Scholarship Gave Emma a Great Jewish Summer

[by Emma Rosenberg]

Imagine yourself sitting around a long dinner table, getting ready to eat your favorite camp meal. Someone pours you a cup of water and everyone starts to sing the bracha. When the prayer is over you look around at all of your cabin mates familiar faces. Someone cracks a joke and you all smile and laugh, together as friends and as a family.

Imagine walking up the wooden steps to the bima. It’s your cabin’s turn to lead the service and you can’t wait. You have your speech ready in hand and as you look over the top of the podium, you grin. Everyone sitting underneath the tall green trees is your camp family. A warm feeling starts in your chest and spreads over your body. They are here for you just as you are there for them.

Imagine sitting around the campfire with some of the closest people you have ever come to know. You all sit together, holding hands and singing songs. You look at the bonfire as it starts to blaze. You lean in closer and feel the warmth on your face. The fire sizzles and pops, somehow calming you and removing all the built-up stress you have. You embrace everyone around yourself. You start to slip away and get lost in the song.

Imagine yourself lying in bed, listening to someone tell you a bedtime story. You can’t help but let your thoughts wander as you think about the awesome time you have had at camp. You think about all of the new friends you have and how close you have become. You think about how much you have learned about Judaism and all the new experiences you have encountered. You think about your new “GUCI family” and how you want to come back again and again, year after year.

Summer camp is very important to me and it was also very important to Laura K. Cohen. She enjoyed summer camp just as much as I do. I am very thankful that Laura K. Cohen’s family made the scholarship. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the Laura K. Cohen scholarship camp fund. Without it I would not be able to attend camp. Thank you.

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