What a whirl these past 4 weeks have been. We spent a lot of time learning a lot of things. From cleaning up around the bunk to making model rockets and baking chocolate chip cookies. The games and skills are great, but what really makes our community special are the friendships. It’s fitting that at the end of our four week session “Friendship” is the value of the week. We’ve all spent the last month making new friends and strengthening the friendships we already had. Four weeks of inside jokes. Four weeks of admiring our counselors. Four weeks of supporting each other when a challenge gets the best of us and four weeks of cheering each other on when we see other people around us absolutely “crushing it”. 

Camp friends are a different kind. Nowhere else do kids and staff alike have the opportunity to bond so closely with their peers around them. After all, we do eat every meal together, go swimming together, dance and sing together, and spend most hours of every day together. Our shared experience each summer becomes a unique and powerful memory that connects us for life. Even as we all separate today, we’ll be thinking about each other and sharing stories from the mountain for weeks or months, unable to forget about how much our friendships at camp mean to us.  

Closing day is bittersweet. Seeing parents, siblings, and family pets is great. Reuniting with our loved ones is a special feeling. Getting to sleep in our own bed (with AC!) and eating a home cooked meal will be nice, but it won’t quite replace the friendship and camaraderie that’s present at camp. 

This week we held our Mensch on the Bench ceremony early, on Thursday night instead of our usual Saturday slot. Not surprisingly, with Friendship as the Middah of the week we had an overflowing nomination box. Campers from Unit A all the way up to the CITs and staff members wanted to write in about their favorite friends at camp. A sign to us that our work for the session had been completed well. Close friendships like these, the kind you are proud of having and want to brag about, is exactly what we’re striving to do here. 

As you spend time with your kids, debriefing them on all things Airy in 2026, make sure you ask about their friends. They’d probably love to share about them!

Shabbat Shalom. We sincerely hope to see everyone who left camp today back in 2027, to build up their friendships even more. 

Zac and Scott