, an overnight camp for Jewish boys ages 8-16, located in the town of Andes in Delaware County, NY.
As a camp geared for boys from homes that are not observant, Rothman spoke about sensitivity to campers coming from broken homes and who have suffered the loss of a loved one.
And in addition to topics raised in Parksville, he discussed healthy communication and relationships between staff, head staff and campers and how to set needed boundaries between staff and campers.
“The staff really appreciated it,” said Rabbi Yitzchok Steinmetz, director of Camp L’man Achai. “I’ve heard only great feedback and I’m sure it will make a huge difference.”
Staff were heard commenting, “The games were great! I got to meet fellow staff in a fun way! I never knew so many of the counselors by name so early on.”
To get the most out of the time allotted, counselors from both camps viewed Shmuly’s newly released staff training DVD on the bus ride up to camp.
The payoff was huge says Rothman, “By the time I got started, the counselors had a very good primer and were actually quoting the DVD training throughout the day.”
Camp Gan Israel staff list 2012 / 5772
| HEAD COUNSELOR | Nachman D. Wichnin | |
| HEAD COUNSELOR | Levi Shemtov | |
| HEAD COUNSELOR | Avremi Wolff | |
| HEAD COUNSELOR | Nochum Schapiro | |
| LEARNING DIRECTOR | Shazi Perman | |
| LEARNING DIRECTOR | Menachem Altein | |
| BMD DIRECTOR | Shmulik Moscowitz | |
| BMD DIRECTOR | Shimon Gorkin | |
| HEAD WAITER | Shmuly Schapiro | |
| HEAD WAITER | Levi Weingarten | |
| NOD HEAD | Ari Raskin | |
| ECAD | Eli Lipskar | |
| Asst ECAD | Mendel Avtzon | |
| BMD ECAD/Asst ECAD 2 | Elozor Glick | |
| HEAD LIFE GUARD | Levi Pekar | |
| EMT | Mendy Veil | |
| EMT | Shmuel Dovid Sandhaus | |
| EMT | Yitzi Shubov | |
| GM | Berel Lison | |
| GM | Dovi Emmanuel – N | |
| Asst GM | Shmulik Shuchat | |
| VAN DRIVER | Chesky Weiss – N | |
| VAN DRIVER | BY Gancz – N | |
| YOUTH CORE | Mayer Gurkov – L | |
| OFFICE MANAGER | Yisroel Cohen – L | |
| ASST OFF. MNGR/SPORTS | Mendy Gitter – N | |
| CANTEEN MANAGER | Shmaya Futerfas | |
| 1COUNSELOR | Mendel Bergstien – N | |
| 2COUNSELOR | Leibel Bendet – N | |
| 3COUNSELOR | Baruch Feldman – N | |
| 4COUNSELOR | Mendy Harlig – N | |
| 5COUNSELOR | Hershey Weinstein – L | |
| 6COUNSELOR | Mendel Barber – L | |
| 7COUNSELOR | Mendy Lebovic – L | |
| 8COUNSELOR | Sholom Tauber – L | |
| 9COUNSELOR | Mendy Zakon – L | |
| 10COUNSELOR | Yisroel Edery – L | |
| 11COUNSELOR | Levi Shteimits – N | |
| 12COUNSELOR | Mendel Lerer – N | |
| 13COUNSELOR | Moshe Denburg – N | |
| 14COUNSELOR | Shmuly Evens – N | |
| 15COUNSELOR | Moshe Kalmenson – L | |
| 16COUNSELOR | Mendy Heber – L | |
| 17COUNSELOR | Yoseph Epstien – N | |
| 18COUNSELOR | Yudi Meltzer – N | |
| 19COUNSELOR | Mendy Kapaluchnik – N | |
| 20COUNSELOR | Chaim Samuels – N | |
| 21COUNSELOR | Ezra Wiemer – N | |
| 22COUNSELOR | Mendel Galperin – N | |
| 24COUNSELOR | Sholom Domnitz | |
| 25COUNSELOR | Moshe Lipsker – L | |
| 26COUNSELOR | Dovi Berkowitz – L | |
| 27COUNSELOR | sholom brook – L | |
| 28COUNSELOR | shmuel levin – L | |
| 29COUNSELOR | Zevi Rosenblum – L | |
| 30COUNSELOR | Yisrolik Mochkin – L | |
| 31COUNSELOR | Yoisef Bogomilsky – S | |
| 32COUNSELOR | Mendy Kirshenberg – S | |
| 33COUNSELOR | Mendel Zunts – N | |
| 34COUNSELOR | Mendel Treitel – N | |
| 35COUNSELOR | Shneur Polter – A | |
| 36COUNSELOR | Yaakov Gurkov – N | |
| 37COUNSELOR | Nachi Smetana – ND | |
| 38COUNSELOR | Menachem Elgarten – N | |
| 39COUNSELOR | Mendy Minsky – N | |
| 40COUNSELOR | Berel Kesselman – L | |
| 41COUNSELOR | Koppel Silberberg – L | |
| 42COUNSELOR | Mendel Raskin – N | |
| 1LEARNING TEACHER | Mendy Yarmove – S | |
| 2LEARNING TEACHER | Yitzchok Zirkind – S | |
| 3LEARNING TEACHER | Michoel Saul – S | |
| 4LEARNING TEACHER | yossi zerkind – S | |
| 5LEARNING TEACHER | Yehuda Raiport – S | |
| 6LEARNING TEACHER | Yossi feldman – S | |
| 7LEARNING TEACHER | Mendy Rubenshtein – S | |
| 8LEARNING TEACHER | Moshi Levinson – S | |
| 9LEARNING TEACHER | Yosef Y. Mapur – S | |
| 10LEARNING TEACHER | aharon shpilman – S | |
| 11LEARNING TEACHER | Mend Markowitz – S | |
| 12LEARNING TEACHER | Moshe Kroll – S | |
