JENN ZUSSMAN
JENN ZUSSMAN
Camp: Camp Louise
Location: Cascade, Maryland
Years attended: 10
I don’t know if I necessarily chose Camp
Louise. I think it was just a given. My
mom went there—she was a camper and a
counselor—and always spoke so highly of it.

When it was my turn to go to sleepaway camp,
I didn’t even think about any other options.

I just knew we would continue to legacy.

Louise is an all-girls camp, and that
really helped me develop a lot of my self-
confidence. As a young girl, I became much
more self-conscious when I was around
boys; I wasn’t able to really be my true self.

At camp, especially an all-girls camp, you
really take away all of the vanity. It’s simply
focused on friendships and just having
fun and discovering who you are at a very
vulnerable age. Camp helped me become
much more confident and comfortable in
my skin.

You become a trainee when you’re 14, and
then you become a counselor’s assistant.

So even at a young age, they’re giving you
roles and responsibilities and allowing you
to make judgment calls. Whereas in the real
world, you’re still looked upon as too young,
in camp, even as a young teenager, you are
looked upon as someone who has decision-
making skills and is competent. That helps
prepare you and gives you the confidence
you need to say, “Yeah, I might be young,
but I can still be very successful. And my
opinion matters.”
BEN KLINGER
BEN KLINGER
SARAH SHAH
Camp: Capital Camps
Location: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania
Years attended: 10
My parents were looking for a Jewish sleep
away camp that kept kosher for me and my
brothers. A local agency referred them to a
man named Steve Makoff who was starting
a brand new camp that year called Capital
Camps. Steve came to our house to pitch
my parents on the idea, and my brother and
I became the first and second campers ever
enrolled in Capital Camps history.

While I have fond memories of activities
such as sports, art, Israeli dancing and
boating, it is the people who I have kept a
place in my heart forever. In fact, four of
the seven groomsmen at my wedding were
friends of mine from Capital Camps.

I don’t know if camp gave me any specific
“skills” as that is not really what it was
intended to do. However, what camp did
do was help me as a young man become
more independent and develop more self-
confidence. To have to be responsible for
yourself because your parents are there to
do everything for you at a young age is really
20 Washington FAMILY FEBRUARY 2021
beneficial in the development of a child.

Camp also taught me the importance of
supporting the Jewish community, which my
wife and I enthusiastically do today. Camp
helped me become a better leader and a
better public speaker, which has benefitted
me tremendously in my professional career.

And, most importantly, I believe camp
taught me to slow down and appreciate
the moments in life that are truly worth
appreciating. That is a lesson that a lot of us
as adults struggle with because of the fast
pace of our daily lives.

SARAH SHAH
Camp: Camp Tel Noar
Location: Hampstead,
New Hampshire
Years attended: 12
Being at a sleepaway camp forces you to
become more independent and trust that
you can take care of yourself without your
parents present. I learned a lot about living
with others and not always getting what
I wanted; for example, we had a “shower
order” and a few times each summer
you’d have the last shower, which would
inevitably be a cold one! We also had to
clean our own area and our bunks daily,
which certainly didn’t make me great at
cleaning (as my mom can attest), but it did
teach me the importance of working as a
team and trying to have fun while doing
it. We’d blast fun music and dance around
while cleaning each morning.

Another great thing about camp is that
it allowed me to try activities I might not
have tried otherwise. Whether it was sailing,
ceramics or archery (which I surprised
myself by loving), camp gave me those
opportunities to explore.

Probably the most useful skill I learned
at camp was how to care for and deal with
younger children. Once I became a CIT and
then counselor, I was suddenly in charge of
helping little girls as young as 8 adjust to
being away from their parents for the first
time. I learned how to comfort a camper
experiencing homesickness, how to help
solve fights between friends and how to have
the “warm-strict” balance that I still use
today as a middle school teacher.

DAN HAYDEN
Camp: Lake Owego Camp
Location: Greeley, Pennsylvania
Years attended: 4
There are a number of great memories
from Lake Owego: the river canoeing trip
where I rescued a bunkmate’s capsized
canoe, winning both a basketball and softball
tournament against other camps in the area
and the friendships that were made with
people from all over the East Coast.