By COLlive reporter
Chabad Gan Israel of Parksville, NY, has inconspicuously cut down the time-consuming visiting days of parents to a single day during the two-month summer season.
The significant change has been casually mentioned in the application form for the summer of 5778 – 2018.
The first session of the camp is set to begin on Tuesday, June 19 (6 Tammuz) and end on Tuesday, July 16 (4 Av). The second session will begin Tuesday, July 16 (4 Av) and conclude on Monday, August 13 (2 Elul).
Visiting Day will be taking place in the third week of the first session of camp on Sunday, July 8. It will be the only day family members can visit a camper, effectively eliminating a visiting day during the second session.
“This is something that has been spoken about for a few years,” Camp Director Rabbi Yossi Futerfas told COLlive.com on Sunday. “Heads of both boys and girls camps have liked the idea, but we decided to try it out.”
He said that official visiting days have placed a burden on the camp’s operations, campers themselves and the visiting relatives.
Parents need to typically block out an entire day to travel to the Catskills, braving the weekend traffic, covering travel costs and worrying about activities and food for their camper and the siblings.
For those living outside the Tri-State area, and even out of the country, visiting day also meant flights and car rentals. For campers whose parents couldn’t make it, visiting day often means an envious and lonely afternoon.
The inconvenience often continues after parents visit, Futerfas said. “At the end of visiting day, campers suddenly become homesick even if they were having a great time at camp.”
One argument to keep visiting day is for parents to tip their children’s counselors, learning teachers and waiters. Futerfas said that while that is true, parents are tipping today via PayPal or giving the full amount in advance.
VIDEO: Parksville’s Visiting Day Commercial from 2013
In 2015, a mother of youngsters wrote an op-ed on COLlive.com titled “Oy! Here Comes Visiting Day” explaining why she dreads the monthly Visiting Day.
“Yes, I miss my children. Yes, I would love to see them. But isn’t part of fostering independence and letting your child go, actually letting them go?” she wrote.
The article had 120 published comments in which parents, grandparents, staff members of camp and even campers themselves weighed in on the issue.
Camp Gan Israel of Toronto in Canada which runs a single month summer session for girls and then boys, has already instituted a no visiting day policy.
“This is something that I’ve entertained for years,” Futerfas said. “We are trying it out now and we’ll see how it turns out. The decision is not etched in stone.”
Futerfas said the move hasn’t affected enrollment in camp. In fact, registration for the BMD Division for Bar Mitzvah-aged boys is already closed, reaching full capacity. The pre-Bar Mitzvah 6th Division will be closing in a few days, he said.
Camp Gan Israel of Montreal announced on its website that they will be having 2 visiting days as in past years. The first will be on Sunday, July 8 (25 Tamuz) and the second on Sunday, July 29 (17 Av).
Camp Pardas Chanah for girls in Montreal will be running a two-month session. It announced on its website that “There is no visiting day for Summer 5778-2018.”
Without visiting day how will a perebt know if theor child is ok? Many times over the phone its hard to tell bc its usually just a two min conversation. .. a motger has a feel of theor child. Hm…
You are right that the summer should be shorter. You should also know that i have many yeshivish friends, and i never heard of their camps for kids (not bochurim) having 3 hrs learning. Most of them were one hour.
if kids had more school and less camp then they’d have more family time since they’d come home every day.
I am sad to see that all parents want is to shift the responsibility of parenting to others, more school, no visiting day, hoping that one day they won’t need to deal with their children at all and they will be 365 in school, instead of having memorable great family time, we are being forced to have machine made children.
why have to bother visiting your kids? so much easier to stay home !
If you are afraid of allowing your child to be away from home for 4-8 weeks, then camp is probably not for you. I completerly understand that some parents are more nervous than others, especially parents sending a child for the first time. However, camps today are very organized and care for each child, possibly better than a parent would if the child were home. The camp director has a pretty solid idea of the impact that visiting day makes on a child, and has clearly stated that he believes one visiting day to be sufficient. As for tips, the… Read more »
This is a great idea thank you Rabbi futerfas for finaly doing this
It’s very helpful for the way camp runs
How are the counselors, learning teachers and waiters gonna get tipped? It’s the only income that these hard working bochurim get!
