AUSTIN, TX — With the clean-up from Hurricane Dolly continuing apace, the South Texas Jewish summer camp that was forced from their island home by the approaching storm has not yet returned to its tropical paradise. But rather than close up shop, the Chabad-Lubavitch run Camp Gan Israel of South Padre Island is continuing with its hastily executed road trip across the Lone Star State.
Summer Camp, Forced to Travel, Gives Teenagers Dose of Restructured Fun
AUSTIN, TX — With the clean-up from Hurricane Dolly continuing apace, the South Texas Jewish summer camp that was forced from their island home by the approaching storm has not yet returned to its tropical paradise. But rather than close up shop, the Chabad-Lubavitch run Camp Gan Israel of South Padre Island is continuing with its hastily executed road trip across the Lone Star State.
For the some 40 campers and their parents, what camp director Rabbi Asher Hecht and his staff did is nothing short of taking lemons and making lemonade.
“I couldn’t be happier,” revealed Maureen Blackthorne of San Antonio, who has two sons enrolled in the summer program, which ends this weekend. “The easiest thing would have been to just call the camp off, but they made a good situation out of a bad situation.
“It’s a valuable lesson for the kids,” continued Blackthorne. “There are things that you can do to overcome adversity.”
When Hecht led the camp from their home base early last week, he – along with most of the island population – was expecting Dolly, then a tropical storm, to hit Texas’ Gulf Coast as a low Category 1 storm. But after stalling and strengthening shortly before its July 23 landfall, Dolly slammed into South Padre Island head-on. Subsequent flooding inundated miles and miles of inland Texas.
BIG FAN
GO CGI-SPI! GO RABBI ASHER G-D BLESS YOU!
Admirer
Go Ashi and Dini… Great stuff.