Our second Maccabiah took place on a day so beautiful that we started it with a picnic outside on the Main Lawn. Our campers 
enjoyed their lunch as well as the sunshine as they eagerly awaited the announcement of this session’s Maccabiah theme. Suddenly, Bowser came racing in with the captured Princess Peach in his kart! Seconds later, Mario and Luigi drove in, chasing after Bowser. Altogether, they revealed the theme for this session’s Maccabiah: Mario! Today’s challenge was going to be a Mario Kart Grand Prix around camp.
For the first half of MarioMaccabiah, teams rotated around to various challenges and tried to earn coins they
later could use to buy parts, power-ups, and decorations for the karts they were going to make. Campers showed off their team spirit by making posters as well as decorating themselves in face paint with their team colors. In the egg drop, campers had to create contraptions that would keep an egg safe when thrown on the ground. Some teams kept it simple and put the egg in a cup with some fabric to keep it safe, while other teams went all out and even made a fully functional parachute. On the other side of the Main Lawn, campers made paper airplanes and competed to see who’s paper airplane could fly the farthest. At the pipeline challenge, campers had to work together to use 
pool noodles to transport water across the Main Lawn to the rain drain. Finally, at the battle station, it was campers vs. counselors. Here the campers teamed up with Mario and Luigi and battled their way through a field filled with Bowser’s army of counselors.
Once they earned enough coins, our campers worked together in their teams to strategize how they were going to use their
power-ups, construct their Mario Karts, and decorated their team generals who would be driving the karts. Once ready, our team generals approached the starting line, prepared for the final Grand Prix. The starting bell sounded, and our racers burst from the starting line. The first lap was a tight race. Team Luigi immediately took the lead, leaving Team Mario, Team Peach and Team Bowser in the dust. At the beginning of the second and final lap, Team Luigi kept their lead, while the other three teams battled it out for second place. It wasn’t until the last leg of the race when Team Mario amazed all of us and put it into high gear, managing to tie up with Team Luigi. In the final seconds, Team Mario pulled ahead and won the race and Maccabiah!
Even though Team Mario won the Grand Prix, every single one of our campers are superstars. They had a day filled with fun and so much ruach. We cannot wait for the next session’s Maccabiah!
