Our last week of the first session was incredible! It was packed with tons of activities, amazing special events, and some great surprises! On Monday, we were thrilled to welcome our first week of Day Camp campers. We are having so much fun introducing these future campers to life at Wingate! On Tuesday night, our Inters and Seniors were treated to a late-night Midnight Madness party complete with late-night treats, karaoke, and a classic dining hall dance party. Our evening activity on Wednesday night was our annual Wingate auction where bunks got the chance to bid on everything from a polar bear swim, to a sleep-in, to a pizza party, to the chance to make your own schedule. The activity was interrupted by the crew from the movie Inside Out on the stage lamenting the loss of Joy in camp and kicking off an amazing break to MAC 2024. It was a great couple of days full of spirit and competition! Congrats to Team Mario for winning it all! On Saturday, the Super Seniors spent the day in Tremblant while the rest of the camp attended an awards ceremony recognizing some of the incredible achievements of our first session campers. The CITs did a fantastic job decorating the dining hall for our end of the first session banquet. The theme was country western, and the CITs served a delicious meal with a surprise dessert from Mr. Puffs! On Sunday, we said goodbye to our first session campers. We miss them already and can’t wait to see them again next summer!
Second session is just getting started and we have lots of great things planned for the next two weeks. We can't wait to share them with you in our next edition!
Inside This Issue
Weekly Video - MAC 2024!
Weekly Video - MAC 2024!
At the Annual Wingate Auction, headstaff were eagerly anticipating a fantastic event, only to be met with frustration as the campers showed little interest in the activity. Despite their repeated reminders, the campers continued to chatter away, creating a lackluster atmosphere in The Wingate Hall. The situation took a dramatic turn when the crew from the movie Inside Out suddenly appeared only to announce that Joy, one of their beloved characters, was missing!
A sense of urgency gripped the camp as a two-day search operation began to find Joy. Characters from Toy Story, Super Mario, and Shrek were given the task of bringing her back to camp!
All three teams found themselves in a thrilling race against time and in the end, it was Super Mario that emerged victorious, successfully locating Joy and bringing her back to Camp Wingate!
Organizers: Jared Lach, Adam Lieblein, Michelle Mashaal
Captains: Kamy Goldberg and Nathan Twik
Camper Captains: Brady Amiel and Mabel Twik
Captains: Liv Kaplan and Blair Velan
Camper Captains: Ainsley Grove and Zeke Horowitz
Captains: Sienna Codas and Noah Lieblein
Camper Captains: Lyla Kisber and Ethan Lubarsky
Day Camp
We had an amazing first week at Day Camp! We loved welcoming all our Day Camp campers to Wingate. Campers were thrilled as they jumped right into activities and had a blast participating in gymnastics, swimming, dance, A&C, pottery, and everyone’s favorite: time on the “blob”. We also filled the week up with loads of awesome special activities! We got messy making slime and won some cool prizes at our Disney bingo game. Campers embraced the outdoors this week as they went on a special nature scavenger hunt, learned all about geckos, and finished the day with a bonfire and s’mores. We concluded the week with an epic ice cream trivia party where each right answer gave campers an additional topping for their ice cream sundaes.
It was a great week and we can’t wait for all the fun coming up in week 2!
Dahlia
Leagues
We had an incredible end to Leagues this weekend!
The Heroes (2nd seed) received a bye to the finals and were waiting for the Ohio Gyatts (3rd seed) and the Gooners (6th seed) to duke it out in the semifinals. Lightning ball was the sport for the semifinals, and the first pitch was scheduled for 11:17 am on Upper Field. The stage was set and the Gooners got off to the early lead, putting together a 2 out rally in the 3rd inning to take a commanding 7-2 lead. But as they say, no lead is ever safe in Lightning Ball. While the Gyatts had trouble getting men on base, Sam Berberi led the way for the comeback with a homerun, and by the end of the fifth inning, the game was tied at 7-7. We headed to the top of the 9th inning, with a trip to the finals on the line. The Gooners led off and could only muster up a single run, off of a Sammy Schnerbach RBI single. It was all laid out in front of the Gyatts - Score 2 runs, and secure a trip to the 2024 Leagues Finals. Up came Ben Martella, who had been on fire all game, he ripped a double down the third base line to start the rally. Up next, Matty Heisler hit a bloop single to score Ben, and tie up the game. Finally, Luke Adelsttein came up and hit a double to score Heisler, and the celebration at home plate began! The Gyatts were off to the finals!
