Camp Maas
Campers, Staff
Celebrate
Israeli Culture
And Statehood

Stephanie Steinberg
T2T Intern

Or tonv ille

Arica Cykiert, 12, of Farmington Hills and Madeline Apple, 12, of Birmingham

Lauren Kominars, 16, of Commerce dances to Israeli music with Keith
Mandell, 18, of Farmington Hills and some campers.

A44

August 21 . 2008

A participant sports many stickers supporting
Israel.

sea of blue and white — cloth-
ing, face paint and Israeli flags
— flooded the Pioneer Skills field
at Camp Maas on Aug. 8 in celebration of
Israel Day, a day of games, music, food and
fun to honor Israel.
Israel Day occurs at the end of each camp
session. Twenty Israeli counselors spent a
myriad of hours organizing activities for the
day.
After breakfast, the Israeli counselors
showed a multimedia presentation of their
time in the army. Video footage of their
friends back home sending best wishes to
the campers appeared often as did photos
with the counselors in full uniform. Each
Israeli had time in the spotlight.
These counselors worked together to design
stations to teach the American and British
staff and campers about Israeli culture.
One station was an Israeli army obstacle
course. Campers jogged through a set of
tires, climbed their way through ropes
and shot a water gun at a target. Once they
completed the course, a counselor rewarded
them with a ticket that could be redeemed
for a prize.
Other activities included a soccer game,
fishing for Jewish stars, mini-golf on the map
of Israel with cities as the holes and more.
Counselor Andrew Young, 20, of New
Castle, England, ran the mini-golf station.
"I don't know much about Israel so it's quite
informative," he said.
Other counselors cooked pita over a fire
pit for campers to enjoy as a snack with
hummus while Israeli music blared through
camp speakers to further immerse the
campers in Israeli culture.
Itay Rotem, 22, of Tel Aviv is a counselor
for Hermelin village. He helped create a
comical play that taught campers about
Israel and sent a positive message encourag-
ing campers to support the country.
Fellow Israeli Arbel Sabag, 21, is a coun-
Israel Camp on page A46