Sometimes after a steamy afternoon, the hot air rises, clouds form over the mountains and a heavy summer rain falls. Thunder heralds the warning and for a moment the drops fall like mini water-bomb artillery pounding the blacktop, grass and trees. Campers squeal as they run for cover through the deluge and as fast as it starts it slows and trickles to a stop. Now the magic really happens….cooling rain triggers humidity that rises from the ground and the lake; it merges with the mist left drifting in the trees and a magical quality of light seeps through the heavy air as the sun wrestles with thick atmosphere. These are the visions of Blue Star, “forever home”.
The Blue Star Campers In Your Neighborhood
By Jennifer Cohen
Blue Star Campers come from all around the country. Some campers live in nearby Georgia. Some come as far away as California. Many spend their summers at Blue Star because their older siblings or their parents and grandparents came when they were young. However they find Blue Star, and no matter where they come from, no one ever wants to leave.
Many campers come from the West Broward area of South Florida. Maybe it’s because that’s where the camp’s winter offices are located, or maybe it’s because campers want a change of scenery and weather. Or maybe it’s because they (and their parents) know that Blue Star Camps is the best!
Senior 1 camper Tara Zionts is going into 7th grade at Falcon Cove Middle School in Weston, Florida. This is her fourth summer at Blue Star. Tara, age 12, started coming to camp because her older brother came here. “I like being with my camp friends,” said Tara. “We have so much fun and the activities are great.” Tara’s options for the first two weeks are Web News and fishing.
Katie Friedman, 13, is from Miramar and attends David Posnack Jewish Day School. She is 13-years-old and will be starting 8th grade soon. This is her second year at Blue Star. “I love being able to do all of the things I want to do at camp. The friends I have made here have become like sisters to me,” said Katie who is a Senior 2. “My dad and my aunt came here when they were kids,” said Katie. “I have a lot of school friends that come here.”
Katie takes pottery, drama and yoga and the thing she likes the most about camp is the friendships she has made. “These are friendships and bonds that you can’t find anywhere else. I have other friends but it’s just not the same. I really can’t explain it,” said Katie. ”I definitely recommend Blue Star. People say Walt Disney World is the most magical place but it isn’t. Blue Star is.”
Nikki Chussid, 13, is from Weston and will be starting 8th grade at David Posnack Jewish Day School. This is her second year at camp. Nikki who is in Senior 2 takes arts and crafts, library and walk, jog, run. Nikki knew Katie from school and this is their first summer together at Blue Star. Nikki has two sisters Samantha, age 10, and Cali, age 14, who also attend Blue Star Camps. “At first I was a little nervous to come to camp but then I knew my older sister would be here and I’d be there to take care of my younger sister so that was reassuring to me,” said Nikki. “The memories she has made a Blue Star will be with her forever.
Daniela Schwartz is also from Weston. “My mom came here and she wanted me to come here too,” said Daniela who has come to Blue Star Camps for four years. She takes archery and video. “I love the activities, counselors, and being with my camp friends and I’m lucky so many of them are from Broward County because we get together when we are home.”
Maia Haims is from Davie and will be going into the 6th grade at David Posnack Jewish Day School. This is her second year at camp and she is in Pioneer. “My brother Elan is also here. He’s a Senior 2.” Maia takes nature and ancient arts. “It’s fun to go away to a new place in the summer,” said Maia, who will turn 11 in July. “I’m always so excited to come to camp.”
Jackie Jaffe, 12, is from Plantation. She will start 7th grade at Nova Middle School soon. This is her sixth year at Blue Star Camps and this year she is in Senior 1. She likes fishing and tennis.
“The friends you make at camp are different from the friends at home. You live with them so you really share more of a bond,” said Jackie. “Blue Star is so much fun. There are so many activities to do and you are never bored. I love my Blue Star summers.”
Marni Rosenblatt, 9 ½ is from Davie. She will be going into fifth grade at David Posnack Jewish Day School. This is Marni’s first year at Blue Star. “Everyone in my family came here. My mom and dad, my aunt and uncle, and my nana and my grandpa came here and were counselors a long time ago,” said Marni. “Now my mom said I was old enough to come.”
Marni is in Pioneer 2 and takes tennis and ancient arts. She likes meeting new people from different places and trying new things. “It was a little hard to be away from home at first but now I feel more independent.” She knew a few of the other campers from school and that made her feel better.
Marni especially enjoyed getting a package from home on the first day of camp!
Jennna Marks lives in Hollywood. She will be starting 9th grade at David Posnack Jewish Day School. This is her fourth year at Blue Star Camps. Jenna will be 14-years-old in July and she started coming to camp when she was 10-years-old. Jenna is in Senior 3 and enjoys horseback riding, walk-jog-run, ropes and arts and crafts.
“My sister came here and her mom works at camp so that’s why I started coming here,” said Jenna.
“I had a few friends from school when I started and now I have all of these amazing camp friends. Camp is an experience you just can’t get anywhere else. Coming to camp has made me feel proud to be Jewish. It is nice knowing that this whole community is Jewish and I feel more connected to these friends because not only are we connected in our friendships, we are connected as a people,” said Jenna. “Some people have vacation homes but for me, Blue Star Camps is my summer home.”
More stories about Blue Star Campers from different parts of the country are coming soon! Stay tuned!
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.
Friday night, 8th 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”
Big Ass Fans new at Blue Star 2012 By Jennifer Cohen
What’s enormous, silver, and resembles an airplane propeller?
Newly installed this year in each of the dining halls at Blue Star are two Big Ass Fans. (Yes, that’s really what they are called!) Named Isis, (http://www.bigassfans.com/) these fans gently distribute the heat from the ceiling down to the floor. This means our campers stay more comfortable, all while using less energy which is in keeping with BSC commitment go going green.
These High Volume / Low Speed (HVLS) fans move a lot of air with their size (which is up to 24-ft. in diameter), not speed. Thanks to a steady, gentle breeze, Big Ass Fans “cool” by increasing evaporative cooling, or, the rate at which perspiration is evaporated from the skin’s surface. In some cases, the Big Ass Fans (or BAFs) make the surrounding area feel between 8 – 16ºF cooler! The aluminum fan blades spin slowly; the sleek silver blades look like a piece of high-tech architectural art.
No expense was spared to ensure the campers would be kept cool and comfortable throughout their stay so the ultra-sleek fans were installed just before the 2012 camp season started. Blue Star Camps is focused on ensuring our campers stay cool, calm and collected at mealtime. Big Ass Fans help us do just that!
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.
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:
Here at camp, autumn has officially begun. The leaves are changing their colors and have begun falling from the trees. We are often visited by noisy Canadian geese “dropping” by on their way further south for the winter. Our days are cool; the nights are chilly.
Our celebration of Blue Star’s sixty-fifth season allows us to reflect on how to strengthen what is enduring and vibrant in a Blue Star summer. We all know the world is very different, now, than it was in 1948. In many important ways, life has improved, but it has also become much more complicated.
Social media, pop culture and technology rapidly change the texture of our society and challenge us as parents. Most adults forget how critical it is for children to discover their own interests and talents through self-directed play. Times change, but the elements needed for a healthy childhood remain constant.
The essential needs of children do not change. Children benefit by making their own choices and taking responsibility for their own decisions. Kids still need healthy and wholesome role models; trustworthy adults and safe venues for adventure, exploration and learning.
Our Jewish values model the beliefs and skills needed to grow and mature with independence and integrity. As everyone knows, Blue Star is a fun and exciting launching pad with a soft landing zone filled with Summer Magic!
