By Ari Kalfus

Communications Specialist

Shabbat Shalom, GUCI family! By the time you read this, we will be in the midst of another incredible Shabbat experience. This begins, as always, with our Shabbat Walk, which starts near the office and continues around camp, stopping at each of the different areas until all of camp joins together to walk to the Beit T’fillah for services. This Shabbat is a bittersweet one for campers and staff, as it is our final Shabbat of the session and summer. Cabins will walk and sit at dinner together (as opposed to our regular Shabbatot, where everyone is free to sit wherever they’d like), with several added slow songs for cabins to wrap arms around each other, sway, and be together on the last weekend of camp.

This Saturday night will be what we call Final Night. The evening begins with our “Top 10 Songs of the Summer” song session. Units will hold a final unit program, and after that we will join together in Havdallah, followed by Friendship Circle. During Friendship Circle, campers will sit and sing, and our head song leader, Brad Hollander, will play songs of friendship and community. In the middle of Friendship Circle, Mark will speak to all of camp. He will talk about the summer, of special moments and meaningful experiences. He will speak for all of staff when he says how much he has enjoyed this summer, and how meaningful camp is for the entire GUCI community.

After Friendship Circle, campers will go back to their respective cabins for a final cabin program. These are moments for counselors to bring the session to a close, using the themes and experiences they built during chaveruyot and Bunk Nights. It is a time to wrap up the summer with your closest friends, your cabin mates. Cabins explore how much they’ve grown, many sharing their thoughts and experiences from the summer.

At the end of a cabin’s final cabin program, campers are free to go to the Merkaz Tarbut to say goodbye to other friends and spend some additional time together before going home. When camp wakes up on Sunday morning, we will have a final roll call, breakfast, packing time, and then we will say our goodbyes. The ceremony of Final Night is almost as comforting as the programs within it, moments of community, serenity, and contentment. Final Night is special in the way that a cake is special on your birthday. The cake is great, but so is the entire day. The cake simply exemplifies the uniqueness of the day – so too does Final Night exemplify the uniqueness of camp. It is a wonderful way to end the summer.