Notes from Noah: A New Year

Dear Ranch Camp Community,

For the year-round Ranch Camp team, Rosh Hashana is the time when we begin to move from reflecting on the summer that past and turn our eyes to the one that is coming next. We set goals for the next season. We build budgets to support those goals. It is very much our New Year.

With active recruitment for next summer slow until the Jewish High Holidays are over, we have a moment to ask the big question: How can we make everyone feel included, seen, and safe in our Ranch Camp community?

I want to share with you how our recently completed facility updates, as well as those planned for the near future, answer this question.

New bathrooms in the North and South villages, including a non-gendered bathroom and shower, allow us to house campers by their age groups. Our age groups (Chalutzim, Metapsim, and Toshavim) should be communities within our larger camp community. This will be so much easier for campers when they live on the same side of camp. We are also better-equipped to accommodate gender nonconforming members of our community.

A new flagpole and seating in the Commons establishes a central gathering point, where we can begin and end our sessions and our days as a community, in a circle, where we can see one another’s faces. We also removed many of the overhead electric lines, greatly improving the safety and beauty of our camp.

In the coming months, we will share news of improvements to our infrastructure. The goal of these projects is to address the safety of our roads, the integrity of our plumbing systems, and the reliability of our electric system.

As we continue to plan for Summer 2020, and we welcome the New Year, we will be looking at everything we do through the lens of the question: “Does this help us make every member of our community feel included, seen, and safe?”

 

Shana Tova!

 

Noah Gallagher | JCC Ranch Camp Director