Carpe diem. Lauren & I hope everyone had a meaningful High Holidays and is having a wonderfully sweet fall season. As we continue to explore different ways we might connect more with our camp families during the school year (our “off season”), we wanted to weave through our Directors’ Blog a series of posts that pose difficult questions around the “point” of the summer camp experience. Of course, Lauren & I believe passionately in the transformative possibilities of the Blue Star experience, and we know there are many parents who are not quite sure of the value of a summer at camp. Rather than “preach” one side of the debate, or worse yet shy away from it completely, we choose to embrace it.

Should we send our children to summer camp? There it is.

Last summer we came across the article posted below. It centers on an ongoing dialogue between two friends and colleagues (both active parents!) about the merits of a part of the summer away from home. While I will let both writers speak for themselves, I will offer my brief take.

In short, Lauren & I believe that the Blue Star experience is an integral part of a child’s whole education. At Blue Star we believe that children can and must make their own choices as it relates to what pursuits and activities they want to explore on a deeper level. We believe that children growing up today, including our own Eli, need to learn how to interact face-to-face with other children, reading social cues and navigating peer dynamics. We believe the pure fun that campers enjoy at Blue Star, in addition to the strong community they help build each summer, is essential to their positive growth. *Now see what some others think…

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/07/07/should-you-send-your-children-to-summer-camp

The leaves have changed at camp. We have celebrated the Jewish New Year and have reflected during Yom Kippur. As we head further into the fall season and busy school year, we wanted to take a moment to share with you, our camp families, some highlights of this past summer at Blue Star. Summer 2014 was one for the record books, and we are grateful to have been able to share it with your family!

This past summer at camp, our first ever 4-3-7 season, gave us countless opportunities to be Bold! We welcomed rookie campers to Blue Star in our 67th season and began a Horseback Skills Camp too! These new session offerings gave campers and their families more options for Blue Star summer “magic,” created a more harmonious experience for our campers, and infused the summer with excitement.

Creating a seven week summer season allowed us to truly think “outside the box” with all aspects of our camp program. Spirit Day, Color Run, Campstock Festival, Dinner & A Show in HeRo, and camp-wide Shabbat were a few new programmatic elements that we introduced in 2014. We also hosted a wonderful Visiting Day for camp families with a coffee truck, a bluegrass band, and fun camp activities. As always, new evening programs and trip options for some units were enjoyed by our campers this past season. AND we began a “Blue Star options sampler week,” a first in Blue Star history! Campers were able to select different Blue Star options each day for the first week of second session. Returning and new campers loved getting to experience BSC options in this way!

We continued the traditions and camp-wide programs our campers and staff consider “staples” of a Blue Star summer as well with an awesome Red, White and Blue Star Color War on July 4th (what a break-out!), Pinnacle Beach Resort, Camp Carnival, Zimriah, Night at the Granny’s, four team Maccabiah – Battle of the Elements (teams for life), camp-wide Havdalah & BSC TV in the HeRo, Lantern Ceremony on the final Friday night of the summer and so much more.

We sang together in the Chapel at Friday night and Saturday morning Shabbat services, we played at the beach parties and enjoyed Camp’s new AWESOME water toy, we ate delicious food in our lovely newly renovated dining halls.

We learned about our camp Living Wall, a statement of our camp’s commitment to sustainability with a LEED certified landscape architect.

As a camp community, we fully embraced and participated in the Conservation Generation program…we conserved water and other natural resources. We became more aware of ways in which we can become a more sustainable planet and implemented them! And we made some amazing art projects as part of our participation in Conservation Generation too (stay tuned for a full blog on these art projects with beautiful pictures)!

Together we shared so many spectacular moments; the feelings of being in our “forever home” as one Blue Star family, the spirit of friendship, community and open-heartedness that make camp a magical place to be, the individual and collective connection to our best selves. This summer, camp was happy, healthy, innovative, exciting, fun and a truly beautiful experience for campers and staff!

Seth and I (and our entire year-round team) are already eagerly, excitedly, busily planning for Summer 2015! What new and exciting developments can you expect to see at camp next season? Stay tuned to find out!

Here’s a quick “teaser” for you though. Four words…NEW CUSTOM CLIMBING TOWER!

ENJOY OUR SUMMER 2014 HIGHLIGHTS SLIDESHOW…

https://www.bluestarcamps.com/blue-star-families/?a=view-scrapbook

PART 1:  Our Conservation Generation mini-series…

Carpe diem. Blue Star always has been at the forefront of innovation and positive change, doing our small part in helping make our world a better place. Lauren & I are grateful daily to be the current custodians of this movement that has been part of the Popkin family for 68 seasons.

Tikkun Olam is part of our DNA. What is most important to Lauren & me in our parenthood journey with Eli and for us in our camp director journey with Blue Star is creating the space within which children can discover what really makes them happy. Directly connected to this ideal is our strong belief that doing good (for others and for the world) is the central ingredient in the happiness recipe.

So this past summer we launched Conservation Generation in partnership with Avi Djanogly’s Gabi H2O award-winning and world-wide program. This program highlights environmental stewardship and allowed us to put into practice our “programs with a purpose.” Having amazing fun is a guiding principle in everything we do at camp, while learning how to appreciate our beautiful nature surroundings and vital natural resources.

