15 Schools and 8 Countries Unite at Gan Israel Lubavitch Day Camp!

LONDON, England [CHI] — Gan Israel Lubvaitch Day Camp is renowned for the amazing atmosphere, the Torah experience and packed program, where Yiddishkeit is brought to life in fun and original ways.

Camp was bigger and better than ever this year, with 350 children enrolled from 15 different schools across London! Camp ran for three weeks.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

The children were greeted by our counselors, who hailed from all around the globe, including USA, Israel, South Africa, Australia, France, Italy, Spain and England. They were carefully chosen for their compassion, responsibility, fun attitude and ability to instil a love of Yiddishkeit in children.

There was so much on schedule! Water activities included swimming in our on-site indoor pool, water play for all ages, canoing and narrowboating. Many children learned to swim or canoe for the first time – and loved the experience!

They went on trips to Willows Farm Village, Chessington World of Adventures, the fire station and a variety of museums and parks. Every trip day, two big double decker buses rolled around in front of camp, ready to bring the singing, cheering children to the next fun destination. The children were all given camp T-shirts, which they wore on trip days.

The children also enjoyed crafts of all types. They experimented with wood, foam, glues, glitters, baking, ice cream, floating experiments and lots more! They also had music lessons, CST safety courses, fire safety sessions, carnivals, juggling shows and plays. The on-site jumping castle, on loan from the London Jewish Family Centre, was also a big hit!

We implemented a new Mitzvah Badge program this year. The Mitzvah Badge program is designed to encourage campers to learn various skills in a way that is more thorough, active, and hands-on, as a separate incentive program for participation in the existing camp curriculum. When a camper completes all the requirement of a topic he/she is presented a Badge for that Skill, which can be worn on the camp shirt. Topics included Shabbos, Kashrus, Safrus, Eretz Yisroel and Beis Hamikdash. Children were also awarded with Ahavas Yisroel, Gan Israel, Tzivos Hashem and swimming badges, after accomplishing certain requirements.

Another massive highlight of our camp were the Tzivos Hashem Craft Workshops. We had a Torah Factory, where the children learned how to turn animal skin into a piece of parchment. They made ink and then wrote their names on parchment using genuine quills. It was really impressive. They had the Havdallah Workshop. There, the children learned the significance of Havdallah and created the components to take home. They braided beeswax, forming Havdallah candles, formed Besomim potpourri and put them together in a professional tube together with Havdallah instructions.

The camp is divided in three divisions: Boys, Girls and Kiddie Camp. The parents receive a daily newsletter informing them what their children did that day and what is planned for the following day. At the end of each week, each division makes its own newsletter, complete with Parsha, stories, fun pages and bunk pages.

It was so beautiful seeing all the children having such a wonderful summer, making good friends and gaining skills.

For more information:
Tel: 020 8800 0022 / 0208 099 6218
E-mail: DayCamp@LubavitchUK.com
Web: www.LubavitchDayCamp.com