Blog

Written by Ethan Bennett   For me, camp is not just the special piece of land found along Moore Road in between 86th and 96th Streets in Zionsville. Rather, camp is and will forever continue to be this magical phenomenon that brings be happiness, that forces me...

Written By: Shirah Kraus Shavua Tov! We had such a great first week of camp! To start off our second week, we have more "Juicy, Spicy, and Fiery” moments/hopes to share! Juice: One of our assistant directors, Jillian Shkolnick, says she loved greeting families on...

Austin Zoot is so excited to be spending his first summer at GUCI as the specialist Coordinator. Austin has 8 years of prior camp experiences at URJ camps, including OSRUI, Kutz, and 6 Points Sports CA. He is a fifth year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College in...

Written by: Shirah Kraus 8 June: Take a deep breath. As we transition from Shabbat into the rest of the week, members of the GUCI community reflect on the past week. Corresponding with the three symbols of Havdalah, our ceremony separating the holy from the mundane,...

Explaining to non-camp people anything about what camp life means is always a complicated undertaking. It was hard to explain to friends in middle school and high school, and continues to be a challenge as a 38-year-old that still loves camp. So last summer as I was...

Is it your child's first time at camp this summer? We have gathered 10 top tips that current/former GUCI parents wish they would have known before sending their child to camp. Send an early “welcome to camp” letter before your camper leaves from home so they have mail...

Preparing for summer? Check out GUCI's online store and get your GUCI swag in time for camp! Please note shipping will take approximately one week so make sure to order well in advance of camp!

How do you tell someone that they have untreatable cancer?  How do you comfort a family after telling them their loved one will never be able to speak or eat again?  How do you give feedback to a trainee who made a mistake that harmed a patient?

My name is Connor. I am neither Jewish nor do I work in a STEM field. So how did I end up at a Jewish science camp? What impact could I make there?

I learned to play guitar on my Dad’s twenty-dollar, bargain purchase from Eaton’s. It was collecting dust in his closet and I thought I would give it a go. I really just wanted to play some of the old Peter, Paul, and Mary songs that he was so fond of so that we could sing together. I never thought of the possibilities or where that old six-string might take me.

My name is Shakked Fainsod. I am 21 years old from Israel and I haven’t been to temple since the six’th grade. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when I decided to go to GUCI. I have never been to an overnight camp, definitely not in the the US, and as much as “camp life” was unknown to me, the thing I was dreading the most were services.

What do you think of when you imagine a “home”? For me, I imagine the feeling of security and shelter, the overwhelming flood of love and compassion, and maybe most importantly, the presence of family. Camp has no shortage of all of those things. Every facet of life at GUCI is engulfed by those qualities that create a home for so many people. It feels to me like the air at camp is different than elsewhere.

It’s not everyone that can say “I’ve lived two lives at camp”.  Well, I did.  The first time in the 70’s, the second time in the 90’s.  Two separate experiences and circumstances and each very important and life-changing in very different ways.