06/11/2026
Summer camp is more than just a few weeks away from home. It is a place where children build confidence, form lifelong friendships, and develop a strong sense of identity. For many families, however, the cost of sending a child to camp is becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
Rising costs and growing demand are making financial support more essential than ever for families hoping to give their children a Jewish camp experience.
The Jewish Foundation of Manitoba’s Jewish Community Campership Fund, established in 2011, now sits at over $1 million in contributed capital. Each year, income from this fund helps support families who cannot afford the full cost of camp, ensuring that more children can take part in this formative experience.
At BB Camp, Executive Director Sarah Gould says the need for financial assistance remains significant. This past summer, approximately 20 percent of campers required support, with 66 campers receiving assistance and more than $118,000 in funding requested.
"People don’t ask unless they need it,” Gould says. “Our goal is to get as many kids as possible to camp. No one is turned away because of cost.”
A similar trend is being seen across the community. At Camp Massad, Executive Director Daniel Sprintz has previously noted that the number of families requiring support has risen sharply in recent years, reflecting broader financial pressures facing households.
At the same time, demand for Jewish camp experiences continues to grow. Camps are seeing strong enrollment, with many programs filling quickly and waitlists becoming more common. Beyond recreation, camp provides something increasingly important for young people today: a place to feel connected, supported, and proud of their identity.
At Camp Massad, Sprintz describes camp as something far more than recreation. For many campers, particularly the growing number of newcomers and Russian-speaking Jewish families, camp is often their first real connection to Jewish community life. "It's sometimes the only touchpoint a kid has with Jewish culture and experience," Sprintz says. At Massad, that means singing Hatikvah and O Canada at the flagpole, learning Hebrew through songs, and navigating daily life entirely in a language many campers don't yet speak. The playing field levels quickly. A kid from Transcona who's never said a Hebrew word and a new arrival from Israel who doesn't yet speak English find themselves, for the first time, genuinely equal."
The need has grown sharply in recent years. Before COVID, roughly 25 percent of Massad campers required financial assistance. Today, that number sits closer to 70 percent, a shift Sprintz attributes to the pandemic, October 7th, and the wave of newcomer families those events brought into the community.
For one local parent, who asked to remain anonymous, camp has been transformative for their children, but only made possible through financial support.
“Without the subsidy, my kids wouldn’t be able to go to Jewish camp,” they shared. “It’s just not something we could afford otherwise.”
They describe camp as a place where their children gain independence, build confidence, and develop a sense of belonging within the Jewish community, something not easily found elsewhere in their day-to-day lives.
“It gives them a space where they’re surrounded by other Jewish kids. That connection is really important.”
Experiences like these often extend far beyond a single summer. Camps consistently see that children who attend return year after year, later becoming staff and staying connected to their communities in meaningful and lasting ways.
For camps, families, and community leaders alike, the message is clear: campership support is not simply financial assistance, it is an investment in the future of the community.
If you would like to help ensure that any child in our community who wants a Jewish camping experience will have one, please contact Laurel Hogan, Donor Development Associate, by email at [email protected], by telephone at 204.477.7462, or toll-free from the US/Canada at 1.855.284.1918.
