At Camp YJ, we talk a lot about continuity: how each summer builds on the last, how alumni stories echo through generations, and how the objects around camp hold memories of laughter, friendship, and meaning. When our 85th Anniversary approached, we wanted to do something that honored that history in a tangible way. Not just another T-shirt or tote bag, but something that carried our story forward.
That is how the Repurposed Wood Project was born.
In 2015, we completed a major upgrade on the bunks on one of our camper villages. Old bunks were completely replaced. Normally we’d just discard the old materials. But what if those old bunks - and the memories they carried - could be used for more?
Our Alumni Committee asked an important question: could we take the wood from our old bunks, wood that carried the words and drawings from generations of campers, and turn it into something lasting? Some of that wood had already lived a second life in community 
service, used for firefighter training in our town of Amherst, New Hampshire. The rest was carefully saved, waiting for its next chapter.
We partnered with a local craftsman, Ryan Dozer, to create handcrafted Judaica and household items including mezuzot, hanukiyot, trays, and bottle openers. Each piece is utilitarian, meaningful, and unmistakably YJ. They are designed to live in alumni homes, to be touched and used, to spark conversation and connection.
We first shared the collection with attendees at our 85th Reunion, where more than 600 alumni came home to camp. The response was overwhelming, filled with nostalgia, pride, and emotion. People saw more than wood; they saw their summers, their bunkmates, and the nights under the stars.
When we launched the collection online this fall, the response was incredible. Demand was immediate and enthusiastic, and alumni have continued to reach out with excitement and pride about owning a small piece of camp history.
This project is not about fundraising. It is about storytelling. The goal is to deepen connection and show that the values learned at Jewish camp—creativity, sustainability, and community—continue long after the buses pull away.
Looking ahead, we are already dreaming about what comes next: Shabbat candle holders, seder plates, or even a wedding chuppah made from camp wood, a literal bridge from one generation to the next.
For other camp professionals, my advice is simple: treasure everything. Before you replace a bunk or dining hall table, pause.
There is a story in that wood, in that plaque, in that doorknob. When repurposed with care, those pieces can become vessels for memory and Jewish continuity, objects that remind us who we are and where we have been.
At a time when so many Jewish institutions are searching for new ways to connect people to their roots, maybe the answer lies right under our feet, in the floorboards that held a thousand pairs of muddy shoes and the laughter that still echoes in the grain.
About Jon: Jon Spack is the Executive Director of Camp YJ in Amherst, New Hampshire, founded in 1939 and recognized as the oldest Zionist youth camp in the United States. He has served in this role since 2022, though his YJ story began much earlier as a camper. Having grown up at camp and later returned as a counselor, Jon brings both deep personal roots and more than two decades of nonprofit leadership experience to his work. When he is not thinking about bunks, enrollment, or Shabbat in the Grove, he is usually at a concert with his wife, planning their next adventure, or being happily outnumbered at home by their two daughters in West Newton, Massachusetts.
Interested in contributing to the Directors’ Corner, a periodic series featuring ideas from the field? We're interested in featuring something you're puzzling out, an innovation that you want to share with the field, or any other small or big intervention that's making a difference at your camp. Pitch us your idea at jcamp180@hgf.org and we will help you with the article.