As we head into the final hours of 2nd session and our 2026 summer, “Gratitude” feels like the perfect Middah to end our season with. 

Gratitude is easy at camp, particularly when we slow down and intentionally try to find it. We are grateful for counselors who lead our activities and help us learn new skills, for the delicious food in the dining hall, great sunsets, for awesome Generals on our Olympic teams, for successful camp shows, for friends who walk up the hill with us, for a session full of phenomenal weather, and for days full of fun and laughter and goofy behavior. 

In this final blog of 2026 we’d like to share some things we are grateful for. Our incredible group of staff come first. Their work is joyous and rewarding and certainly challenging. They are the very first go-to’s for our campers from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed (and sometimes overnight too!). They solve problems. Adam needs to trade beds to get a bottom bunk. Benny needs a vegetarian pack-out lunch for the hike. Where’s Tyler’s left shoe? Little things pop up all day, and counselors help out where they can with a smile on their face. They lead almost every activity we have, and when kids struggle they don’t get frustrated, they get encouraging. Despite all the work we do all year prepping for camp, the counselors are what make this place magical. 

We’re grateful for our campers, who really bring this place to life each summer. Each and every one of them, all with their own unique traits and contributions to our mountain. What would all the work and effort be for if we didn’t get to see the smiling faces of the kids every day. That validation is what keeps us and the rest of the staff going through late nights and stormy days. 

Our camp parents certainly get their share of our gratitude too. Thank you for trusting us with your children each summer, and enabling us to carry out our mission of enhancing Jewish identity, promoting self-growth and creating lifelong friendships. Your support now and throughout the year means everything to us. 

Lastly, the gratitude we hold for being able to fulfill this Co-Interim Director role together this summer is immense. Camp Airy is a tremendously special place for each of us. We’re lucky to be part of this community, where we get to see kids grow braver, kinder and more independent each year. The joy we each feel knowing that we get to lead an organization that does so much good is unbeatable. 

While we continue to look back fondly on the memories we made this summer, and cherish them, we hope you and your children too are able to find gratitude for the pieces of camp we hold so dear. 

Congratulations to our final Mensch on the Bench recipients for 2026. 

We hope to see all of our camp friends back on the mountain again in 2027. 

Shabbat Shalom and Shavuah Tov, 

Zac and Scott