BHEC Blog - Camp News and Announcements

What’s New at BHEC

·        Our logo, which captures what BHEC is all about….Friends for summer*Friends for life

New Facility Improvements

·        A new greenhouse is being built for the LIT’s

·        Showers will be added to senior unit cabins by this summer and future units in 2009

·        Designs for the new White House will be available to see on Parent’s Visiting Day and construction is slated for the fall

·        The Recreation Hall is getting a needed face lift and all of our facilities will be improved upon in 2008-2009

·        Our Admin building will have a new look, entrance and receptionist.

·        New Signs will be all around camp with our new colors and logo, sprucing up our look and telling everyone that we are proud to be BHEC

Staff News

We are thrilled and excited to introduce…….

·       Seth Adelsberg as our Camp Director! For the past six years Seth has had the pleasure of running Berkshire Hills' senior adult camp. Although it has been a wonderful experience, he is extremely excited about moving to the other side of the lake. A bit about Seth:

·        Educated at Solomon Schechter Day School and Brandeis University.

·        Studied, worked, travelled and spent an extensive time in Israel

·        Spent the past eighteen years working in Jewish camping

·        Passionate about outdoor education (backpacking, team building,

·        leadership development) and helping people reach their potential

·        Extensive experience in formal and informal Jewish education

·        Loves  BHEC! 

Randi Weitz as our new Program Director. Randi has been a camper her whole life and ultimately chose camping as her career path because she feels that “nothing is more fulfilling than making a difference in the life of a child”.  Randi….

·        Studied American Sign Language and Deaf Studies at Nassau CC and then Speech Pathology/ Audiology at C.W. Post Long Island University

·        Is a third generation alumna of Surprise Lake Camp, where she was both a camper and a staff member for many years

·        Was the Registrar at Camp Young Judaea Sprout Lake

·        Is so excited and proud to join the Berkshire Hills Family and can't wait to meet everyone this summer!

Over 80% of our staff and past campers are coming back…..!

The camp programming is being energized by building on the successes of past years and revamping the daily schedule and summer calendar. We are introducing new activities, new specialist with extensive experience in sports, outdoor education, the arts, and Jewish programming.

Program Highlights

·        Our Nature and Pioneering staff is participating in the premiere Jewish outdoor education seminar

·        The new arts and crafts instructor has a Bachelors in Fine Arts and grew up attending Camp French Woods, one of the finest arts camps in the country

·        The tennis instructor has taught tennis for over five years and was trained at the Wingate Institute in Israel

·        We’re adding more Instructional Swim Periods

·        We’re revitalizing hobbies with more choice opportunity daily

·        Thanks to a grant from the UJA-Fed of NY, our Jewish program committee is partaking in a four day retreat with five other camps

   ·        Our new 2 year LIT program is in its second year.

LIT – YEAR 1 will focus on group dynamics, team building and educational  workshops

                          LIT – YEAR 2 will continue where the first year be  a more hands-on experience 
 

New Services For Parents: Check out details on our website

·        A camp store where one can purchase camp apparel and a multitude of items useful for campers.

·        Send email to your child, receive email from your child

·        Posting and purchasing of high quality photos

We’re about creating a community, a place to feel good, experience self worth and HAVE FUN.

Meet Your Match II is a 1:3 capital matching grant program from Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF). Every $3 raised by the camp from donors' gifts of $10,000 and more in support of capital improvements between September and December 31, 2007 will be matched by $1 from HGF.  Or, Alumni could contribute to the Alumni Association's Capital Fund, which made its own donation for matching.

Our goal was to raise $600,000 - which will bring us to $800,000 after the HGF match!

But there's still more money to be raised, so don't stop now!

Please visit the Meet Your Match page on our BHEC Tzedakah/Giving Site for more information and to make a donation!

We're looking for 5 PC's running Windows XP to add to our camp computer area this summer...  if you have a  computer to donate to camp, please contact Seth or Elaine.  Thank you!