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I love everything about this camp!
I love camp, like, the whole camp experience.
I can't really imagine doing anything else with my summer other than coming to camp.
I mean after the first week I was hooked, you know, I knew I had to come back.
There's really nothing like this.
It's really fun and you get to do stuff here that you don't get to do other places.
It's a way to just have a great time and enjoy your summer, make friendships, and just have so much fun.
Camp just makes Judaism fun.
It's my second home. It's my home away from home.
My favorite thing about camp is that the fun starts right on the first day.
Welcome to camp!
We welcome you to JCA, we're mighty glad you're here!
We're mighty glad you're here!
What I think about camp is that it's just plain fun!
Everyone's super excited all the time and yelling, and I'm always yelling, and everyone else is always yelling.
Well, we play ga-ga, and ping-pong, and basketball, so that's really fun.
My favorite part about camp is probably the song sessions, y'know, because we get loud and crazy, and it's just really fun to be with everyone.
The ropes course is really fun.
The rock wall is probably my favorite part, it is so much fun.
The zip-line is awesome!
You climb up a tree and then you just jump off. Which is really, really fun. It's basically like you are flying.
It's scary and fun at the same time.
We get to ride the horses and we go all the way through Banana Point and up along the satellite trails.
And even if you've never ridden a horse, the horses are just so tame and great.
My favorite activities: one of them has to be taking care of the animals.
Feeding the chickens, feeding all the goats - all the pygmy goats.
The cutest llamas and horses and donkeys and chickens - hens; we get to go in and feed them.
I don't know, the animals are just a great time.
The beach is crazy!
Well it's really fun. We go swimming, body surfing...
The counselors are out there with us and everyone is just having a great time.
Usually we bury our unit head or we just, you know, relax on the beach.
Every Shabbat everybody wears white and it's a really nice experience.
Shabbat is held in one of the most beautiful places at camp.
We're just all together, we're all dressed in white, and we dance, we sing, we have fun.
You know, we do all the prayers.
Shabbat song session is a force to be reckoned with; there's so much dancing and singing.
Havdalah the next day…
All of the units are out, together, and we make spirals as one unit.
Hey guys!
Hey Joel! Hey Joel, how's it going?
Hi! I'm Joel, the director of Camp JCA Shalom.
I've been coming here for over 25 years, starting as a camper.
Part of what keeps me coming back year-after-year is the personal growth I see in everyone at camp.
We're able to accomplish this by creating a safe place.
Just like me, most of our counselors started as campers and they want to give their kids the same great experience they had when they were campers.
My counselors, they're really awesome.
I just always really looked up to my counselors and I always thought that they were really awesome. I wanted to have a kid think of me the way I thought of my counselors.
I come to camp year-after-year because this was a great - this was a life-changing experience for me as a kid.
I made some of my best friends. I learned so much about Judaism. I want the kids that come here today to have the same great experiences that I had.
The counselors here are awesome, you get to really know them, and they just make it more fun for you.
The biggest reason I became a counselor is looking at all the counselors that influenced me and made such a big difference in my life, I wanted to do that and I wanted to give back to camp in that way.
It's the best place in the world and honestly, you make friends here that you're not going to make anywhere else.
Never in my life have I had this feeling of community and of just all-around happiness.
The people here are, like, amazing.
The closer and closer it gets to summer, I'm like, "How many days 'till camp? When do I get to go to camp?"
I've had the best summer and I'm really sad to leave and I really want to be back next year.
My camp friends are really life-long friends.
Camp is just this amazing community where people come together.
The vibe the JCA gives you is like no other place in the world. The friends you can make here and the experiences you can have: priceless.
I'm already thinking about my next summer.
Yeah, me too. I'm planning it right now, I'm like, "Come to camp."
I have to be here.
I am definitely going to come back next year.