| 13LEARNING TEACHER | Avrohom Waren – S | |
| 14LEARNING TEACHER | Chaim Shneur- S | |
| 15LEARNING TEACHER | Shneur Vogel – S | |
| 16LEARNING TEACHER | Levi Godlfarb- S | |
| 17LEARNING TEACHER | Tzemach Simon – S | |
| 18LEARNING TEACHER | Mendel Vogel – S | |
| 19LEARNING TEACHER | Mendy Tzippel – S | |
| 20LEARNING TEACHER | Binyomen Warmflash – S | |
| 21LEARNING TEACHER | Menachem Lazerof – A | |
| 22LEARNING TEACHER | Aron Bergman – S | |
| 23LEARNING TEACHER | Leibel Chazanovitch – S | |
| 24LEARNING TEACHER | Zevi Shusterman – S | |
| 25LEARNING TEACHER | Tany Krasniansky – S | |
| 26LEARNING TEACHER | Boruch Tzfasman – S | |
| 27LEARNING TEACHER | Mendel Katz | |
| 38LEARNING TEACHER | Baruch Steinmetz 1st month – L | |
| Tutor | Sruli Freedman | |
| Tutor | Mendel Kugel – N | |
| Tutor | Moshe Banda – S | |
| CANTEEN ASST | Meir Ciment | |
| CANTEEN ASST | Mendel Jacobson – L | |
| CANTEEN ASST | Mendel Wienstien – N | |
| CANTEEN ASST | Meyer Newman | |
| CANTEEN ASST/BOOKIE | Levi Fogelmen | |
| N.A.D./ MBP | Mendel Blesofsky | |
| ASST N.A.D./Shadow | Eli Israel | |
| MBP Asst | Sholom Sheingarten – L | |
| SPORTS DIRECTOR | Eli Lobenstein | |
| ASST SPORT DIRECTOR | Levi Rosenfeld – N | |
| COMPUTER ROOM | Avrohom Mishulovin – L | |
| O.D. | Meir Gershovitz | |
| KITCHEN STAFF | Mendy Levitan | |
| KITCHEN STAFF | Dovid Deray | |
| KITCHEN STAFF | Boruch Wilansky | |
| KITCHEN STAFF | Efriam Shpindler | |
| KITCHEN STAFF | Yitzi Chriqui | |
| KITCHEN STAFF | Mendel Sobel | |
| Arts and Crafts | Shmulik Stell | |
| Arts and Crafts | Leizer Introlegator | |
| LG | Levi Goldfarb LP | |
| LG | Tzemach Simon LP | |
| LG | Mendel Harlig – LP | |
| LG | Mendel Neuwirth – LP | |
| LG | Mendel Gitler | |
| LG | Mendy Spalter | |
| LG | Mendy Edelmen | |
| Survival | Yosef Shmuel Serebryanski | |
| HC/LD asst. | Menachem Wolfe – L | |
| Ice Cream/Seforim | Menachem Eber | |
| Video | Mendel Soufer – L | |
| Truck Driver | Zalmy Neparstek | |
| BMD COUNSELOR | Avi Welis | |
| BMD COUNSELOR | Shmuli Rapp | |
| BMD COUNSELOR | Choni Cohen | |
| BMD COUNSELOR | Menachem Lifshitz | |
| BMD COUNSELOR | Reuvein Duray | |
| BMD COUNSELOR | Nisanel Borenstien | |
| 1BMD LT | Yehuda Fenton | |
| 2BMD LT | Mendel Mitz | |
| 3BMD LT | Mendy Ross | |
| 4BMD LT | Michoel Fishman | |
| 5BMD LT | Dovie Gopin | |
| 6BMD LT | Zevi Haler | |
| WAITER | Yosef Yitzchok Brook | |
| WAITER | Mendel Chein | |
| WAITER | Jacob Delukovitz | |
| WAITER | Dovid Feigenson | |
| WAITER | Chaim Feldman | |
| WAITER | Shimmy Russell | |
| WAITER | Yisroel Malamud | |
| WAITER | Yaakov Yisroel Raskin | |
| WAITER | Mendel Rimler | |
| WAITER | Eli Barber | |
| WAITER | Moshe Wilhelm | |
| WAITER | Noach Zeiler | |
| WAITER | Mendel Litzman | |
| WAITER | Yehuda Gorkin | |
| COUNSELORS | ||
| Edry | Yisroel | |
| Feldman | Baruch | |
First Days of Camp!!
It was an exciting day when the buses pulled in to Gan Yisrael, carrying hundreds of excited campers. Others had already been brought by their parents, but one and all, they were thrilled for another amazing summer at Machane Gan Yisrael!
As things settled down, all the campers made their way into the Shul for speeches. The Head Counselors spoke about how exciting camp will be this year, and how much learning and fun will take place here. Then, the campers were split into their bunks, and were joined by their counselors, who came – some yelling happily, some running and screaming – to the front of the Shul to lead their bunks to their bunkhouses.
The first full day of camp was Wednesday, and it was back to the Shul for the Learning Directors speech about the excellent learning program this year. Then, campers were split (again) into their learning classes and it was off to the first learning class of the summer!
Wednesday was also the first day of activities, with campers playing basketball, kickball, hockey, football and much more. There was a speech from the Head Lifeguard on safety, after which there was also swimming!
All in all, an exciting start to an exciting summer!
CAMPERS ARRIVE TO CAMP
CGI Heads Off to Camp
Camp Gan Israel of Parksville, NY set off this morning for the first month of summer up in the Catskill Mountains.
