Since 2014, as the ripe age of six, I’ve annually attended YMCA Camp Campbell’s overnight camp almost every summer. Each session made camp feel more like home. The values, the community, the traditions—it all helped shape the kind of person I was becoming as a kid. I remember being nine years old, staring at the older campers in their blue rags, waiting for the day I could earn one of my own.
The Ragger Program is a YMCA tradition that encourages campers 12 years and older to make intentional goals to grow spiritually, emotionally, and socially. While rooted in Christianity, many YMCA camps today, including Camp Campbell, have expanded the program to encompass broader personal and community growth. The program’s spirit remains: creating deep, value-based goals and moving toward them through leadership, service, and reflection.
When COVID-19 shut down Camp Campbell in 2020, the Ragger Program shut down with it. A couple of years later, in 2022, a Counselor-in-Training named Sam Whiteson worked tirelessly to revive it. Unfortunately, I had already left camp that summer, and I wouldn’t be back until 2023, when I was finally old enough to be a Leader-in-Training—and given my first opportunity to start earning my rags.
Each color of rag represents an increasing level of dedication. The blue rag, level one, is self-improvement. My goal for that rag was to reach a consistent liberty in cheer—a challenging but rewarding physical achievement that mirrored my life at the time. A year and a half passed before I received my silver rag, which had a more intangible objective: to live the YMCA’s four basic values—caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility—more deeply in my life. I did this by stepping up within my youth group (SALTY), becoming more responsible for myself, and being more mindful of my space and the impact I have on others. It was a quiet, day-to-day kind of change—but a powerful one.
This summer, I received my brown rag, and it highlights giving back to your community. For me, that means actually doing the work as a youth group board member. As Religious and Cultural Vice President (RCVP), it’s my job to bring Jewish values and intention—kavanah—into our events. I lead havdalah ceremonies and position our events in terms of mitzvot (good deeds), always wondering, “Why are we doing this? What values are we celebrating? It’s my way of giving back to the community that helped introduce me to my Jewish heritage.
Since spending a few months in Israel, the importance of having an RCVP became clearer to me as a Jew. Since I’m the first in a while, fulfilling the mission I set out for my brown rag: to lead with intention, to bring spirituality to communal living, and to honor the people and traditions that nurtured me, is even more important. I’ll hold the job throughout the school year, and if I do it as I plan to, I’ll be ready—next summer—hopefully—for the gold rag.
