BB CAMP Celebrating 70 Years!

B’nai Brith Camp, commonly called ‘BB’, is a picturesque Jewish summer camp on Town Island in Lake of the Woods.

BB Camp was founded in 1954, making this its 70th anniversary!

The property is beautiful, and Camp Director Jacob Brodovsky intends to keep it that way. He and his wife, Lexie Yurman, have been in charge of the camp’s operations since taking over in 2021. This is their fourth season as Executive Directors, and Jacob thinks they have acclimated to their roles, saying, “It feels like everyone’s sort of hit their stride this year.”

Jacob is a talented musician outside of camp life, which is how we got acquainted — I interviewed him for this paper after he won the Canadian Folk Music Award.

Getting to the camp is no small task. Kenora is roughly a 2.5-hour drive from Winnipeg, followed by a 30-minute boat ride from Kenora to Town Island. However, the distance has its upsides. The campers are well and truly isolated from their regular city lives. Gone are the electronics that dominate many of our lives: TV, social media, video games, etc. Instead, campers get to embrace the outdoors and participate in BB Camp’s many activities. It’s truly a chance to ‘unplug’.

Upon arriving at BB, I sat down with the two Executive Directors to discuss the camp. Jacob told me this year’s camp has a “sold-out summer!” He mentioned that BB has had a positive growth in campers over the years, “about 10 percent year over year.” Lexie gave me the rough numbers, saying, “consistently in a summer through both sessions, and including our LTP and AC programs, we have 300 to 350 campers.”

Jacob describes BB as a “Jewish camp for everyone,” which is important because he also informed me that “about 15 percent of campers are non-Jewish.” Jacob and Lexie believe this number is a testament to the appeal of BB camp and its good reputation. Lexie added, “Most of our non-Jewish campers, they just come with their friends, because their friends talk about camp, and they want to be a part of it.”

Jacob and Lexie emphasized the importance of good staff for a successful summer at camp.

Lexie said, “We’ve been investing a lot in staff training. They come to train ten days before (camp opens). And that doesn’t include all of the staff here in the spring, and we had another training session for about a week in May. So, I think that that also really helps.”

Jacob chimed in, adding, “I think the other change that we made – and for us, I think it’s been the most impactful one – is we aged up our staff a year, and we added a program after LTP.”

LTP, or Leadership Training Program, is for campers entering Grade 11. This program starts with the much-lauded 15-day canoe trip, after which LTP campers return to camp, participating in a combination of recreational programming and trying out various jobs. Traditionally, campers in this program would become counsellors the following summer. Now there is an intermediary year between being a camper and being staff, known as Staff-in-Training (SIT).

Lexie: “Yeah, so you can’t be staffed until you’ve graduated grade 12, and then there’s a program before you are staff; we have SIT, which is staff-in-training, and a whole year at camp.” Jacob added, “The idea with that program is they don’t get paid, but they don’t pay to be here.”

Lexie informed me that they have 16 people doing SIT this year. She explained how the program functions. “They get all of the same training as staff. Then they get a placement for each session, like staff. They have all of the same privileges as staff. But they work a little bit less than staff during the day. They get one period of the three periods of the day off. Because they’re not paying to be here. And they all live together. And then if you complete a full LTP and a full SIT summer, you do both sessions and volunteer. When you become staff, you get paid more.” Lexie continued, “So, the SITs have counsellor pairings for every cabin, but they live separately. And the best thing is they’re learning how to be counsellors.”

Jacob added that the sign of success for them was at the end of the first session when they debriefed staff and got a good response back. Jacob gave an example: “So, I talked about how it went and what needs to change. You know, a counsellor said to me, ‘I felt like I had enough time off.’ Which is a crazy thing for a counsellor to say because you’re with kids 24-7. So for a counsellor to say, ‘I felt supported and I had enough time off’, it tells us this is successful.”

Another benefit Lexie commented on was that “Our first-year staff coming in this year, they know exactly what to expect. They know if they want to be counsellors. We had people say, ‘I don’t want to be a counsellor.’ ‘It’s not for me.’ ‘I’d rather work in this specific area of camp because last year I realized I don’t necessarily want to do that job’, so they’re not finding that out when they’re actually a counsellor and responsible for a group of kids for a session. And they just have practice and more training…it’s like they’re not going in blind.”

Another important aspect of staffing for Lexie and Jacob is to get a diverse range of people. They informed me that this year they have staff attending all the way from the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. It was also important to them to get a couple of Israeli staff members. Jacob said, “all the Israel programming that we do here is obviously strengthened by having actual Israelis running it, right?” Lexie commented, “I think having Israelis in general is just helpful because they’re from there, so they can bring their culture and share it with the campers. I think for us, our goal is to give campers little bits that they can pull from and connect to. They’re going to show an Israeli dance that the campers can do – we have a ton of kids who are really into dance! There’s some food-related stuff; we’re going to make falafel.”

BB Camp offers a plethora of programming for the campers to enjoy. This includes water-based activities such as canoeing, kayaking and swimming. There are also sports facilities and equipment to play basketball, tennis, football, soccer, floor hockey and more.

Many of these programs have been made possible due to the investments BB Camp has received. One of the recent investments was the construction of a new building, called the ‘Gadol’. This building provides an indoor activity space which allows the campers to participate in programming regardless of the weather. There is ample room for indoor sports like floor hockey, as well as a small side room which accommodates the arts and crafts activities. Many cabins got new metal roofs. Accessibility ramps have been built throughout the property. The ‘Chadar’ (dining room) also got a fresh makeover. A new floor was put in, gender-neutral bathrooms were created, and a new front deck was built.

If you wish to see the updated camp premises, you can sign up for the BB Camp Alumni Weekend which is being held from August 23 to 25.

To get in touch, call 204.477.7512 or email info@bbcamp.ca