Last night, I was thinking about special places and what makes them special. I’ve had a two special places in my life: Orange Empire Railway Museum and camp. Of these, camp is the more special place, because it is where I spent my childhood (from 1969 to 1978). As to what makes the place special, I think it is partially that the people there become a loving family. You notice their changes; they notice yours.
What brought this thinking about was that last night I was up at one of the camps, Gindling Hilltop Camp for an Alumni Summer Shabbat visit. I left work around 2:30 PM, making it up to camp by 5:00 pm. My first thought upon driving into camp was “the tents are gone — the field is back to normal”. You see, about three years ago there was a disasterous fire that destroyed the dining hall. They replaced the dining hall with two large tents on the field (dining hall and activities). You can see the tents and the dining hall a buildin’ on this page. It wasn’t until October of last year that they replaced the dining hall. So walking onto the field, it was as if camp had been healed and was back to normal. I’ll note that Gersh Lazarow, the resident director, told a story later that evening about newer campers coming up and being disappointed that the tents, which they had grown up with, were now gone. It just shows that things change at camp, just as a family changes and grows. More on that later.
It was a wonderful Malibu afternoon, which made for a perfect Shabbat service. Sitting on the benches, swaying to the music, looking out over the ocean, as well as the sea of counselors and campers who had become one family… it’s an unspeakable feeling. We’ve been members of many synagogues (and we’re changing synagogues yet again), but camp is one of those few places where you just feel the spiritual connection. It comes to you on the breeze, on the look in the face of a deer, in 8 bars of music, in the stars at night. You just feel as if your prayers are heard a bit better there (so yes, ixixlix, I did think some good and healing thoughts your way).
After services we had the traditional camp Shabbat dinner: chicken, noodles, zucchini, and turnovers. The new dining hall was much more spacious than the tent was. They also provided more options: there were vegetarian options, kosher options, salad bars. Much nicer than the old days, where if you didn’t like what was being served, you could have peanut butter.
After dinner, while the camp did a song session, many of the alumni gathered with Gersh to walk around camp. He highlighted some of the recent changes, and talks about some long range master planning and ideas they have. First, he talked about how camp had changed from our era. In our era, it was much more of a camp of Jews, with self-driven Jewish themes powered by the folk music of the day and the music of Debbie Friedman. It was still in the “Classic Reform” mold. Gersh noted that a number of years ago, the decision had been made to move from being a camp of Jews to “A Jewish Camp”. This led to major changes in programming, bringing in daily prayer, much more Hebrew, and a planned and well thought out curriculum that dovetails with that of the Reform movement. But change is natural in a family, as is growth.
In terms of growth, we saw a number of things that were new this year. As I mentioned, the new dining hall/pavilion was opened (Gersh noted that they can’t turn off some of the lights in the dining hall as the coastal commission has defined the hall as a coastal beacon). This necessitated adding two more water tanks to provide sufficient wet-pipe pressure, so the camp is now well supplied with water. They added an overnight camping area with platforms and a fire pit that each cabin uses one night a session (they share with CHK), which has its own staff. Machon park was turned into Melissa’s point, and is now a mini-chapel built by the Mitzvah ‘08 team, with benches and a tiled platform, overlooking the coastline towards Pt. Mugu. A beautiful spot looking into the sunset. They’ve added two more activities to the ropes course, and lighting all around the camp (so the dancing plaza is no longer dark).
But wait, there’s more. Gersh also talked about some of their dreams for the future. The additional water will have a big impact. It will enable them to add four cabins (bringing the capacity to 160 or 180, vs. something like 240 for CHK)–these will be built below the existing cabins. They would like to add green to the field, basically turning the area on the girl’s cabin side of the field into a green park. They will rework the entrance, making a road loop onto the field and back to down the hill, and moving the flagpoles there (thus moving the “center”). They want to resurface (or finally properly surface) the basketball courts, and build a shaded dance platform. They want to add two staff cabins up near the “pink palaces” in the old equestrian area, and potentially build tennis courts there. They are tearing down the Lodge (built in 1968) as soon as the summer ends and rebuilding it (which is sorely needed). Basically, they are developing a master plan to help sustain the programming and increase year-round utilization. They would also like to make some changes at CHK in the same vein, improving the entrance and working to hide the service areas from day to day camp life, as well as revitalizing the 50 year old facilities. Lastly, there was talk of a fourth facility across Yerba Buena Road that would be more suitable as a conference center, with appropriate breakout rooms and such. One would imagine this would be timed to a rework of the Breuer conference center at CHK, which is centered around what was the original dining hall (Gildred Hall). It’s an ambituous plan, but I think if any group can do it, they can… simply because of the love this place engenders in those that have grown up there. They want to see it preserved and growing for their children and their children’s children.
During the friendship circle after the Shabbat Chill, Gersh talked about the quote from Achad Ha-Am: “More than Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews”. He noted how the sprituality of Shabbat at camp just because a part of you, and how the camp experiences cement ones Jewish sense of being. This is what makes camp a family member, one that remains part of your life, one that you must visit every so often just to recharge from the experience.
I have, and will, get up there any chance I get. It is that special of a place.
