Hello Camp Barney friends everywhere, and Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed our virtual Facebook events throughout the summer and fall. There’s plenty more where that came from, and our alumni community has many exciting projects, events, and volunteer opportunities in the works!

Soon we’ll be doing a massive update of our alumni database, and we’ll need your help contacting every CBM friend you’ve ever had so we can make sure to keep in touch with everyone! Stay tuned. We’re also working on collecting old camp photos, t-shirts, videos, documents, and any other fun relics from camp. If you’ve been cleaning out your closets lately, don’t throw away your old camp stuff! We’ll have information for you soon on how you can upload electronic files or donate physical items to “The Ark.”

We hope you will join us for our next CBM Alumni virtual event, a Zoom Happy Hour on Thursday, February 18 at 8:00 pm EST. Click here for more details. And save the date for the Apache Puzzle Relay on Thursday, April 22 at 8:00 pm.

In the meantime, please read on for updates from camp and be on the lookout for more information, events, and volunteer opportunities in the future. If you haven’t already, please join our Facebook group and our LinkedIn group.

WHAT’S NEW?

Our worlds have been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement that Camp Barney Medintz would be closed for the summer of 2020 was heartbreaking to everyone in the CBM community. Though the pandemic isn’t over yet, we are hopeful that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Plans are underway for a safe and fun summer in 2021. Camper registration is open, and staff applications are coming in. But do a little lapadoo dance wherever you are, just for good luck!

We’ve all been wondering what happens when an entire summer doesn’t happen. Do kids just miss out on the summer that should have been? Do they never get to experience those camp milestones that they had looked forward to all year? Do the 2020 JITs never get to be JITs? After careful consideration and in-depth analysis, the Camp Barney staff decided to “freeze” the units for each age group, which means that campers who attend in 2021 will experience the unit that they were registered for in 2020. So from this point forward, each unit will now be one year older. This also means that the minimum age for staff will be a year older (after high school graduation), and we have new Hebrew words to learn. So here’s what the units will look like moving forward:

• CBM Experience: for campers completing 1st-4th grades, attending camp for 1 week
• Kochavim: for campers completing 2nd-4th grades attending camp for 2 weeks (unchanged)
• NEW! Moshavim: for campers completing 2nd and 3rd grades attending for 4 weeks (Moshavim is the Hebrew word for villages) 
• Rishonim: for campers completing 4th grade
• Shomrim: for campers completing 5th grade
• Giborim: for campers completing 6th grade
• Chaverim: for campers completing 7th grade
• Tsofim: for campers completing 8th grade
• Alufim: for campers completing 9th grade
• JIT: for campers completing 10th grade
• NEW! Gesher: for campers completing 11th grade (Our new, enhanced staff training program, formerly known as SIT; Gesher is the Hebrew word for bridge)

CBM offers 1-week, 2-week, and 4-week options throughout the summer. All first session options begin on a Sunday and end on a Thursday. New this year, second session options will begin on a Monday and end on a Friday, providing an extra day for staff to prepare for a new group of campers. 

But wait, there’s more! Camp Barney Medintz received a grant from the Foundation for Jewish Camp, in partnership with the Marcus Foundation as well as The Ron & Lisa Brill Family Charitable Trust, to address MESH (mental, emotional, and social health) needs in the camp community. With additional support from the Foundation for Jewish Camp as well as Gail (’64-’71) and Lyons Heyman (parents of Scott, ’93-present), a new sensory cabin has been built that will be known as Gail and Lyons’ Den or affectionately “The Den.” Up the hill from the Sukkah, overlooking Lake Wendy, The Den has two sensory rooms—one for younger campers and one for teens—each with a LEGO wall, musical instruments, and calming art that will give campers a place to escape when they need a break from the noise, chaos, and occasional angst of camp life. 

The Den is also home to an office for the Camper Care Staff. Introduced in 2019, this team of licensed therapists is on-site all summer (three each session) to provide mental health support for campers and staff. This year perhaps more than ever, we are glad to know that this support network is in place to help kids work through the stress and anxiety associated with living through a global pandemic.

ANNOUNCEMENTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS!

Have you seen CBM’s online store? Check out all of the awesome CBM gear for sale and get yourself a little something. You know you want to…

Do you have professional skills or own a business that could help the alumni community? We are looking for connections to graphic designers, web designers and developers, and image and document scanning. Or maybe you have another skill that we don’t even know we need! If you’d like to help, please contact us.

As alumni, there are so many ways that we can help support Camp Barney Medintz. As soon as it’s safe for us to be together in person again, we will have information about volunteer opportunities, Fix & Fun Days at camp, and more.

In the meantime, we encourage you to make a gift that will ensure Camp Barney’s legacy lives on for future generations of campers. 2020 presented unique challenges. Now more than ever, CBM needs our help to continue to provide this life-changing experience for current and future campers.

As camp reopens for Summer 2021, your donation will power Camp Barney Medintz’s impact. Please give generously.

AND THE SEASONS THEY GO ROUND AND ROUND

Condolences to the family of Robyn Barocas (‘80-‘86, ‘09-‘15), mother of Sophie (‘09-‘16 & ‘18) and Lily (‘11-‘15 & ‘17-‘19) who passed away on November 8, 2019. May her memory be a blessing. 

Remembering Deena Pargman (‘17-‘19), mother of Manny (‘17-present) and Max (‘17-‘18), who passed away on September 2, 2020. May her memory be a blessing.

Mourning the loss of Beverly Manne (‘65-‘73), mother of Neal (‘66-‘76), Burton (‘65-‘77), and the late Roger (‘65-‘72), and grandmother of Benjamin (‘99), Richard (‘17-present), and Emma (‘17-present), who passed away on October 22, 2020. “Nurse Bev” was a beloved Camp nurse at CBM and served in that role for nine summers. May her memory be a blessing.

Our deepest sympathy to the family of Alan Fine (‘82-‘90), brother of Alison (‘86-‘98) and the late Sandy (‘78-‘86), and brother-in-law of Josh Rosenberg (‘86 & ‘95-‘96), who passed away on December 29, 2020. May his memory be a blessing.

If you have a life cycle event that you’d like to share with the CBM community, please let us know about it here.

THERE’S MORE TO EXPLORE AT THE MJCCA – atlantajcc.org

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