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Pre-Camp In Cyperspace

Shelli Liebman Dorfman

Contributing Writer

W

hen I went to camp many
s'mores, campfires and
Kumbayas ago, we boarded
a bus with our giant black footlockers,
drove a few hours, were shown to our
bunks — and then we made friends.
Today, social networking is connect-
ing even the youngest overnight camp-
ers with new friends before they pack
laser light fans, email addresses for "let-
ters" home, Mad Libs and solar-pow-
ered water misters in polyester wheeled
duffels with tie-dyed names on them.
This year, our eldest grandchild,
Shira, had her first overnight camp
experience, choosing Camp Stone in
Sugar Grove, Penn., because an older
friend told her how much fun it was.
Shira could have cared less that they
wouldn't be in the same bunk. Her
mom was a bit more apprehensive and
posted a message on Facebook asking if
anyone knew of an almost-fourth-grade
girl also going to Camp Stone.
When a former Detroiter, living in
New Jersey, responded that her friend's
daughter, Bah, also would be going for
the first time, an online relationship —
through email and Skype — began.
Shira and Bah became fast-friends,
immediately noticing a physical resem-
blance: They are both slight with long,
brown curly hair. They also both "love"
Taylor Swift and all kinds of animals.
Along the way, they discovered that
Bah's uncle and Shira's dad already
knew one another, having once gone to

camp together! Another uncle was an
old friend of Shira's mom.
Within a week of the girls' connec-
tion, Shira received a journal from Bari,
identical to one Bari also had. Shira
sent her new friend a pillow with a "B"
on it that was the same as one Shira
had with an "S". Both came to camp.
Turns out two of Shira's school
friends from Akiva Hebrew Day School
in Southfield also were going to Camp
Stone so Shira told them about Bari.
And Bari told Shira that she heard
about another girl, from New York, who
would be in their bunk, with whom she
had also Skyped.
During the two-week session, Shira
shared a bunk bed with Bari in the
same cabin as her Akiva classmates and
10 other girls, all of whom Shira said
became great friends.
Facebook may not have been what
made the girls like each other and
become friends, but Shira said knowing
Bah before camp started made getting
to camp to meet her "so much fun."
In my day, post-camp connections
were limited to friends saying "see you
next summer" and the occasional snail
mail update, sometimes with a class
photo enclosed.
For Shira and Bari, the way they
were introduced continues to be the
way they keep in touch — email and
Skype.
Their moms are working online on
plans to have the girls travel to each
other's homes to see one another. But
no matter how they connect, Shira said,
"We're definitely friends forever." E

JN CONTENTS

Camp friends, Bari (on the screen)

and Shira, both 9, during a Skype call

Yiddish
Limerick

Labor Day

Di zumer ge'endikt,* Rosh

HaShona is near
Both Yidn un Goyim, it's Labor
Day here.

Di teg** getting kurtzer,***
the kids go to school
And what a mehaye,****
the air's getting cool.
So a frailakhe Arbet Tog*****
far dir un far mir. ****"

* Di zumer ge'endikt — the

summer ended

** Di teg — the days
*** kurtzer — shorter
**** mehaye — great thing
*****frailakhe Arbet Tog —
happy Labor Day
******far dir un far mir — for
you and for me.

Rachel Kapen

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Shabbat: Friday, Aug. 31, 7:49 p.m.
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forth to work, and paid off her loan

sooner than planned. "I needed to
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A serious on-the-job injury kept her
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For a while, life for Deborah Rose

was a series of unfortunate events.

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