Dark winter nights are the perfect backdrop for lit candles and twinkling holiday lights. Both remind us of reflection. We might even feel the glow of the miracles we’re celebrating. Summer sunlight has a more pervasive quality. Like performing arts at Jewish overnight camp, its impact on campers can be long-lasting.

Studies show that involving kids in the arts has a wide range of benefits, including improved academic achievement and interpersonal skills. If you’ve ever seen the sparkle in a child’s eyes and the confidence they exude when they perform in a play, sing a song, fashion a costume, or create a dance, you’ve seen the magic of the arts!

One of the ingredients of this magic is to have people believe in your dreams and help you realize them. Performing and producing art can provide an avenue for that to happen. It lays the foundation for a lifelong love of the arts, which many school districts across the country are missing as they cut theater and arts programming.

Mulan 2017
(Courtesy photo)

This summer, Camp JORI in Wakefield, Rhode Island, goes beyond the traditional idea of a summer camp with a musical and some arts and crafts. Our camp is launching a unique, non-competitive, nurturing “camp-within-a-camp” (JORIPAC, or JORI Performing Arts Camp) for campers who want to immerse themselves in the performing arts while enjoying all that a traditional overnight Jewish summer camp has to offer.

Unplugged and open to new experiences, kids in seventh to 10th grades will love the balance of structured and independent time to work on their own artistic experience. Teens will act, sing, make costumes, dance, walk on stilts, tumble, juggle, perform at exciting all-camp shows, and will be encouraged to use the arts as a tool for self-expression and action. It’s the light of Camp JORI values, small, family-like atmosphere and lifelong friendships that will give this summer an extra glow.

Our camp will offer just one JORIPAC session this year, so sign up early to guarantee your spot! Contact sharon@campjori.com for more information.

This post has been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content are presented solely by the author, and JewishBoston assumes no responsibility for them. Want to add your voice to the conversation? Publish your own post here. MORE