Mrs. Chani Majesky went Upstate New York to speak at a couple of bungalow colonies as part of their annual package parties about the work of Friendship Circle of Brooklyn. With a few hours to spare, she and her husband Rabbi Berel Majesky decided to stop by some camps nearby to surprise their Special FC campers.
The reaction they received surprised them.
Whilst some campers warmly embraced and welcomed them, sprinting across fields to say hello; breaking out in cheer, “Everybody say, I LOVE FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE”. There were other campers, who it wasn’t certain that they would recognize or remember them. After all, the Majeskys “belong” in Crown Heights, at Friendship Circle. A new place, a new surrounding, could mean that the child could not place them.
The smiles and open hearts though were incredible. One counselor at Camp HASC in Parksville asked if they truly were the “Majeskys from Friendship Circle.” He shared how his camper Mendele, who was too shy to say hi, “didn’t stop talking about FC the whole summer. It must hold a really special place in his heart”.
Camper Chayale at the Sunshine Bunk was elated to receive a surprise birthday visit. A regular FC Minyan Shul go-er, she jokingly asked us if Cholent had been brought along.
Yitz, a young boy who mainly uses his actions to communicate, walked into Berel’s warm embrace when he came to say hi.
Seeing the special campers so happy and well taken care of, despite the needs of each child being so vastly different, is the highlight of the Majeskys summer each year. The FC members may be ‘out of sight” each summer, but they are definitely not ‘out of mind.’
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Wow inspiring, keep up the good work!
Many are aware of the Rebbe’s push to use better language when refering to special children, but there seems to be a misconception that the preferred term is “special needs”. This is categorically false. A clear place this can be seen from is the sichah of shabbos parshes eikev 5748 where the Rebbe explains the double meaning of “special”. On the one hand it is lashon sagi nohor- using a positive term when describing something that isn’t necesserily so, i.e describing them as special because of their special needs. but it also contains the implication that they themselves are special… Read more »