Last night, at Havdallah, a member of each edah spoke about his/her experience at camp.  Each offered moving words.  Below is a piece written by Shanna, who is an inaugural chalutza (camper) in our Tikvah program.  Shanna arrived at camp less than 2 weeks ago, and she and the other chalutzim in the Amitzim edah (the name of the Edah in the Tikvah program) have come together as an amazing group, experiencing all that Ramah has to offer.  These individuals have demonstrated that Ramah Outdoor Adventure can provide a wonderful place for children with developmental issues to spend part of their summer.  We plan to continue to expand our Tikvah program in the coming year with two two week sessions.

The laughter, the games the adventures and the  finding of myself climbing the side of a huge rock wall.  Knowing that I have the ability to look across the hills and river and then climb down to where I first began.  The feelings flow violently through my body as I take in the view.  Next, I am having tons of fun on a horse masa with my camp counselors and camp friends.  The horses are just amazing, and all of us slept under the bright eloquent stars.  As we all watched the sky we saw 11 all the way up to 33 shooting stars.  I made a deal with the stars.  I ask them a yes and no question.  And they answer “yes” with a shooting star.  It they answer “no”, then there will be no shooting stars.  Then I told everyone how to ask the stars a question and how to tell if they answered.  Everyone asked the stars questions at least [everyone] who was awake.  Sometimes the stars take a while to answer, but you will always get an answer.  I have had so much fun at camp Ramah.  I have done more things than what I have listed, but there are so many things it is hard to remember.  Now there is only 6 more words to say:  I am so coming back next year!