Camp Maayan Midwest

amother

Bronze

Wed, Jan 11 2023, 2:35 am

sruth1 wrote:

This will be my daughters second year at Camp Maayan Midwest. She had the time of her life. I would say we are out of town yeshivish. My husband is a rebbe in the local yeshivah day school. If we lived in a larger community she would go to bais yaakov. When we were looking int camps we applied to both agudah Midwest and Maayan Midwest but ultimately chose Maayan as we get a more Midwest low key vibe.
It is great camp. I have been impressed with all the people who run it. Great communication. (Although I think sometime I may drive them crazy because I email a lot with questions). Amazing activities, very individual camper oriented, great trips. Really well run. I highly recommend it.

Hi sruth1, I was wondering if you--or anyone else--could please chime in with any updated impressions about Maayan Midwest you have at this point? My daughter really wants to go there this summer as a first time camper, but I am trying to get a clearer picture, and it sounds like we are looking for the same kind of camp you were. (Not a fan of labels, but out of town bais yaakov type?) I know 2 very nice girls who went there from our community, but I've heard from others (including some comments here) that it is not yeshivish at all? I would be happy with a camp whose staff is part of the yeshiva world, with a mix of campers who are all nice wholesome girls, from a range of backgrounds including at least some yeshivish/kollel/chinuch types in the mix. But I wouldn't be so thrilled if my daughter was the only one in her bunk (or camp?) whose parents don't have smartphones for example. And I will be really not thrilled if all the campers have or will be getting smartphones themselves. Like I'm afraid that the fact that they ask on the application if you heard about them from Instagram or Facebook, and they ask you for your Facebook along with your name address and email etc, probably answers my question..

amother

Bronze

Wed, Jan 11 2023, 11:30 am

amother Celeste wrote:

It sounds like maayan probably would not be the best idea for you. levavi sounds more like what you are looking for...

thank you for your response, can you please elaborate why you think the bolded? Because my daughter is convinced she wants to go there. and I've heard conflicting info, but one thing I heard is that it used to be more modern, but has moved more to the right with the new director Mrs. Ribowsky. Do you know if there's any truth to that? The other camp she had expressed strong interest in was Sternberg, but after speaking with a friend who works there, I decided I was only comfortable sending her there second half, but my daughter only wants to go to camp first half because there is a job she wants to take for second half. It sounds to me like I would be more comfortable with Maayan than Sternberg first half but I'm not even sure if that's correct..

(oh and I was curious about Levavi but saw that it's for second half only, so it got nixxed before I started looking into it..)

amother

Bronze

Wed, Jan 11 2023, 11:57 am

dena613 wrote:

Google!!!
Go on maayans website. Watch the video.
Looks like a great camp! And absolutely not yeshivish.

I watched the video with my daughter--what part was not yeshivish? pretty sure I saw the whole thing. Again I'm fine with a mix of girls from different OOT communities and backgrounds, as long as they are nice frum girls and it's a wholesome environment. But I would not like it to be a uniformly modern crowd. Like in our out of town-ish school her class has a mix and my daughter complained that "everyone else" has whatsapp but I found out that no, actually there are about 8 mothers who don't have whatsapp. But there are others who have that and a lot more, including her closest friends' mothers. Instagram, netflix, etc. So she needs an open-feeling OOT kind of place, but we need it to be Torahdik and wholesome.. and again a nice mix, not just "modern" (ugh I really dislike these labels). I think maybe something like what Sternberg used be? (I heard it has changed to be less of a mix and more modern and also more "in-town" but not sure if that's true either..)