The August Session is always frantic (in a good way) and this year is no different, hence why I have not even had a chance to blog the last few days. Things are off to a scorching start in the first week of the session, embodied most clearly last night when Jewish Recording Star Rick Recht graced our community with a sensational concert. He played many of his greatest hits and wooed all the campers and staff who were on stage with him throughout the show. This was Rick’s third performance at CSL – the first came my Senior Camper year in 1999 and then returned ten years later in 2009 during my first year as Program Director. His ’99 show was one of his first and it is amazing to see how far his career has come in the time since, now performing at hundreds of venues around the country each summer.
Now that we are a full week in, the culture of this session is really taking hold. I would be lying if I said the campers weren’t a little subdued the first couple days, but the levels of comfort and excitement have risen each and every day. There is a lot of buzz about Color War circulating through the camp. While I can confirm that Color War will be happening in the next two weeks, when it will actually be remains mum even to the staff. Mass Programs have had a strong hold on CSL for decades but the two-team, all-out Color War is a recent phenomenon which began in 2007. This will be the fifth year of this style program and it is quite clear that it has infiltrated the hearts and minds of all campers, young and old.
Our first Shabbat was undoubtedly restful and lustrous with Cayuga and Seneca firmly at the helm as our service leaders. Hobbies are in full force, having had two sessions already and two more slated for this week. Tonight is Village Cookouts and tomorrow is Casino Night so there is certainly a lot to look forward to.
There is a special program out in Tusc tonight that we have been doing since 2007 – the founders of the Tuscarora village, Paul Underberg and Betsy (Kwasman) Wahlquist, will be coming out to meet with the current Senior Campers and tell them the stories around the founding of the village. This has been extremely successful over the years as all of our oldest campers are camp historians. This exhilarating program will take place after a 24-mile bike trip for which the Senior Campers just left a few minutes ago.
Plenty happening here – hope you’re all enjoying your weekends out there!
Ari Baum
Program Director
