As the sun sets on camps all over and the baton is officially passed to the schools for another year, we wanted to reflect on the unique experience we had this summer and share a small glimpse into the special world we were a part of.

If someone were to ask us to sum up our summer in one word: hard, magical, inspiring, challenging, and full of growth—immediately come to mind.

You see, we spent our summer in Camp Mesorah, running their Yachad program. We say “their,” because although Yachad is an organization in its own right, the staff in Mesorah viewed us as a division within camp. They treated the Yachad members with the same dedication, love and care as they would any Mesorah camper. Camp Mesorah understands the vision, goals and mission of what we strive for within Yachad, and they made sure to execute that vision and turn it into a reality.

This special partnership between Yachad and Mesorah is attributed to Terri Karasick, the director of Camp Mesorah, and a strong and dedicated supporter of Yachad’s success. As she says, “We don’t look at campers and say ‘you are Yachad and you are Mesorah.’ We look at every single camper and we say ‘we want you to have the best summer.’”

This level of support from the top then trickles down both organically, as well as through calculated decisions made to enhance the program within the day to day programming, within camp. Terri not only spends countless hours during the year connecting with the Yachad Mesorah team to reflect and plan, she also saw the bigger picture and approved two “homes” within camp that Yachad could call their own. This meant that all day, every day, we had a place to store our own materials needed for a successful summer and a place to ensure smooth programming for our crew, in any weather condition without interrupting any other programs when needed. Just as campers would pass KOBE Kollel or Rav Goldvicht’s kollel, they would also walk past Yachad’s gazebo and Yachad’s library. This not only helped us, but it became a way for everyone to join us if they wanted, especially during Yachad game time on Shabbos.

In addition to Terri, there is Shira Englander and Ilana Wilner, the directors of Programming. They answered every single call and text that we had within minutes and always helped us with our own programming, when they had a much larger group and job of their own to manage. And they did it with a smile every single time.

As a direct result of their unwavering support and dedication to our success, here are a few snippets of what happens when people truly believe in something enough to make it go from theory to reality:

Multiple times throughout the day, our crew would be stopped on the main road of camp with Mesorah campers wanting to give high fives, ask about their day or simply say hi. Whether campers, the head of culinary or sports, our mechina guys, even the youngest day camp campers—everyone is positively affected by the beauty that is Yachad.

There was the time we got to witness the entire camp hype up another one of our guys during a campwide basketball night activity, and allow him to shoot until he scored—then erupt in applause chanting his name.

Or the time the dining room was still closed before lunch and one of our guys started chanting a fan favorite Yachad time cheer, and whoever was waiting, joined in with him.

There was the time a video was shared where the youngest division, the Nitzi girls, were on a trip singing other Yachad circle time songs that they learned from joining Yachad every Shabbos afternoon—a highlight for all.

What about the many times the videographer, Tzvi Simchon, included Yachad in his unbelievable weekly videos? (If you haven’t seen them, we HIGHLY suggest it. He’s incredible!)

And finally, there was the time when Terri called someone from Yachad on stage on the last night of camp to present the most prestigious award to him and the entire camp was going wild for him. Then Mordy Shapiro’s “We can all sing b’Yachad” erupted over the loudspeakers and stayed like that for a few minutes to give everyone a chance to sing and dance while he was on stage receiving his award.

Words can’t do justice to that moment.

So thank you.

Thank you to Terri.

Thank you to the entire Mesorah team.

Thank you to the campers and their parents who instill the importance of kindness, compassion and inclusiveness in their children.

Thank you to the Yachad parents who share their children with us.

Thank you to the Yachad counselors who give their all every single day to love, support and encourage growth from our crew.

Thank you to the founders of Yachad. What you’ve created is so needed and a gift to every single person.

And lastly, we thank our Yachad crew. Because of them, we have all left better people than when we came in on that first day of camp.

As the buses pulled out and we left camp back to our other lives, we will carry our moments and memories as we head into our “10 for 2.”

See you in 10 months, Yachad Mesorah. We can hardly wait for the magic to continue.