#Color war songs full#

The team captains dig for one of the four pieces of a colored heart to reveal their team color and team name. Up until this point, teams are identified as Team 1, Team 2, Team 3 and Team 4. After team meetings, teams gathered at the beach for the opening Color War activity, Digging for the Heart. While there are team captains, Color War is a leadership opportunity for all members of Birya and Tel Chai, each taking on different jobs in preparing their teams for the events of the week. Right after teams were announced, they gathered at their team locations and all our oldest campers led their teams in cheers as they bonded together as a team. Color War was here! The camp followed Wally out to the Bog field where bunks had the opportunity to take pictures with Wally before the teams were announced. As he walked through the doors, the Color War theme song “Eye of the Tiger,” began to play, and the entire camp broke out in cheers. As dinner came to an end, Wally, the Boston Red Sox mascot made an appearance into the dining hall. However, as soon as second session starts, so do the chants of “1, 2, 3, 4 we want Color War!” This year, our community did not have to wait long.

#Color war songs full#

We had a full day of regular camp activities. On Tuesday, camp woke up to our first morning of second session. The final act was the glow stick dance created in 2011 and performed by a different group of staff each year. The performances showcased our amazing staff in ways that we typically don’t see. However, this year, we had to change it to a Talent Show. It is our tradition to introduce the staff to second session campers in our Counselor No Talent Show. They didn’t waste any time starting to plan this event, and have already picked the theme (but I can’t share it because it is a secret until the night of banquet). Just as Birya and Tel Chai plan the first session banquet, Kinneret and Tel Yehuda (our 9th grade campers) plan the Final Banquet for our camp community. Afternoon activities were held in rainy day locations and campers traveled with their bunks to a few different activities including arts and crafts, Discover Israel, a Dutch Auction and a dodge ball tournament. We had an enthusiastic Shira session after lunch, with our singing drowning out the sound of the rain. The morning was spent bonding as bunks and giving tours to new campers. Even with the rain, spirits were positive as friends reunited and new friendships began to develop. We welcomed 89 second session campers to summer 2017 on Monday morning. Our Tsofs (7th-8th graders) went to Cedarland for miniature golf, swimming and batting cages, and our Bogs (9th-10th graders) enjoyed skating at Roller Kingdom. Our Oles (3rd-6th grade campers) went bowling at Leda Lanes. At the end of visiting day, our full season campers said goodbye to their families and headed out on trips. However, we couldn’t be sad for long, because families were waiting to enter camp for Visiting Day 2017. We had such an amazing first session, and it was so sad to see them leave. On Sunday morning, we said goodbye to 135 first session campers. Through the hugs and tears of our campers, I kept hearing “next year I’m staying full.” Typically, a camper crying is not a good thing, but tonight the tears that flowed were signs of a successful first session. After dinner and entertainment, our camp community went to Elbess (our indoor gym) for Shira (singing) and a slide show presentation recapping the fun we had first session.

These campers worked hard all session making centerpieces, painting murals, choreographing a dance and writing a song for the rest of camp. Saturday night our campers traveled into a space themed dining hall for banquet, planned by Birya and Tel Chai (our 10 th grade campers). We spent the afternoon packing and cleaning, and taking a break for Department Awards. Last week was a bittersweet Shabbat, knowing that it was the final Shabbat of first session. Okay, maybe a little spoiler alert…it involves the ending of Color War and the incredible sportsmanship of our campers. However, I still have other events of the week to share, so I won’t spoil the story. I just witnessed one of the most inspirational moments that I have seen in my 9 summers at camp.