Diamonds in the Mountains

     For those of you who know me or follow my posts, you must be quite aware of my feelings about the importance and meaning of a summer camp experience.  This holds for the campers as well as the counselors.    Personally, the four weeks I spend at Camp Ramah Darom are four of the most rewarding weeks of my year.  I have the pleasure of teaching in an environment that is all about being open to new learning experiences.  Education at camp is the EXPERIENCE -  being, doing, creating - not just listening and passively receiving.  I am enriched socially, spiritually, intellectually, physically  and professionally from everyone around me, the youngest campers in the Gan to the oldest staff members, rabbis, teachers, kitchen staff.
     This summer, I had the opportunity to stay for an extra week and help staff Camp Yofi, a camp for families with children with autism.  Camp Yofi (Yofi means beauty in Hebrew) is an award-winning program that has been around for 10 years.  The name is a perfect description of the Camp.  The "regular" camp session finishes on a Monday.  In 48 remarkable hours, Camp Ramah Darom turns over to accommodate 25 families with kids with autism.  The staff gets trained, the programs get planned, the physical surroundings get prepared.
     During the week, the parents have the opportunity to do "camp activities" while their children go to their own activities paired with a designated-just-for-them-counselor.  The siblings have special programming as well.   My role at Camp Yofi was working with the older siblings of the children with autism.  This week is also a special, much-needed time for the brothers and sisters of the children with autism.
      That week, I cried, I smiled  a lot, I laughed hard, I sang, I danced.  Everyone did.   Kids performed at the talent show, they sang at the top of their voices during prayer, they got gleefully covered in messy goo during  "ooey gooey sticky night" where they played with shaving cream, ooblick, sand, beads all while the staff and counselors formed a "human fence" around the soccer field.  Each time there was an all-camp activity, our human fence just formed, no questions asked.  The staff instinctively go to their positions to "fence off" an area.  Safety is always of the utmost concern at a summer camp.  This concern exponentially increases with Camp Yofi.  A child can run at any time.  And run fast.  There are countless places they can disappear up in the mountains.  We are all on super-vigilant watch at all times.
     Each segment of our population at Camp Yofi  -  the parents, the kids, the counselors, the staff - shared a week that created lasting impressions.  Some of mine are (in no particular order):

• Seeing the teenage and young adult Ramah staff interact with campers in ways that amazed me.  I have a new-found admiration and respect for some of the 19-year olds I worked with on a daily basis at "regular" camp.  These young people performed in ways that moved me to tears.  Seeing them in action with these special young children gives me a sense of hope and comfort when I think about our future leaders.
• Watching a beautiful young girl who is generally non-verbal sing in almost perfect pitch with no mistakes a song from the Little Mermaid
• Seeing the look on parents' eyes as their children were given an award on the last day of camp.  Thunderous applause, photo- and video-taking, pride, smiles.  The entire room burst with love as each child went up to receive a certificate for something special they did that week.
• Being of part of the congregation as two boys each got called to the Torah as they recited the blessings for their B'nai Mitzvah.  
• My feeling of worth each time I passed my friend (and director of Yofi) Susan Tecktiel as she would tell me how happy she was that I was there.
• The sense of community and love as we sang the Camp Yofi song on the last day of camp. 

     Shining, brilliant, beautiful, unique.  Diamonds!  There is a description that fits.  The facets of a diamond play a part in its value.   Diamond facets are the smooth surface areas which have been cut, polished and positioned at different angles which allow light to enter and reflect back from the stone.   This describes my time at Camp Yofi.  Each component of camp -  the people I worked with, the parents, the kids, the physical environment  -  contributed to the value of the experience.   The light that each of us created there reflected back to all the other parts of the whole.  The brilliance of the light is what we all have taken back home with us.  I hope that light will remain inside and be used as inspiration over the course of the year ahead.