I am so surprised by the overwhelming number of comments against visiting day.When my children went to camp it was a major highlight for us and our children!! It was so essential to their well-being. We brought them things that they needed , checked in on what was going on, were able to monitor what was happening in the camp, speak to their counselors and waiters/waitresses, etc. Years later it only confirms for me the importance of visiting. My children have told me so many crazy things that went on in camp that I didn’t know about at the time.… Read more »
Try it again please!!!
Everyone I know doesn’t want it!!
I was a waiter there this past year and visiting day is basically waiters day you have fun preparing for it and the day itself is when your hard earned money comes in… It’s not all about the money it’s the fun that comes with it
the schools and parents are simply not reading what the Rebbe wrote (12th of Tammuz 5745) with regard to the amount of time spent on vacation! And yet the Chabad schools give so much more vacation than the yeshivishe ones…and they are learning most of the time in those camps
I like the idea of 1 visiting day the same day the second session begins. I have fond memories of visiting my children and grandchildren, sometimes at same time. Taking them to Woodborne, bringing treats, shows and just seeing what our kids are doing. I guess some parents find that stressful but we didn’t. Even when we lived out of town and visited boys and girls camps on same day, we never complained Think parents today are missing making family memories.I also strongly disapprove of cutting camp. My kids learned and loved camp and are strong Lubavitchers because of camp.… Read more »
Tipping the staff is one of the directives given by the Rebbe when he visited CGI Swan Lake and Emunah.
It behooves us all to follow this
Well done Rabbi Futerfas! Had the guts to do this move! From my experience, visiting day was a big pain for a multitude of reasons… Kids get homesick again, it disturbs camp etc.. I just hope there will still be tips and feel bad for canteen! Visiting day is when all the money comes in!
Toronto did It last year and it was amazing. All camps should stop visiting day. We tip the staff online
Talking about tips it’s incredible how these days a waiter-has to pay to go to camp
CGI Montreal tried and it didn’t work.
Its more like, first month kids have it and second month kids don’t.
If it was the day in between both months, then maybe…
The kids are waiting for that Sunday when they can spend time with their family, show them around the camp etc. what’s the point of cutting it??!! ( not to mention tips…)
to #34 I also went to Camp Sternberg 40 years ago and there was no visiting day or ever leaving camp grounds except on a Thursday short hike.. and I survived!..it actually helped with working through being homesick and growing up a little. And to #41..you are correct in saying that every Friday is visiting day with nearby Parents who run to “Mameleh” their kids with every amenity.
like half of CH you’re misinformed
School starts earlier but the summer is the identical 8 1/2- 9 weeks as it was last year. There is no more learning that it has been. Why does school starting on august 21 make people think that yeshiva is extended. It’s just shifted to an earlier spot on the calendar
It isn’t a good idea. Ask the waiters And ask the kids coming for one session.
Wow best program in the world!!! Whoever got in is really lucky!!
I don’t understand how the camp is starting on Tuesday, June 19 if my son’s school, Cheder Chabad of Monsey, is not finishing until Thursday, June 21? Whats up?!
For the kids it is very good b but for staff this is not good at all
How would you feel if you had no off from work the whole year? Stop taking away kids vacation time because adults don’t know how to take care of kids
Every day is visiting day in camp gan yisrael #friday
CGI Florida has been doing it since they reopened – almost 12 summers ago.
Works great for a 6-week camp too!
I wish we had a visiting day…with the Rebbe!
Now if they’d eliminate the other visiting day, and have no visiting day, I think that would be best. Find a creative way to get tips to those who get tips. Reinvigorate letter writing. (Maybe even modernize it so that there’s a way to electronically do it via email). But make camp a total immersive experience for the 4 or 8 weeks enrolled. Maximizes the experience. Of and while on the improvement track, NO outside food be allowed – not brought or delivered or shipped. Monitor pricing of canteen so that the pricing is fair. And no supplemental meals from… Read more »
your not eliminating visiting day…i dont see the big think.you are still having and ots so close to when the boys go home first month!!!
I think it’s great that others are catching on.
Cgi Montreal tried having only one visiting day in 5767 and it was a major flop
first rubashkin, now this!!! real pinyon shvuyim!
ok then we want Moshaich now
A#26 – Actually, according to my daughter this summer was boring. The summer before was great! My daughter will IY’H go back and we both hope that she will have counselors that make the day exciting – no matter the activities planned.
