On the final Friday of the summer, campers and staff gathered to mark camp’s Bar Mitzvah year by celebrating the achievements of all campers as part their 13th annual MBP Award ceremony.
This included 4 full Mesechtos, 65 Perakim Mishnayos, 773 Mishnas, 20 Perakim Tanya and 5,006 lines of Tanya. A total of 27,464 lines of Torah!
The program, which a consistent highlight of camp was proud to highlight that for the 10th consecutive year all campers were involved and successful tested on a respectable amount of Torah.
Following an introduction by the camp’s learning director, a video showing the Rebbe’s appreciation for such gifts from his Chassidim was followed by the announcement of the summer’s aforementioned accomplishments.
Campers with the highest amount of points were then honored: 1st Place: Sholom Sossonko; 2nd Place: Zalman Weiss; 3rd place: Chaim Aryeh Brody.
Each camper was then called up to receive their sefer or seforim. Accompanying them was a multimedia presentation, displaying their picture, points, major learning achievements and seforim. The seforim were chosen by the campers themselves from a catalog of over 250 seforim made available to them at the beginning of camp. Many campers, whom decided on a sefer to ‘go for’ at the start of the summer ended up surpassing their goal, enabling them to order a higher level sefer!
The program and seforim purchased was underwritten by several individuals, including Cong. Anshei Lubavitch of Miami Florida (under the guidance of Rabbi Yitzchok Meir Teitelbaum and Rabbi Dovid Schapiro) and several anonymous Miami families.
A special thank you was given to two special individuals; Rabbi Dovid Zirkind of baalpeh.org, whose database allowed camp to keep track of each camper’s progress and keeping parents up to date by email, and to Rabbi Sholom Heidingsfeld of Cheder Menachem, LA, for the use of his MBP Handbook – a work that camp has since expanded to hold double the content.
The administration and camp staff of Camp Gan Israel Florida, under the leadership of Rabbi Yossi Biston and Rabbi Yossi Goldblatt, wish all campers continued success in their limudim. It is their hope that the campers’ accomplishments and achievements continue into the school year, give much nachas to the Rebbe and as explained in the Rebbe’s Sichos, bring about the revelation of Moshiach Now!