While it is well known that Camp HASC is a place where over 300 special campers and their devoted staff affectionately call their summer home, it is less known that many call it their “Simchat Torah home” as well. That’s right! When the chagim roll around, hundreds of members of the Camp HASC family, campers with special needs, staff and guests, bring life back to the empty campus at 361 Parksville Road to spend a beautiful Simchat Torah Yom Tov together.
The Camp HASC Simchaton gives the campers a Simchat Torah experience they wouldn’t be able to have anywhere else in the world. The program is fully catered to the wide-ranging needs of the campers and includes special themed hakafot, camper-centered shiurim, and fun, hands-on activities like edible sukkah-making, candy sifrei Torah-making and much more. There was even an all-camper choir, “The Simcha-tones,” which had tryouts, rehearsals and a grand performance at the end of Yom Tov. The staff enjoyed dancing and singing with their beloved campers and friends, and they took advantage of the many programs geared toward them including tishin, siyumim and several shiurim by phenomenal teachers of Torah. The Simchaton also gives the parents of the campers a much-needed break and the ability to focus on themselves and their other children.
Moshe Rabbeinu says at the end of the Torah regarding, the Torah itself “lo bashamayim hi” (Devarim 30:12), meaning that the Torah is accessible to every single Jew. Seeing the campers under the tallit at Kol HaNe’arim, getting excited about their aliyot, and dancing with unparalleled joy with the sefer Torah during the hakafot really brings that assertion of Moshe Rabbeinu to life. All summer long, Camp HASC is a place of simcha and Torah, so it’s very fitting that it would be the best place for Simchat Torah.
A special thank you to the hundreds of participants, staff members, and donors—online and through our mailer.
We couldn’t have done it without you!
It is not too late to make your contribution; we are just $12,000 away from hitting our fundraising goal!
Please consider making your contribution via Break4HASC.org. Thank you!
By Daniel Eisenberg
Rav Daniel Eisenberg is the director of recreational programming of Camp HASC Simchaton.
