By Hannah Zeidenstein, URJ GUCI Counselor

Whether this is your first or sixth summer coming to camp, everyone always looks forward to the signs on the front of their buildings. Counselors put in a lot of thought and hard work into making sure our cabin theme is perfect for our kids, since throughout the summer we use them as a basis for games and activities. One of my favorite parts of the first day of camp is seeing the campers run up to the cabins to see what their theme is for the summer. Their excitement makes everything we worked so hard for worth it.

Last summer my cabin theme was “The Elements.” During all of our bunk nights and chaveiriot (cabin times) we used different elements to come up with our fun activities. Each day was a new element and the kids loved it! So not only do the kids have fun, but also when we have a theme in place it helps us as counselors to plan out our fun daily schedules and activities.

We rarely take the time to stop and think about how something so small and silly could actually be so vital to camp. The cabin themes impact the kids tremendously and allow them to bring more creativity to the table. My campers last year came up with fun songs, games, and even unique art projects, which was not only a blast for them but also the counselors enjoyed it too. The best part was watching them come up with it all by themselves! A cabin theme goes so far as to bring the campers even closer together. Usually it’s from bonding over how amazing the theme is or even how different and special our cabin is from all of the rest. Can you remember your favorite theme from when you were a camper?