As the URJ Camps are committed to providing Jewish camping experiences for all children, it is with some disappointment that I am writing to share the news that we have decided to cancel the Camp Simcha program for 2008. The program was scheduled to take place at the Greene Family Camp in Bruceville, TX, August 7-10. Despite the significant investment of time and resources in the program, our registration was not enough to create a sizable community to share this experience. We had many inquiries about the program, but many did not end up signing up and some cancelled after registering. A family camp program needs a critical mass to participate to make the program meaningful and fulfilling. The low numbers prohibited the group from participating in certain activities, and ultimately the staff to participant ratio would be 2/3 staff to every participant. As most were new to a camping experience, this would not be an ideal situation.

We are committed to continuing to provide special needs camping programs and while the Simcha program will be cancelled this year, we intend to continue our partnership with Nova Southeastern University, and will work with them to examine our experiences this year. We plan to take a few steps back to not only assess the needs of the community and interest in the program, but to look at our marketing strategies – despite repeated attempts to engage local congregations and other natural partners within the Movement, we were unable to locate families with the need for the program through typical channels. We will also follow up with families that did not register to discover the reasons and to determine if we need to adapt our program.

Thank you for your interest in the program. If you have additional questions please contact Stefani Rozen at srozen@urj.org.