A Lifetime of CBB

By Pam (Rosenberg) Swedko, Board Member

Back in the 80s, when my life revolved around summers at CBB, there was no website with a perpetual countdown to the first day of camp, but we knew exactly how many days there were to go (maybe not to the second, but for sure the days). In those days, we had a camp song, sung to the tune of Kermit the Frog’s famous Rainbow Connection. The song went on all about the camp and said “A Lifetime of CBB…” which is exactly what happens to you when you are part of this place.

The words didn’t mean much to me as a B Girl singing it with my arms around my friends after the winner of Colour War was dramatically displayed in flames at the beach. But it does now.

For 10 summers, I spent my days in Quyon; the best summers making the best friends almost all of whom are still important parts of my life. There were many years where I had no connection to camp. But still, moving to a new city and meeting new people, the inevitable questions among Jews of all ages, “what camp did you go to?” made automatic connections and led to conversations of “Do you know…?”

Now, in my mid-forties, camp has come back to my life once again. Being pregnant at the reunion in 2006 with my entire CIT bunk brought back all the memories and good feelings. A group of women who had not been altogether for this amount of time in almost 30 years automatically fell back into place with each other laughing about the good times and connecting through their new lives in different cities as mothers and wives. That’s the magic of CBB!

Now, all of our kids go to camp together and, once again, CBB is part of our lives. We look forward to catching up on Visiting Days and we have a connection through camp.

Being a part of the board for the camp has been a meaningful way to be part of camp. Although my days of being a counsellor are unfortunately well behind me, I still get to feel like I am contributing to CBB and helping to make it continuously great for the next generation of young campers and ensuring that they also get to experience what it means to have a lifetime of CBB.