This past summer, I attended CLTC 2 in Poyntelle, Pennsylvania. CLTC was a great opportunity that allowed me to make new friends and gain leadership skills. If you have the opportunity to attend this amazing program, I would 100% recommend it! If you are not sure if you want to go, here are some reasons why you should.
Attending CLTC allowed me to make friends from all across the U.S. Now, I have friends from places like Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Maryland, and many more states! I attended a smaller sized CLTC with around 50 Alephs and BBGs total, but that allowed for us to become one big family. I went into CLTC only knowing 1 other person there, and I left with 50 new best friends! I talk to these people every day, and we tell each other everything.
CLTC gives you multiple opportunities to gain and improve your leadership skills. For example, in your mock chapters, you get to participate in a mock election. This allows you to get a feel for what it’s like to be on a chapter board and what your responsibilities could be. I won the position of mock chapter Sh’licha, which allowed me to help plan Shabbat and set the atmosphere.
By gaining leadership skills, you can help to improve your home chapters. At CLTC, your mock chapter advisors give daily lessons on leadership skills and how to improve your chapter. We use lessons from the BBYO toolbox to plan and execute chapter events. Doing this allowed us to practice running a chapter and plan events before we brought it home to our real chapters.
CLTC housed amazing staff members who were always there for us. I absolutely loved my counselors and all the CLTC staff! I made many meaningful relationships with them and even still talk to some of them to this day!
Attending CLTC allowed me to find a new meaning in Shabbat. Shabbat services were always the absolute best at CLTC. Everyone knew every song and always sang along. During the first shabbat at CLTC, we even got to make our own challah and learn the true meaning behind it. During the meal, we even got to eat them! Not to mention, getting dressed up for Shabbat with all of my friends and taking Shabbat pictures is always fun.
Chofesh, or free-time, was the best part of every day. This was when we all got to bond and hang out. During this time, we ate our canteen snacks and hung out in the hammocks. I looked forward to chofesh every day because it allowed me to just chill, hang out, and talk with my friends.
CLTC has many camp traditions that you get to learn while you are there. Some of these traditions are the Birkat, a session song, and a cleanup song. Every time I hear “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor (our session song) or “Hard-Knock Life” by JZ (our cleanup song), I am reminded of all my amazing memories from CLTC.
At CLTC, I made memories that will last a lifetime. There were so many great times with my friends that I will never forget. There were fun times, meaningful times, and even some sad times, but no matter what, I will never forget the amazing memories I made during my 12 days at CLTC.
During CLTC, we went on 2 different out-of-camp trips. We visited ILTC and Kalahari. Visiting ILTC allowed us to get a feel for what it’s like there. We also celebrated the centennial year of BBYO and IC! At Kalahari, we attended the waterpark and spent all day there! We even had Starbucks and out-of-camp food!
At CLTC, we had so many fun activities, such as a Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebration, electives, and even t-shirt making. CLTC allows you to be a bar/bat mitzvah if you have not been one previously. Finally, on the last night, we celebrated all of the bar/bat mitzvahs with a party. Every day, we also had electives such as Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift sing-alongs, bear hunts, yoga, and much more. We also had a guest speaker at CLTC who was a rabbi and artist. While he was at CLTC, we spray-painted an arc for the Torah and made our own t-shirts.
These are just some of the reasons why you should attend this amazing program. If you are hesitant about attending CLTC, trust me, go! It’s 100% worth it! It’s such an amazing experience that you SHOULD NOT miss!
Hailey Arnell is a BBG from Integrity BBG #0461 of the Nassau Suffolk Region and she is her chapter's Sh’licha and a competitive dancer.
All views expressed on content written for The Shofar represent the opinions and thoughts of the individual authors. The author biography represents the author at the time in which they were in BBYO.
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