Summer Camps for Children Hit Hard by Terrorism

One Family Fund Brings the Camp Experience to Children in Israel

One Family does not forget the youth whose families have been hit hard by terrorism. For them, we run camps for 300 youths during the summer and holiday vacations of Sukkot, Chanukah and Pesach in various locations in Israel, and a Big Brother/Sister program to help each teen throughout the rest of the year. The Youth Division also runs local programs in various locations of the country for the teens and their Big Brother/Sister partners.

Many children in Canada get the opportunity to go to summer camp and experience team building, sports, crafts and the sociability that comes from being with other children. Children in southern Israel spend their summers in bomb shelters. One Family Fund Canada is bringing the excitement and relationship building of camp to children who live with terrorism on a daily basis.

Canadian Camps/Reuben Lerner:

Reuben Lerner’s (Z”L) memory lives on in the Reuben Lerner Summer Camp Experience, an umbrella for all camp programs that happen by bringing victims of terror to Canada from Israel during the summer. The first treasurer of One Family Fund, Reuben Lerner was an inspiring figure who was instrumental in helping to secure charitable status and to launch One Family Fund. Bernie Little, an Alumni of Camp Timberlane, recently raised an amazing $64,000 to underwrite the cost of bringing 20 Israeli child victims aged 12-14 and 2 counselors to camp for August 2009.

The group also spent 3 days in Toronto, thanks to the incredible generosity of Rhonda Wolf and Karen Breslin, who arranged for home hospitality, lunches at United Bakery, dinner and bowling at Back Alleys as well as free clothing from Roots.

In addition, for the fourth summer in a row, 8 teenaged boys went to cottages in Bell Ewart for two weeks, thanks to the efforts of Ari Belzberg and Immanuel Greenberg.

Through the Reuben Lerner Summer Camp Experience, Bernie Little has raised over $130,000 to bring kids to Camp Timberlane since 2007.

A letter from Camp Timberlane

Dear Friends,

On behalf of Camp Timberlane and One Family Fund, we would like to thank you for your generous support. This past summer, Camp Timberlane hosted 20 children and 2 counsellors from One Family Fund for a full month at camp. It was truly amazing to see the impact that camp had on these children and the positive impact the children had on our camp. For some of them it was their first time away from Israel, but for all of them it was the first time they were able to relax and not worry about the daily threat of living with terrorism. The children were able to experience the magic of Timberlane, form new friendships and memories that will surely last a lifetime.

The children put together a special “thank you” video and asked that I send it out to all the donors just before Erev Rosh Hashanah. Please click on the link below to view the video.

Camp Timberlane “Thank You” video

A special thanks goes out to Bernie Little for heading up our fund raising efforts.

At Camp Timberlane, we are committed to giving back and we couldn’t think of a better way than offering these remarkable children the opportunity to experience camp. Thank you for helping make this dream come true!

From all of us at Camp Timberlane we wish you and your family a Shana Tova!