More children than ever attended Summer Camp at the Jewish Community Center of Louisville this year. More than 650 campers, representing a 13 percent rise compared to last year, went to camp this year.
Several new camp options were debuted this year including Color Camp, Minecraft Lego Camp, Intermediate Sailing and Spotlight on Glee Camp.
JCC Summer Camp also partnered with several Louisville institutions to expand options. With the University of Louisville, JCC Summer Camp created Creative Writing and Young Astronomers. JCC Summer Camp also partnered with the Speed Museum for Painting & Portraits, Photo & Collage and Drawing & Print Making Camps.
Louisville also welcomed a shlicha to the city for the summer. Dikla Alegra Levy spent a lot of her time in Louisville working with JCC Summer Camp. She said that she had a great summer at camp and getting to know the Louisville community as a whole.
While at camp, Levy introduced several Israeli games that quickly became favorites of the campers including Hanachash Ba (The Snake Comes) a game where she would spin a jump rope under the camper’s feet and if it they did not jump over it, they were out.
The highlight of the summer for Levy was when one of the older kids asked her to come to his school to talk about her life in Israel.
“The kids really understood what I came to do,” she said. “[They] have a better understanding about Israeli life in general. I think it was a very successful summer.”
That sentiment is shared by Camp Director Julie Hollander with respect to the whole summer camp, especially the Lenny Krayzelburg Swim Academy.
Hollander says children are safer in the water because of the revised swim program during camp. Over the course of the summer, children advanced 216 levels in LKSA. She hopes to continue the success into the rest of the school year with more new and revised programs.
“The fall programming will continue to provide the same growth and development opportunities for children,” said Hollander. “A new Volleyball Camp will develop coordination, Lego programs will foster engineering and Girl Power will help establish self-esteem and fitness.”