The camp was originally started as a Habonim camp in 1953 and grew over the years into what it is today. They have Israeli emissaries (shlichim) on their staff each year and many of their counselors and administration (hanhallah) members have spent long periods of time in Israel before...
"One of their Israeli emissaries that was there this summer is in the army with Gilad Shalit's sister Hadas and another one of their Israeli participants has a brother who was killed in the second Lebanon War", says Avi Posen the co-assistant Director at the Camp.
He also said that "These two connections were really great to make some of the tougher issues in Israel become more of a reality for the campers and counsellors alike."
The camp participants wrote this song a week before Gilad Shalit's 5th birthday in captivity, during their major program "Maccabiah" in which two teams go up against each other but this song was so powerful and so uniting for them, that the next day after the Maccabiah program, they taught the song to the entire camp and recorded this video below and was dedicated to the hope of his safe return home.
