As the MTA Juniors made their way into school on Wednesday morning, there was a special energy in advance of their annual grade trip. After davening, the students boarded the coach buses and headed straight to the Connecticut Sportsplex, where they played laser tag, whirlyball, and football in the massive domed field at the facility. After a couple of hours, pizza was served for lunch, and the boys then davened minchah.

It was then back to the buses to travel to a local ice rink, which was specially set up for the MTA traditional sport of broomball. Six teams duked it out in this specialized sport that involves running around the ice with broom-like sticks and attempting to knock a ball into an opponent’s net.

From broomball, the students headed to Congregation Bnai Shalom in Waterbury, CT, where they heard an inspiring pre-Purim message from Rabbi Daniel Kalish, the Menahel of Yeshiva Ateres Shmuel of Waterbury. They then had dinner and headed to the Coco Key Water Resort. After quickly settling into their rooms, the boys headed to the on-site indoor water park for hours of fun. At 11:30, they got together in a reserved conference room for a late night BBQ, after which Rabbi Mendelson, with help from our visiting Makor Chaim exchange students, led an incredible kumsitz. It was terrific to see so many students from across all the various shiurim participating and helping lead songs. While Rabbi Mendelson headed out at about 1:45 a.m., many of the boys carried on with the kumsitz until close to 3 a.m.!

Fortunately for all, there was a later wakeup on Thursday morning! After davening, breakfast, and brief shiurim from all the students’ respective rebbeim, the group headed out to the snowy hills of Connecticut for hours of snow tubing down multiple different tubing slopes. After this stop, which included both lunch and snacks, the Class of 2016 finally headed back to MTA, exhausted but closer to each other as a Lions unit. It was a trip that lives on in the students’ hearts, minds, and Instagram feeds.