Camp is getting ready to open for its 47th year on June 29th and everyone is welcome to help spruce up the buildings and grounds of St.  Andrew’s Camp the weekend of June 6,7& 8.  Meals will be available and volunteers may stay overnight in the Girl’s dorm....  It should be an enjoyable weekend for all with a choice of stations- planting, painting, cleaning, grounds cleanup, etc

Our staff will arrive a week before camp starts.  We are looking forward to working together to provide a fun and meaningful summer for the campers.  New to our permanent staff will be Nicholas Finley, a graduate of St.  Tikhon’s Seminary with several years of youth experience working with the OCA"s youth department with their summer program. Nick will direct the regular camping program.  His Navy experience has prepared him for the diverse and challenging task of working with energetic young people.

Fr. James Stavresky, a retired army chaplain and an alumni of the St. Andrew's staff, will provide the camp with pastoral leadership for several weeks.  Some of the other clergy expected to be with us are Fr. John Nehrebecki, Fr. John Chupeck and Fr. Michael Anderson.

Ksenia Babich joins us from the Dioceses of New England to head up the Staff assistant program.  She too has worked with the Youth Department and has been involved with the NE Dioceses youth rally’s for many years.

Returning will be Vanessa Downing and Tanya Lapchuk.  Our Girl’s Dorm and Waterfront will be in their hands along with Timofey Shahsovar who attended St.  Andrew’s as a camper and is returning after completing 3 years at Rutgers University.  John Mace , the ever popular cook and creative chef will, thankfully, return and also our devoted health director, Mary Duffy, who will continue to keep our health at the forefront of her concerns.

Special nights this year include Asian Night, Hawaiian Night, Mexican Night, Greek Night, Sadie Hawkins Night, and Circus night.  Bring your costumes and props!!!

We still have plans for a new boys dorm, an expansion of the girl’s dorm and a basketball court soon, but not all of these will be ready this summer.  Daria York, executive director, explains:  "We are trying to have the property looked at carefully in order to plan the best placement and design of these to accommodate our needs and the particular drainage patterns of the grounds.  We hope to raise most of the money for these from our Friends of St.  Andrew’s campaign.  Camping is such a unique and awesome experience for our youth.  Providing them with the facilities to maximize their experience is one of the goals of the Board of Directors.  If any of our readers have suggestions, we welcome these at our email site SaintAndrewsCamp@aol.com or by calling 315 383-2686."

TEEN WEEK AUGUST 10-16  As always, Teen Week will provide a special journey for high school students along with good times with peers. This year, Fr. David Garrettson will lead the discussion groups and provide all of us with challenges in our Christian life. Fr. David is pastor of SS Peter and Paul Church in South River NJ and he comes to St. Andrew's with a diversity of experience with life and youth.

Many people call or write about what kinds of things we could use for donations.....so here again is Our Wish List:

• 2 high quality portable basketball backboards.
• 8 wood picnic tables
• 10 "park" type benches
• Circular saw
• Chain saw
• Book shelves
• Rope type ring toss
• Horseshoes
• Good sturdy 4-6 drawer dressers
• Snow-blower

Daria York had the opportunity to attend the American Camping Associations Upstate conference and the Tri-State conference in March.  Also for the first time, the Orthodox Camp directors conference was held in NYC in March. All of these conferences provide critical information on everything from program ideas and resources to legal and health issues that are very important.  Representatives attended from the OCA, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, the Antiochian Archdiocese, the Ukrainian archdiocese and the Carpatho-Russian Diocese.

It was a moving and fruitful time spent together sharing program essentials pertaining to Orthodox Camp Programs.  Camping provides the unique combination of Eucharist, community, prayer and biblical life in a natural environment that blends to provide unique experiences of Christ for the camper.  From these conferences we were able to gather important resources for strengthening the leadership-training component of our Staff assistant program..  It was definitely time well spent!

Congratulations and prayerful best wishes to Jennifer Maple and Alexander Cadman who were 2002 staff alumni, on the occasion of their marriage on May 25th! God Grant them Many Years!

Memoires!  To close out this newletter we would like to share a short excerpt from Natasha Federinko's memories. Of course the entire article is in the "Stories" tab. (Where many a good read is to be found.)

. . . . .So, I guess you could say that St. Andrew's Camp gently shaped and molded me into an Orthodox Christian woman, because it challenged me to really live my faith. To go just beyond the Divine Liturgy, and live in a community, where I would have to practice not only what I professed to believe, but to live the way Jesus taught us to. We certainly weren't perfect..we campers had our fights, our quarrels..but they were the best summers of my life. I still think about them..and, believe it or not, I STILL work with kids EVERY day..I work with disabled kids, and teens at a Center in Michigan, where I live, and teach them to ride horses. We have camp every summer there too, but it is just day camp, and not as much fun! . . . . .