It would also be nice if Emunah refilled the lake we rowed on as campers…..
#20, Toronto may be the trendsetter among Lubavitch camps, but as a camper in Camp Sternberg over 40 years ago, there was no visiting day either. If a parent wanted to visit, they had to come on the day between sessions.
I think that younger kids need both visiting days.
Great idea
Great idea, been begging for this for years. My kids are grown up, but it’s still worthwhile for the next generation. True about the cost of visiting day, should be parlayed into tips, but the camp needs to “push” a little. 1 visiting day towards the middle of the summer works. If your child is coming home soon, you don’t need to go, if your child is there all summer, that’s 1 visit for the entire summer
Thank you for all you do hopefully this idea will work out
This seems NOT REALISTIC for those parents sending their children for the second month only to camp.
They don’t. That’s why they rely on tips.
You guys have it all wrong.
Have the yeshivas add an extra month of learning to the year then the camps will be one month and you will not need any visiting day.
This is the goal in the near future.
Yasher koach to the yeshivas that will extend the learning and that are beginning earlier this year. Kol Hakavod.
Since I started working in Emunah, I have come to DESPISE Visiting Day! We start the day by working all night Motzai Shabbos to put up beautiful signs and decorations which will be gratified on less than an hour into the day. The kids are distracted all morning, can’t daven, they stand by the windows of the dining hall, and at the end of the day, the staff has to deal with crying, miserable, homesick kids, some of who had just gotten over their homesickness a few days before! Plus, we don’t get a day off anyway, because there’s a… Read more »
Make visiting day for campers who are there for two months on the same day that the new session starts while the new campers are traveling to camp.
CGI Toronto boys and girls and camp Leah Rivka no visiting day last year
My daughter was a waitress in a camp last year that didn’t have visiting day and the only tips she got where from campers who brought the tips with them to camp they said they will send out their addresses for tips not ONE person mailed anything in parents are just busy with back to school after and I assume forget
If there is no visiting day, the parents could afford to send tips! The cost of visiting day has become overwhelming; if it’s eliminated, the parents have saved hundreds of dollars, and can be asked to give a tip that is now affordable
Please! I hope all other camps follow!! It is so difficult to go and no one wants their kid to feel bad…
Visiting day is not necessary
Way to go toronto!!!
Montreal should do the same
I raised a good-sized family B”H, and sent them all to camp, and Visiting Day was a great waste, period. I grew up non-Chabad, and our Jewish camps had two rules: no Visiting Day and no Color War. (The third rule was No Tipping, but I’m not recommending that for our Chabad camps.) I didn’t know what those were, but more than 50 years ago some camp directors had already realized these were not great ideas. Instead of Color War, we had lots of day-long competitions: Field Day, Water Regatta (swimming competitions), etc. Even getting a letter from my parents… Read more »
Pardes Chana has also cut out visiting day for this year
more school, less camp
about time!
it would make more sense to make visiting day second week in the second month for those children that go for an entire summer.
If the camp pays them decently, it shouldn’t be a problem.
I only wish you had done it 20 years ago when my boys were campers, then staff members. I LOATHED visiting day!
I think visiting day should be on the Sunday before first session ends, that way campers going for first session are leaving anyway so don’t need visitors and campers there for the whole summer have visiting day right in the middle of the summer. (Anyway transition time is hectic)
pardes Chana Montréal has no visiting day anymore as well.
Tips can always be given online or via camps website
people in charge should be like the parents and be very aware for the kids and if they see something or someone crying they should be on top of it.
. however in my experience I had no idea that my son was having a problem until I came and he started to cry. He actually didn’t say anything even though I interigated him to the utmost. years later he admitted that his counsler was mean to him.
thanks a million to the director Rabbi Y Futerfas and his unbelievable staff member yisroel cohen and the entire staff keep it up you guys are the best
whats the idea of that.kids that are going for one month looses the last great sunday in camp with visiting day.they are anyway going home a week later.this is soo stupud.your not eliminating visiting day.cuz whoever goes first month still has but so close to them leaving.
This will only be potentially beneficial if both camps coordinate this. Otherwise this could be even more of a burden
What will be with tips for the hard working staff?
so smart
For all the workers depending on tips, this is not good.
Hope all other camps follow
Thank you!!!