Special thank you to Ellie Blanchard for coordinating the journal today!
Wednesday night, July 30th, we were gathered into a room for a big announcement. The real Ron got up in front of everyone, along with the real Aliza and Aaron, to announce that Thursday would be Yom Chanich! The new head staff got right to planning out the theme and the schedule of the day, and then the rest of the participants found out who was Ron (Tamar Nissel), Aliza (Aliza Isaacs), Aaron (Tom Arev), Shoava (Hannah Cohen), Robbie (Eitan Drapkin), and all of the other staff members. After the official titles were announced, every participant started to take his/her leadership role for the day, beginning to plan an amazing participant-run day.
The theme of the day was “Color War: Movie Edition”. Each of the seven groups was given a movie as its team theme, including The Lion King, Frozen, The Avengers, Grease, Despicable Me, Harry Potter, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Each group showed up in the morning in phenomenal costumes, cheering and ready for an exciting day.
Each “movie” planned out and lead an activity for the rest of the groups to compete in. After driving 2 and a half hours to the Best Western in Scottsdale, Arizona, the exhilarating day began. The team-made activities were played throughout the day, and each one resulted with a winning team. Points were also awarded based on cheering, costumes, sportsmanship, and many other factors. The events that went on were Gaga, Minute to Win it, Jeopardy, Bucket Brigade, Taste Test, Taboo, and a special YBY version of “One Hen”.
After a “Lights, Camera, Action” themed dinner and some hard-working team time, the final ceremony began. Each team presented its beautiful banner and creative song, gaining many points for the team. It was a great way to show everyone’s different strengths and abilities. As the points were being totaled, a cheer-off took place. Then “Ron” got up at the mic to announce the winners. With Frozen in first, The Avengers in second, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in third, everyone came out of the day with a smile and a sense of accomplishment. To end off an amazing day and a fantastic color war, we had an ice cream party!
-The new head staff
GROUP 1:
We are Group 1, The Lion Kings. For our activity we had a competition of skill and memory. We created numerical phrases about Yad B’Yad, and had people attempt to recite increasingly difficult statements precisely from memory. It was challenging and competitive, but in the end, everyone had fun.
By: Noam Wieder
GROUP 2:
Group 2 showcased the movie Despicable Me 2, hence the number 2 for our group number. We created a version of Heads Up and Taboo for the audience to play. As we dressed up like minions we created a colorful poster and cheerful song to represent our group!
By: Merrill Brenner
GROUP 3:
We played a fun game of Jeopardy today. All of the groups participated and “Willy Wonka” won! Our group’s theme is “Grease”. Our team is having a great time cheering on one another. We loved all of the other team’s games. We can’t wait to hear the winner!! (Which will be Group 3! GO GREASE LIGHTNING!!!)
By: Jacob Adler & Atara Levine
GROUP 4:
Group 4 is on a roll putting our game, song and banner together. Everyone is stepping up as a leader in different ways to make our “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” theme run smoothly and sweetly. The activity we are running tests the teamwork by playing Bucket Brigade, with the objective of filling a bucket of water but with many obstacles in the way.
By: Chana Waintraub
GROUP 5:
Is it cold in here, or is it just us? We are Team Frozen, Group Five (aka the fab five). Today we dressed up as ice cubes clearly representing the movie Frozen. We ran an exciting game of Frozen themed gaga. We are so pumped to continue the day and see who wins!
By: Mim Baitner and Yael Rosenthal
GROUP 6:
The theme for Group 6 was the Avengers. We had a variety of characters, from Thor to Wonder Woman. We ran the activity of “Minute to Win it” and we fight for Yachad!
By: Avi Glazer and Jack Bartky
GROUP 7:
Our group was given the movie Harry Potter, and each member of our team was assigned a character. For our game, we played Bertie Bott’s Guess that Flavor, in which participants guessed what flavor Mike and Ike they had in their mouths. It was so much fun!
By: Sarah Frieman and Yitzi Rothschild