Original Thoughts By Fish (Fish is the Pioneer Boy Camp Leader),

Saturday June 16, Pioneer and Junior Services – Theme “Camp is Good”

Camp is Good

Good morning.  My name is Fish and this is my 20th summer at Camp. This week’s theme is “Camp is Good.” Over my years here, camp has been lots of things to me – camp was fun. Camp was challenging. Camp was upsetting.  Where I made many lifelong friends. Camp was where I learned to rock climb. Camp was where I really admired my big brother. Camp was where I met my wife. Camp was where we got married. As I look back on my vast and varied experiences here, I know that camp is good.

If you start getting bored during services today, instead of playing with the rocks, look up at the trees and sky and mountains, and know that camp is good.

If you lose interest, think about the options and in house options that you never would be able to do, and know that camp is good.

If your attention wavers, look at the counselors who gave up internships or delayed their “real life” to share their time and talents with you, and know that camp is good.

If you find yourself distracted, look to your right and left at the friends you have here, the ones you have known for many years and the ones you just met less than a week ago, and know that camp is good.

If you stay focused this morning, look, listen and feel the beautiful service we will have today. Take the opportunity to connect to the 65 summers of Blue Star traditions and the thousands of years of Jewish tradition. Take the opportunity to have your own spiritual experience, and know that camp is good.

Blue Star is for me, and will be for you, Forever Home.

Shabbat Shalom.

Friday night, 8^th of June was the first official Shabbat dinner and service of the summer. This year our Living Judaism representatives Emily Schooler and Zachary Sosna are both working closely with our favorite Sabbath songstress Penny, along with each of the camp leaders and unit leaders. This new approach will allow much more involvement with the individual camps, staff members and campers in planning our services.

Friday night began with Kiddush and a wonderful dinner of roasted turkey, gravy, yams and broccoli. As always, Shabbat dinners finish with a special dessert, this weeks being a very tasty apple crumble. All washed down of with a camp favorite, Grape Bug Juice!

Services consisted of a selection of the “Best Of” songs and introduced this years theme “Blue Star Camps – Forever Home”. Along with traditional service prayers and songs, original thoughts were given by a first time staff member, a returning camper who is now staff, and a long term returning international staff member.

Senior Boy Staff closed the service with a rousing version of Salam that even had our first time International staff dancing in the aisles. If the energy of Friday night is a good indication of how the summer will progress, there is no doubt that it will be the best summer ever and will have everyone knowing that Blue Star Camps will always be “Forever Home”

Former camp counselors reunite 47 years later

By Jessica Goodman
Times-News Staff Writer

Published: Friday, June 15, 2012 at 7:37 p.m.

Three friends waited excitedly outside Never Blue on Main Street Friday, glancing up and down the street, waiting to recognize someone they hadn’t seen in 47 years.

The women were counselors at Blue Star Camp off Crab Creek Road in the summer of 1965. Junior counselor Lois Pardoll, a part-time Henderson County resident, stayed in contact with senior counselor Simmy Cohen from Miami and cabin leader Loretta Bready of Rhode Island, but lost contact with the fourth friend, Renie Halperin of Atlanta. That is, until Halperin reached out to Pardoll through the Internet.

“I can’t wait,” Pardoll said as she looked up and down the street again for Halperin. “I’m really excited.”

Then one of the three spotted her strolling toward the restaurant. They looked at each other, asking “Is that her? I think that’s her.” Finally, they called out “Renie!” and were reunited with hugs and more hugs.

“This is just amazing,” Halperin said. “It’s just a wonderful experience. I loved camp so much. That particular year was just an unbelievable year.”

In 1965, the girls were responsible for cabin P-13 — the fifth-grade pioneers. Halperin said she almost wasn’t a counselor, but the owners of the camp called her to come at the last moment.

The girls just clicked that summer. They were all around 18 years old and just hit it off, Pardoll said. The cabin was in a great location, right next to the archery pit.

“It was such a wonderful place to spend the summer,” Cohen said.

The girls enjoyed the typical camp fun — though swimming in the lake was “too cold.” The peanut butter at the camp was extremely good and Cohen said female campers often gained a few extra pounds because they are so much of it.

“I think it’s spending a month or two months in a situation where everyone has the same thing in common and all the other pressures of your hometown are removed,” Bready said.

All the girls agreed the summer of ’65 was different from any of their other experiences at Blue Star.

“We all had cabins before and after,” Pardoll said. “I haven’t gelled with my other counselors the way we did.”

Friday was the start of a weekend reunion for the girls from Cabin P-13. On Friday night, they went back to the camp for dinner and Sabbath services.

“I found Lois on the Internet somehow,” Halperin said.

“Otherwise, I think it would never have happened,” Pardoll said.

The summer of ’65 was significant for Pardoll for another reason. She met future husband Pete Pardoll at Blue Star, when he was also a counselor. The two own a summer cabin on Pinnacle Mountain near Blue Star Camp.

Reach Goodman at 828-694-7867 orjessica.goodman@blueridgenow.com.

The entire Blue Star Family, expresses its sincerest sympathies to Harry “Nature” Ryttenberg, whose wife Frankie passed away Saturday. Frankie was a beloved staff member; she was our Camp Store (“Granny”) in the 70’s, 80’s & 90’s – during the time her daughter Jody and son Neil were campers.

Although ill for the past few seasons, Frankie was often at camp helping Harry in his Nature and Farm and Barn options. We will miss her laughter and easy smile and may her memory serve as a blessing.

Expressions of sympathy may be sent to Harry at his home address:

601 Sunlight Ridge Drive
Hendersonville, NC 28792
rytts@bellsouth.net