PHOTOS: The Special Children Center Magically makes dreams come true on the Max Harari Disney Trip 2016

centerby David Farhi. On a cold, wintery morning on the 24th of January, 100 people made their way to their city’s rendezvous point to embark on a week-long trip to hot and sunny Florida. The fact that New York was hit by winter storm Jonas the night before was irrelevant because our flight was miraculously still on time. As I arrived at the SCC in Brooklyn, NY to catch my ride to the airport, it hit me; this trip wasn’t going to be ordinary. Green T-shirts were moving about everywhere, accompanying campers to their respective vans. This trip was going to be, in every sense of the word, special.

I got into the van with my camper, guitar, and my backpack ready to knock this one outta the park. This trip was going to be awesome! We arrived at Newark International to the rest of our group cheering, hugging, and singing us in. We’re all sitting around eating our Terra blue chips and getting to know our co-counselors when we hear the news: we’re delayed. But our spirits are not to be broken so we all sit down and I pull out my guitar and we start jamming. Right there. On the airport floor.

Six hours later: Campers and counselors are riding up and down the escalators chanting our camp song,”Center are you ready……Center you are mine.” Center was mine. Every staff member, every camper felt like they belonged. Center became our family and the trip hadn’t even begun.

A couple of hours later and we still hadn’t taken off when our head staff Shani Gross walked over to me and handed me a drink saying, “that man over there just came over to me with two bottles of water saying, ‘I see that counselor and camper over there and they both look like they could use a drink. Here, take this and continue doing the amazing work that you guys do.” Our energy was infectious in that airport and we saw exactly where this was going.

We arrived in Orlando to a sprawling mansion with 14 bedrooms, a game room, indoor theatre, gorgeous pool, and an incredible meal prepared for us by our chef Chaim Meir Rotberg and his team. We ate until we could eat no more and we went to bed.

But this trip kept on getting better and better. We woke up bright and early, loaded the vans and we were off to see Shamu! SeaWorld was unreal. My camper and I sat in the splash zone during the shows but those water bottle water fights coupled with the smile on my camper’s face took the cake.

But we didn’t stop with dolphins and whales. We were in it for the long haul so the next day of our trip, we took over Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We danced while listening to African music and went on roller coasters. We watched the most incredible musical performances from Finding Nemo and The Lion King. We did just about everything there was to do in that park because for the Special Children Center, we either go big or go home and we weren’t about to go home just yet.

Magic Kingdom had us in high spirits. The rain wasn’t gonna stop my camper from dancing it out at the parade and-

“It’s a small world”, that was a blast!

Orlando rocked but Rachel Mishanieh had more for us in store for the next part of our trip. We were heading to the Trump International hotel in Miami for the weekend. On the way to Miami, we get a call, “guys, we’re going jet boating!!!” The excitement was tangible, the music in that van pumping. As I held my camper’s hand, the driver of that jet boating gave his signal and water came crashing down on us as our boat ended its 360 degree turn.

We dried up and arrived at the hotel to individually package lunches for all of us from Avi Bitton, the owner of Blaze who generously hosted our girls’ trip at his restaurant. We quickly ate, showered, and got dressed so we could begin our shabbat experience with Yaakov Shwekey.

We ate, sang, danced, and prayed at the Beit Rambam Shul but most of all, we felt spiritually uplifted during that Shabbat. At the culmination of Shabbat, the music, an expression of the soul united us together as the walls of the hotel vibrated from our voices.

We sing havdala and we’re sent off to our rooms to change for our private concert with Yaakov Shwekey. Ten minutes and we’re out. The feeling in that room is not one that I can describe with words. It was a “you had to be there” experience as you danced with your camper after creating an incredible bond that will hopefully take you through the year until you could experience that feeling again.

Looking back, I can’t describe the experience I had without feeling a plethora of emotion. I gave my all to my camper and as I gave him back to his parents, I felt that I was giving them back a piece of myself. The smile on my camper’s face each morning as I called his name to wake him up is an image that I can’t forget because in life, those incredibly special moments are the ones that leave the greatest impact on you. The Special Children Center gave me the opportunity to give someone else the greatest time of their life but by the end of the trip, my camper had given me the greatest time of my life. I felt that my camper was my best friend. I knew him like a book. I had thought that I was joining the trip to give him my all but the trip resulted in the greatest feeling of all. One that is truly Special.

[TLS]

KPICASA_GALLERY(CenterDisneyTrip#)

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4 COMMENTS

  1. What an amazing trip it was!! The care, concern, and patience of everyone from the counselors to the head staff to everyone in between was truly extraordinary. The love which was showered on every child was tremendous!! The trip was really special and everyone had the time of their life!
    Thank you Center!!

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