Game MVP: Matty Heisler (amazing effort defensively, and got on base every single time)
The Finals:
The Heroes had been waiting all day and were eager to begin the game that would be remembered forever! After their semi final win, the Gyatts were confident and felt that they could be crowned champions. As the higher seed, the Heroes elected to play soccer and take advantage of their big 3, Donald Khattan, Jordan Pollack and Jaxon Kahan. With all 3 playing high level soccer, the Gyatts knew that the only way they could win was with heart and grit. They had a phenomenal gameplan of clearing the ball every time it got into a dangerous area. The game started off hot, with the Gyatts buzzing around the pitch. Right before halftime, Adlestein crossed the ball into a waiting Benetar, who tucked the ball into the middle of the net, right by Kesteband. Gyatts led 1-0 going into halftime! Martella, as goalie, looked like a brick wall and had made countless saves. While the Gyatts defensive strategy had been working, it was clear that it was only a matter of time before this game was all tied up. After Jordan Pollack hit the post, Coach Noah Lieblein gave his team a speech to motivate and fire up the Gyatts. The speech motivated them for 10 minutes, and got them extra time. With 5 minutes left in extra time. Jaxon “The Little Boy From Rosario” Kahan, scored a screamer to tie up the game. We went to Golden Goal Overtime where the score didn’t budge. We went to a penalty shootout where the first three shots were saved for each team. Tensions were high and Coach Nathan Twik elected to have Mikey Saskin come up with the game on the line. He buried it right by Ben Martella to secure the Wingate Leagues Championship! The celebration started and didn’t stop as they were given the trophy in front of the entire camp at flagpole. What a moment, and something that the Heroes will remember forever!
It was an amazing end to a fantastic season!
Adam & Jared
Juniors this Week
What an incredible week it has been for the Juniors! We kicked off with the week MAC 2024, where our campers split into three spirited teams: Mario, Shrek, and Toy Story. For two action-packed days, these teams competed in a series of thrilling challenges, including tug-of-war, relay races, rope burn, Captain’s Challenges and ended with our closing ceremonies where each team showcased their mascots, chants and songs! In the end it was team Mario who claimed the victory with two big wins in both the rope burn and marathon. The juniors showed incredible spirit as they cheered and participated in all the MAC events!
This week also marked a bittersweet moment as we wrapped up our First Session. We said heartfelt goodbyes to some of our campers who have had an unforgettable time here at Camp Wingate. We’re grateful for the laughter, friendships, and memories created, and we hope to see all our campers return next year to continue the adventure.
As we move into our last two weeks of camp, we look forward to plenty of more exciting activities and events and of course welcoming our newest campers for second session!
Conor
Inters this Week
Just like that, our first session of camp has come to end! This week the campers were thrown some major curveballs! The major one was the breaking of MAC in place of the usual Wingate Wars. What made this one so special was there were three teams as opposed to two that we are used to. The teams of Mario, Shrek, and Toy faced off in an intense competition to see who could bring back Joy from Inside Out. At the end of the two-day event, Team Mario came out on top. Bunk 12 has been competing with the seniors in what “Leagues” over the last few weeks. The final game consisted of the Ohio Gyatts and the Heroes going head-to-head in a game of soccer that literally went the distance. In an all or nothing penalty kick, Mikey Saskin rang one in off the post past the outstretched arms of Ben Martella to seal the victory for team Heroes coached by inter counsellor Nathan Twik. To cap off the week and session, our CITs revamped the dining hall to cater and serve a delicious country-style dinner for the entire camp. We said bye to our first session campers yesterday and cannot wait for most amazing 2 weeks ahead of us!
Ryan & Hallie
Seniors this Week
We had an incredible last week of our first session, packed with so many fun activities and unforgettable moments. The week began with a regular schedule to help everyone settle back into the routine, and it was amazing to see how engaged and enthusiastic the kids were about the activities. Midweek, we held one of our all-time favorite evening activities: the Wingate Auction. This event is always a hit, and this year was no exception. All the campers won so many fun prizes and the atmosphere was electric with anticipation and excitement. The night ended in a surprise Mac break, which had everyone so excited. This year’s Mac teams were Toy Story, Shrek, and Mario. The theme of the competition was to find the joy that was missing from camp. Over two days, campers engaged in spirited competitions, displaying incredible teamwork, creativity, and camp spirit. Each team brought their A-game, but in the end, it was Team Mario that came out on top successfully finding the missing Joy. To end off the week we had an awards ceremony to recognize the efforts and achievements of our campers who stood out in various activities throughout the month. The awards celebrated individual talents and teamwork, highlighting the unique contributions of each camper. The week concluded with a Wingate Takes on the Wild West themed banquet, a great event that transformed our dining hall into a scene straight out of a Western movie. The decorations and music were amazing, and the kids had a blast as the CITs who were dressed as cowboys and cowgirls served them special drinks and food for the night.
We have had an awesome first session and were so sad to say goodbye to all the campers leaving after first session. The bonds formed and memories made during this session will undoubtedly last a lifetime. We can’t wait to kick off and incredible second session!
Adam & Michelle
CITs this Week
This week, the CITs finished off their second placement of the summer. They really did an amazing job creating strong bonds with their campers and showing their potential to be future staff members next summer. They participated in an epic scavenger hunt during MAC and helped choreograph and create final dances and POTHS for younger campers. On Saturday they spent the day decorating the dining hall for the end of first session banquet. They chose a country western theme, set the tables and served a great meal. The CITs are starting their third and final placement of the summer today and we’re looking forward to their many contributions to camp over the next couple of weeks!
Adam, Michelle & Josh
Second Session Here We Come!
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