By Aaron Solomon
I couldn’t think about what to write for this reading. As you might recognize by my standing up here alone, the Carmel Assistant, Emily Nestel, left earlier this session. I really didn’t want to come up here and do a reading all by myself, and my voice clearly can’t handle that after screaming through Maccabi-AAAHHH. So I enlisted the help of the Carmel Staff.
I asked every one of the Carmel staff members to give me one word to describe Carmel. They could take that task any way that they wanted. Some thought about the day-to-day work with words like: nonstop and repetitive. Ben Palumbo referenced his bunk with the single word “Bean”. Other counselors who thought about the campers specifically with words like: silly, adorable, enthusiastic, energetic, goofy, giggly, crazy, unpredictable, and dirty.
Then some counselors thought about what a summer in Carmel meant to them. They used words like: amazing, exciting, exhilarating, unique, fulfilling, meaningful, transformative, and indescribable.
The main takeaway from all of these words is how positive they are. No matter what the counselor was thinking when giving me their one word, it came out overwhelmingly positive. Every one of our staff had a huge smile on their face while they laughed out their word.
Emily and I came up with our word for Carmel together: Love.
So, Carmel, no matter what happens, no matter how old you get, if any of us come back to camp or not,
We R 4 U.
Aaron Soloman is the Carmel Unit Head this summer. He grew outside of Philadelphia and is excited to move to Westfield, NJ right after camp. He graduated from Brandeis University last year and spent his time since then working in both Philadelphia and Los Angeles. He can’t wait to start his new role as a shared professional with Temple Emanu- El of Westfield. This is his third summer as a supervisor, sixth summer on staff, and 12th summer at Harlam.