Part of this program involved enlisting the help of our campers and their parents—YOU! Together, in partnership with you, we planted 500 trees with the National Forest Foundation.

Just getting us all to camp left a carbon footprint of over 500 tons of CO2. On average, a broadleaf tree will absorb about 1 ton of CO2 over the course of its estimated 100-year life. By planting 500 trees, our Blue Star family has helped to absorb much of the CO2 emissions made by campers and staff travelling to camp this past summer. Wow!

*Of course, there is a lot more to Conservation Generation. Coming soon in Parts 2 & 3:  Re-cap of all of our camper-led arts projects focused on water conservation AND the three behavior changes at camp & how we made a difference…

Carpe diem.  Lauren and I recently moved onto camp for this summer and along with Eli (who is very much in the “terrible twos” now) have embraced this seasonal transition.  Really, leaving our off season home and life to drive with cars packed to camp is more like a family tradition.  Here we are, and we can’t wait for all of you to join us!

With the Old Lake and vibrant green trees outside of my office window it is time to announce our summer THEME:  be bold. Let’s start with the more literal translation of being bold in the context of the Blue Star experience.  We encourage our campers to stretch beyond their comfort zones in trying new activities, reaching out to a new cabin mate to begin a lifelong friendship, and standing up for what they believe.  In addition to the word—bold—in and of itself, we are taking it a step further by turning “b.o.l.d.” into an acronym that represents our three core outcomes (which we have blogged about throughout this off season).

Build community.

Open our hearts (to do good and practice the philosophy of tikkun olam).

Learn to Discover our best selves.

In order to fulfill these core outcomes we all must take a leap of faith.  It takes boldness to extend a hand to a cabin mate who is having a difficult time adjusting to cabin life.  In so doing we might make a new friend or, at the least, share kindness with others.  Along the way we are indeed building community.  That’s bold.

It takes boldness to think beyond ourselves and consider the impact we have on our surroundings.  Every individual impacts in some way on the other people with whom she or he interacts and impacts on our natural environment.  This summer we will launch our Conservation Generation initiative in partnership with Gabi H2O and the American Camp Association as the pilot camp in a creative effort to positively change behavior around water conservation.  Each camper will have  opportunities through this project and myriad other venues to do good.  That’s bold.

Lauren and I believe that it takes boldness to discover what makes us truly happy.  The process of self-discovery can be illuminating and liberating, even if the change it inspires is subtle.  We believe that what is most important about this process is that our campers find happiness.  That is what becoming successful in life means to us.  We think that’s bold.

Carpe diem.  Lauren and I would like to take a moment to wish everyone a happy spring…finally.  I then want to offer the words of Henry David Thoreau who wrote in Walden to “Simplify, Simplify.”  One word, repeated twice.  What a useful reminder!  Reading a section of another book recently, I stumbled upon Thoreau’s words.  With this message of simplifying in mind, I want to highlight two healthful updates for this summer toward that end and our thinking behind them.

Unplugged…Our evolving approach to tech on camp.  Camp provides the space for the unique opportunity of an “unplugged” experience.  The focus gets to be on connecting with camp friends, staff, and the beautiful natural surroundings.  Items that interfere with the goals of our camp community simply do not belong in the camp setting.  To be clear, all cell phones (regardless of what their intended use may be and including “back-up” cell phones) are not allowed at camp.  Laptops, I-Pads with Cellular, Kindle Fires and portable DVD players are also NOT allowed.  Bringing a basic I-Pad or I-pod touch to camp is strongly discouraged.  We do acknowledge that there are some items that campers may wish to bring with them for use in the cabin during “downtime.”  Unfortunately, many items campers may bring for “downtime” (hand-held games, e-readers, I-pods, basic I-pads or I-touches) are now almost always internet connectable.  Since we do not want to ban the use of items like these when they are for camp appropriate activities like reading a book or listening to music, we do reluctantly allow their use during quiet time in the cabin.  Internet that is available at camp in order to assist various areas or camp offices in running effectively is locked and cannot be accessed by campers. We hope this helps to clarify both our reasoning behind the nuanced policy AND the actual policy (which will be enforced).  To delve deeper into this hot button issue, check out the following npr interview with Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods:  Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder.  We have found it illuminating.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4665933

Healthy Choices…What’s new at Granny’s. In addition to trying to create a more healthful space where our campers and staff can be freed up to really explore and more deeply connect, we have put a lot of energy into what we offer at our famous Granny Sara’s Store.  Part of the balance we are looking to strike in this realm is with allowing our campers to make their own choices AND with providing more healthy options from which to choose.  With that, we are happy to announce that we will offer bottled water, Vitamin Water, less soda, and even more nutritious (and still delish) options.  We feel strongly that what we feed our bodies is just as important as what we feed our minds.  Camp provides endless opportunities for being active and being outside.  Being healthful also demands that we give ourselves more of the “right stuff” to help us re-fuel.

Lauren and I welcome the opportunity to talk in more depth with any of our camp families about these two areas.