This Week We’re Talking to…Camp Shira

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The Jewish Home | JULY 7, 2022 THIs Week, TJH speaks WITH… Camp Shira

By SuSan Schwamm

Two months of amazing summer fun! For the last few weeks, our children have been basking in the sun, swimming, singing, and soaking up the fun every day. How are they spending their time away from their desks?

In this series, we speak with camp directors and head counselors to learn more about our community’s amazing, spectacular, incredible, marvelous, unbelievable (you get the point!) camps.

For Five years now, shira has become one oF the hottest camps in town. at camp shira, campers have something to sing about. with a beautiFul campus, energetic staFF, outstanding activities, and nonstop Fun, a summer in camp shira builds memories For a liFetime. we spoke with camp director mrs. yaFFa schreier in the middle oF her busy schedule to learn a bit more about the non-stop Fun.

Mrs. Schreier, this is Camp Shira’s fifth summer! Tell us about Camp Shira.

We are a premier girls and preschoolers camp in the Five Towns. We have kids at Camp Shira from all over, and we try to give them a really enjoyable summer – especially this year! We have a great location and an amazing campus.

That sounds like a blast! Tell us about your changes and your different divisions.

We have three awesome divisions. Our Juniors are boys and girls Nursery-Pre1A and girls entering 1st and 2nd grade. This division is led by Morah Mirel Krasner with her capable assistant Morah Shani Borenstein.

Shira Travel/Sensations, led by Mrs. Chavsie Friedman, her assistant Mrs. Faigy Gottleib and her head counselor Zoe Poznanski, is for girls entering 6th – 8th grade. Special for this year, we took the entering 3rd – 5th graders and let them join that program with the launch of Travel Jr. and Sensations Jr.! First half is an action-packed travel program, and second half is called Shira Sensations and focuses on weekly skills classes in activities from volleyball to a variety of art to tennis to cooking!

Each division has its own program uniquely suited to that age group. Our goal is for every camper to feel like the camp was specially designed for them!

Sounds awesome! How many campers enjoy Camp Shira?

We have over 300 kids in Camp Shira. Mostly girls, but our boys in nursery – Pre1A love the specialties we created just for them like sports and karate. Every bunk gets a schedule daily that is jampacked with fun activities, specialties and shows.

Shira Travel and Shira Sensations sound like so much fun! Tell us a bit about it.

We started this program last summer, and it was a huge hit. We made two distinct half summer programs that each offered unique activities and excitement. We wanted every girl who came for a half or for the whole thing to feel like every day was special and exciting. Some girls love the Travel component, and some girls can’t wait for the second half and learning new skills like tennis and cooking!

You have a great campus in a great location.

So true! We are located on the Shulamith campus right in the heart of the Five Towns. We have a huge auditorium for shows, a spacious back-

yard, and a lot of summer-only exclusives. Each summer, we add a gymnasium room, a water park, specialty rooms galore and more!

Wow – like Disneyland in Cedarhurst! How is the day structured?

Every day starts with davening. Then we have a schedule of the day for each bunk. Each day is filled with different games, activities, and fun! Some days include trips, others include shows, but every day is packed with specialties run by our very talented adults.

What are the campers’ favorite activities?

Every camper has a different favorite activity. We have a great assortment of specialties led by fantastic morahs. Water park is definitely a favorite of many campers, and this summer, for the first time ever, we secured exclusive slots at North Woodmere Park pools for our campers so that’s been awesome! Campers also really enjoy the variety of art activities and food art activities. This summer, we introduced a special Glow in the Dark specialty! Baruch Hashem, there are so many activities to choose from! the day?

The Camp Shira emoji-themed song from this year is super cute! Plus, we hear campers chanting and cheering for their bunk and tons of laughter! at fitness games. They are having a blast at all their amazing activities!

Your slogan is “Camp Shira: Something to Sing About.” Are you doing

“our goal is For every camper to Feel like the camp was specially designed For them!”

As you walk around camp, what are three things that you hear the most throughout Tell us about some of their other “favorites,” like their favorite specialties, sports, or other activities.

Our oldest girls seem to enjoy their trips. They can’t stop talking about all the places they go and the trips that are still coming up. They also have a great time in camp with needlepoint, food art, baking, sports and more. A real favorite this week was basketball with Rachel Stahler!

The younger campers, meanwhile, are excited by just about everything. They really love the bouncy house and different costumes that they get to dress up in our gymnasium room, and they love all the different emoji activities especially the arts, baking, and food art. They enjoy the different story-times, and music and movement classes as well as glow in the dark. They have fun sionally recorded camp song, and the campers LOVE singing it and dancing with the motions. Some campers still know every past

anything special in relation to that? We have featured music significantly since we launched five years ago. Every summer we have a profes-

Camp shira by the Numbers

4Water Slide Inflatables 140 Travel/Travel Jr. Campers 25 Different Specialties

1Amazing Summer to Sing About!

summer’s songs by heart!

Tell us more about this summer’s theme. building an adorable summer of fun around it. Every week ties back into an emoji/emotion in a really cute way!

This summer, the theme is “An Explosion of Emotion,” and it centers around emojis and emotions. Our staff got really creative with What does your trip schedule look like? already gone ice skating and go karting.

The younger campers enjoy going to the pools and on one or two trips per week. They really loved going to the Jewish Children’s Museum.

Our Travel campers are out most of the week on exciting adventures. They’ve