Camp Miriam shaped the lens of how Dani and George Mate see and navigate the world.

The couple met at Miriam as children, ultimately married and watched as their four children happily went off on the ferry to machaneh every summer. They also formed their closest friendships at camp and learned the lessons that would guide their lives there.

“Honestly, it’s been everything about our lives – the way we raised our kids, the way we treated our staff and the way we look at the world. The things that have made us successful in our lives were cultivated at camp,” says Dani.

George adds that camp helped him learned to be comfortable expressing his Judaism and taught leadership skills that he got to put into practice.

“The ethos is to support youth-leading-youth, for me that culminated in being rosh at 22, and being responsible for 150 lives every day for two summers. That was a profound experience,” says George.

Dani and George know that camp and Habonim have changed since they first danced yesh together in the chadar ochel as pre-teens, but they are also confident that the basic foundation and principles remain just as resonant and possibly even more important.

George puts it this way, “For kids to get out of the city, away from their phone, and be themselves. To be in a place where they can build community, embrace ideas and ideals and wrap themselves in idealism in this difficult world is a beautiful thing.”

For all those reasons, George and Dani have made a deliberate choice to support camp today with an annual gift, and into the future by joining the Camp Miriam Builders & Dreamers Legacy Society and pledging 4 percent of their estate to camp.