Hello all
I fell to sleep last night before blogging my day so unfortunately its a 2 in 1
Yesterday I visited 3 camps. Camp North Star for Boys, Camp Birch Trail and Camp Igachowan.At 9am I rolled into Camp North Star for Boys and visited with our staff there. All of course were having a wonderful time, being treated well and were making life long friends and memories.
Then it was a quick 30 mins to camp Birch Trail for Girls.
I was greeted by Gabe Chernov who owns camp and Emma Pucker, his director. over the years I have become good friends with them so it was great to see them. We wondered down to teh lake to see Erin, Gabes wife, where I met Laura Tobar. Laura was one of our Colombian participants that I met in May when I visited and she was unplaced. She left and impression on me and we made it our mission to match her up with Birch Trail as I knew it would be a good fit. We succeeded and she is doing a wonderful job and loving camp (and camp loves her!)
Here is Laura posing for me!
One of IENA’s amazing recruiters packs his bags and works at Birch Trail too for the summer. he was sleeping when I arrived and on his day off. However I dragged him out of bed for a hug and a photo….Guess which one he is below, along with some of our other great J-1 exchange visitors!!
I couple of hours chatting with the crew and I was on my way. Camp has a great series of signs as you leave camp. Love it!
Then it was a 2 hrs ride to Camp Icaghaowan. This camp is new to IENA although part of the YMCA of the Twin Cities.
It was a great camp, everyone was so nice and I ran into 3 of our program participants too! Brazil and Colombia represent!
After that it was a 2 hr drive to my hotel and with my travels catching up on me, I fell to sleep!
Day 5 and I was at Camp Ihduhapi at 9am to see more of our participants. heres 2 selfies with Angie and Johan who I had met a few months earlier in Colombia
My final visit was to to YMCA Camp St Croix. I have known John Bussey, the director for several years and it was raining AND was a check out day which meant photo ops really didnt happen. However I checked in with all of our J-1 Exchange visitors and all were having a blast!
So thats it, I fly home in the morning and back to the office, having to skype with Jeff Daly’s ugly mug and make conversation with Colin every day. What fun!
Matt