Shalom Camp Gesher Alumni!

My name is Liat Papular and I am the new Camp Gesher Alumni Coordinator. I have been at Gesher as a camper since 1998 and have been a member of staff for the past four years. I am still very involved in Gesher and the extended Gesher community and my experiences at Cloyne, Ontario have shaped who I am today.

Camp Gesher continues to be a high-spirited environment that embraces a colourful Jewish community with a love of Israel. It is a place that fosters leadership and creates life-long friendships. Lake Pringle excites me, singing in the dining hall makes my heart race, reading graffiti from the 80’s helps me fall asleep, and sunsets on ski rock still take my breath away. More than anything, the comfort I feel with everyone around me is simple inexpressible.

As my time spent at Gesher draws to a close (not quite yet, but all too soon), I have come to realize that there is an absence of a network of Gesher Alumni.

Since I am new to this position and not quite Alumni yet, I’ll be taking baby steps -- Amelim steps if you will.

Goals I have for 2009:

• Reconnect people with their kvutzot, friends and madrichim (Facebook is where we’ll begin)
• Getting Alumni to scan (you know you’re old when…) and upload old photos
• Get children of Alumni involved in our yearly programming (the ken!)
• Getting you up-to-date with Alumni gossip (Getting married? Had a baby? Let me know!)
• Hosting Alumni and their families at Camp, this summer 2009
• Getting to know people who grew up in the same home as me

Things to get excited for:

• The Camp Gesher museum is open all summer
• June 2009 our new website will be up and running, complete with a section just for Alumni
• An Alumni family cabin to be completed for the summer of 2010
• August 23-25, 2013 Gesher will be hosting a 50 year reunion