By Larry Gordon

No, I’m not going camping. Some decades ago, when I had to sleep outdoors under the stars because that was what my bunk was doing when I was a camper, I knew right then and there that it was not for me.

Actually, I can recall relaxing outside my tent on a very hot and humid summer night, staring up at the stars with two connected and consistent thoughts: what am I doing here and why am I doing this?

That was then, and this is now. Last week, I visited two summer camps in the Catskills and had contradictory thoughts. The first was how much I really did not want to be in camp when I was a teenager. The second thought was that if I had been in camps like these, I would not have wanted to leave when the summer ended.

I was 12 years old when I first went to sleepaway camp. By the time I was 15, I tried putting up some resistance, but I was not successful. At the time, my dad at least tried to entertain my objections by asking me how I would prefer to spend my summer off from yeshiva.

My error back then was that I did not plan it out well, so I really didn’t have a good answer. I think I mumbled something about hanging out (bad choice of words, then and now) or maybe taking a part-time job somewhere. My father’s retort was that a 15-year-old boy “should not be valgering around in the summer.”

What exactly does it mean to “valger,” or, in this case, not to “valger?” Well, it is a Yiddish word that can be defined as wandering around unanchored or something along those lines.

Anyway, I’d like very much to tell you about those summers, but basically I was in camp so there is no great “valgering” adventure story here.

Last week I visited both Camp Munk in Ferndale and Camp Kaylie in Wurtsboro, and I can safely say about both very impressive summer camps that no one is “valgering” there.

In a sense, I am deeply invested in Camp Munk, as our children and now our grandchildren have been attending Camp Munk over 30 years. We drove into the camp on an early morning for the Shacharis minyan and to celebrate the hanachas tefillin of our grandson, Avrumi Franklin. You take a look around and you immediately observe what the camp’s success has been about all these years.

In my estimation, the key is consistency and dependability. The grounds are immaculate, and the landscaping and ball fields are neatly manicured and looking ready for the next competitive game that can begin at any time. There is a spirit in Camp Munk that has evolved over almost seven decades of being there season after season.

After davening and a quick breakfast at Camp Munk, we got on the highway and traveled up Route 17 to exit 112 and the long and winding roads that snake themselves through parts of Wurtsboro and Ellenville. Though I’ve been frequenting the Catskills for the last half-century or so, I’m still awestruck at the immense amount of space and miles of country sparsely populated by just a few scattered homes or farms here and there.

There is no doubt that without Waze I would never be able to find Camp Kaylie. Waze makes us all smarter and very much on time, unlike the way things like this used to be in the past.

Camp Kaylie is unique; there is truly nothing like it. Adding to the aura and the great innovation that is Camp Kaylie is the fact that I knew Harvey Kaylie, a’h, and communicate regularly with Gloria, who is the prime moving force behind the Kaylie philanthropy.

The reason for my visit to Camp Kaylie in the first place was our grandson, Yosef Hirsch. He’s ten years old and loving every minute of the camp experience. The camp director is Eli Brazil, and only once you are riding around camp on his golf cart do you realize what Camp Kaylie is all about.

The uniqueness of Camp Kaylie is the fashion in which special-needs young people make up about one-third of the camp population while what Eli refers to as “typical” kids compose the other two-thirds of the camp. We received a first-class, rather thorough tour of Camp Kaylie with Eli Brazil at the wheel, me in the passenger seat, and Esta and Yosef in the back seat of the cart.

The grounds are expansive and the facility is indeed top-notch. This first month of the summer is for boys. In another week or so there will be a one-day break and then the girls’ half of summer will begin. In total, there are about 450 campers each half, and along with staff that is a huge undertaking.

To that end, Mr. Brazil works all year to prepare and put everything in place so that everything is just perfect for these very unique summers.

“Ohel views itself as a teaching organization to reduce stigma in addition to providing mental-health services. We saw kids with special needs not having the ability to attend summer camps, and our board believed that could change,” says Ohel CEO David Mandel. “Families kept talking to us about these possibilities, and the board made the decision to create the fully integrated camp that Camp Kaylie is,” he added.

Camp Kaylie features everything that many other camps offer, except for a unique dimension. Because they host almost 500 campers and more than 200 staff members, everything here has to be larger as a matter of necessity.

Among the most impressive sites was the shul that seats hundreds and, of course, the dining room, which is much the same in terms of size. Eli drove us up, down, and over hills where we saw state-of-the-art basketball courts, swimming pool, baseball fields, a zip-line, and a ropes course. Some of the courts feature great outdoor lighting to accommodate the demand for outdoor night activities, and on it goes.

So bowled over were we by what we saw that I had to dial Gloria Kaylie simply to tell her that we have never seen a camp like this before. Needless to say, she is very proud of what she and Harvey have achieved and the impact this camp will have on future generations.

During the first half of summer there is a kollel on the campus that is run by Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz, the rav of Beis HaKnesses of North Woodmere. A bit later, as we rode around the camp, we met Rabbi Shalom Rosner, a rav in Beit Shemesh who is here for the summer as his wife, Tamar, is a pediatrician and the camp doctor.

This summer we have three grandchildren in Camp Munk. In addition to Avrumi Franklin, we have Dovid Hirsch and Nison Gordon. At Kaylie, Yosef is what Eli Brazil would call a typical camper, but, Eli adds, all the campers who spend a month at the camp come away changed for the better. “The combination and synthesis of special-needs and typical kids provides everyone with a new, refreshing, and innovative view of the world,” Brazil said.

The vital aspect of these and so many other summer camps that you cannot see on a two-hour tour or walkthrough is the spirited heart and soul of these camping experiences.

Later that day, Gloria Kaylie told me that she was planning to visit the camp during the second session in August. Gloria and her family are very proud of the status that Camp Kaylie has achieved in our community, and they certainly should be—for many reasons. The central reason among them is that you cannot come away from this place without being inspired. 

Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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