A lot of exciting things have been happening at the waterfront this summer, and many of them are happening this week. One of the staples of waterfront activity is the Island Swim, which usually happens about once a week. Campers and staff have the option of swimming to the island and back or of boating out to the island and swimming back. Rosh Waterfront Deena Cowans says, "It's a lot of fun. The campers really enjoy it–some of them do it in groups with their friends or counselors. People really look forward to it."
The distance between camp and the island is approximately 500 meters, but the waterfront staff have taken it upon themselves to figure out the exact distance this summer. Some of the waterfront staff are engineering students during the year and they have been busy using their math skills to figure out the right equations in order to get the distance. Campers who are interested in math have been helping them on the project as well. At this point they're stuck for lack of a larger protractor, but they're working on building one so they can figure out the distance.
This week there will be a special Island Swim, affectionately known as the Polar Bear Swim, which happens early in the morning at sunrise. Deena says, "It's really gorgeous–there's steam rising off the lake and the sun rising."
Another special waterfront event this week will be the Bogrim Synchronized Swimming Show. They've been hard at work on their routines all summer and performed a sneak peak on Visitors' Weekend. This week they're putting on their final touches and creating costumes in order to impress the panel of judges watching the show. Be sure to look for the pictures of their final performance next week.
Even on a day without the special programming the waterfront is busy. Aside from Shabbat and Yom Meyuchad (on Wednesdays), campers have a swimming class every day. Based on their swim tests at the beginning of the summer, the campers were divided into classes according to their skill level and each class works on different swimming skills every day. Each class also gets one Blob day a week, which is a highlight for many campers. The Blob is a large floating trampoline which has different elements, such as a log run and a place where kids can go flying off the end. There's always something going on at the waterfront–and on hot days it's the place to be!
