A new partnership between the Crown Heights, N.Y., branch of the Friendship Circle and Camp Emunah will allow children with special needs to fully immerse themselves in a mainstream overnight summer camp.

The cooperative effort by the Friendship Circle – part of a worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch project that pairs teenage volunteers with children with special needs – and Camp Emunah represents a revolutionary approach to the organization’s goal of helping its charges integrate into society, said Rabbi Levi Eckhaus, director of the local Friendship Circle.

The pilot program will see five children with special needs join 10 Friendship Circle counselors in a special bunk within the larger framework of the overnight camp.

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Speaking from his office at the Jewish Children’s Museum just across the street from Lubavitch World Headquarters, Eckhaus pointed to a winter camp experience the Friendship Circle hosted in January as an example of what the partnership hopes to accomplish.

“Our winter camp demonstrated that children with special needs not only make exciting and involved campers,” he said, “but they also benefit from the fun and attention in an indispensable way.”

For the last several years, Friendship Circle branches across the country have sent children to Jewish day camps. But Chava Hecht, director of Camp Emunah, contended that more could be done so that children with special needs benefit from the totality of the camp experience. She also said that by having the children participate with all of the other campers, the entire camp population could grow from the project.

“Spending time with children with special needs teaching the importance of caring for others, and realizing that we all have something to offer,” said Hecht.

Chava Hecht, director of upstate New York’s Camp Emunah, looks over the papers creating a Friendship Circle program at the overnight summer facility.
Chava Hecht, director of upstate New York’s Camp Emunah, looks over the papers creating a Friendship Circle program at the overnight summer facility.

Chani Gottlieb, 15, said that she was looking forward to the outdoor activities at the camp.

“I like swimming, and baseball, and boating,” she said. “I like to have fun.”

Her mother, Yaffa Gottlieb, said that children with special needs evoke a spiritual side that much of the time goes underappreciated by people.

“But people who work closely with them see it,” said Gottlieb, whose daughter has Down syndrome. “So it’s nice that they can be together and appreciate each other, but it’s also important that the rest of the camp can get to know them.”

Rochel Leah Dagan said that both she and her 20-year-old daughter, Chaya Sarah, can’t wait for the beginning of the 12-day camp immersion.

“She’s thrilled,” said Dagan. “She’s full of life, and loves spending time with friends. That the Friendship Circle and its volunteers just want to make these girls happy is tremendous.”