Greetings

Another successful season at St Andrews Camp has drawn to a close - our 46th! Once again, St. Andrew's provided a fun-filled, creative and spiritually based environment for young people to develop their Orthodox identity.

As Christ taught, first love one another and then you will love me; campers learn to love one another through their experience of each other’s life. Counselors are encouraged to treat everyone in a Christian way. Each one valued for their effort and who they are.

Campers start to see how the church understands life through ongoing discussions with counselors, and learning about saints. Camp is full of nature, fellowship, reading, and Friday night Bonfires.

New to St. Andrew’s was our Coach Bus. It has air conditioning and a movie screen set up to make travel easier on both campers and counselors. A 52-inch TV for movie time in the dormitory allowed everyone a chance to get relief from scorching days when we occasionally had a night at the movies.

The Campers

Campers ranged in age from 7 to 14 years old. They came primarily from the Northeast, including New York, New Jersey, and Ohio. Their backgrounds include Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Celtic, European and all-American cultures.

Everyone had a good time. Some of the favorite activities were rock painting, artistic meditation, camping skills, camp beautification, volleyball, kickball, swimming and fishing. Every Thursday after Vespers, we had a special theme night. Retro Night, Country & Farm Night, Hawaiian Night and Pirate Night set the tone for dinner and evening activities and provided many happy memories and somewhat crazy pictures,

As always, our weekly trips offered more excitement and good times. This years trips included the MOST (Museum of Science and Technology), the Farmers Museum, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and a Thousand Islands trip. The trip that topped the list was Sea Breeze.

Staff Profiles

Alex Cadman joined us as Program Director after spending a year at St. Vladimir's Seminary. Though new to St. Andrew's he met the challenge by focusing on the religious education program with his fiancée Jennifer. They spent large blocks of quality time with the campers helping them experience Christ. Alex wants to do college ministry in the future, and his time at camp provided hands-on experiences with the Orthodox youth of today.

Michael Gazdecki joined us as the Head Boy's counselor after completing two years at St. Tikhon's Seminary. He maintained the chapel and kept the rubrics and service books in great order for our services and prayers.

Jennifer Maple joined us after a year of mission work in Albania. She worked as the head girl’s counselor and was very enthusiastic about spreading the Christian message in our discussion groups.

Vanessa Downing returned for her second year at St. Andrew's as the quintessential counselor. Always enthusiastic and ready to call out trivia questions in spare moments. Vanessa dedicated herself to her many electives, her C group (ages 11 to 14) of girls and her game playing. She returned to the University of Albany this fall.

Tanya Lapchuk served as the B group (ages 9 to 11) counselor and lifeguard. She kept the waterfront safe and fun for all. Her aerobic electives and rock painting were big hits!

Kimberly McMahon joined us from SUNY Oswego with lots of arts-n-crafts projects. She was noted for her individual attention to campers and her A group (ages 7 to 9) counseling. Pillow making and sketching were two of her many popular electives.

Vasily Shak returned for the second year as a counselor. Every area of the camp benefitted from Vas' energy and good nature. He maintained our campout site and kept the soccer program in high gear.

Alex York served as the Water Safety Instructor after graduating from Kenyon College this year. He also did the grass cutting and maintenance work around the camp.

Tim Chupek also helped as Water Safety Instructor and his good nature and kind ways were much appreciated.

John Mace of S. Plainville New Jersey was the master cook of the season. Initially only planning to volunteer for three weeks, he ended up staying all summer to delight us with his careful attention to nutrition and camper favorites (who likes chocolate chip pancakes???) A camp favorite among campers and staff was grilled cheese sandwiches. His dog Rusty served as camp mascot and tension buster.

Staff Assistants

The Staff Assistance (SA) Program is comprised of teenagers occupying the middle ground between camper and counselor. This year the seven teens included - Alexandra Lapchuk, Claire McMahon, Maria Pugachev, Caleb Smith, Jessie Wright and Dimitri Zaporozhets. They have lots of jobs: assisting counselors during special night and elective time, providing needed help in the kitchen, taking responsibility for snacks, etc. SA’s gain first hand experience on the “ins-and-outs” of being a counselor, and they put in long days of hard labor. Even so, It’s a coveted job with lots of perks and there are always a lot of applicants. So, if you are between the ages of 15 and 17... apply early!!!

Volunteers

We love our volunteers and we know our season was successful because of their willingness to spare their free time. We had an unpaid army who helped in the initial cleanup, came and prepared meals to give the cook time off and offered their free time to cut grass, paint, bake and just help with the program as needed. Some were returning counselors such as Nadia Brunke who stayed a week before camp opened to set up. Fr. John Chupek, Jay Holman and Norm Webber tried to tame the ever-growing grass. Every Sunday Juan Astorga and Olga Stewchuk filled in to give our cook some time off. Invaluable help was throughout the season by Olga Macko, Helen Martintez, Olga Dmytryk, Theresa McMahon and Juliana Mace. Mary Kotash sent us yummy cookies. Pre-season we got help from Theresa McMahon, Nick Sodow, Olga and Vladimir Liachneko, and the Vicari family among others. Seasonal and post seasonal workers included Tom and David Lazarchuk and John Daniels

Visiting Alumni

Many former campers and counselors visited this summer including the most recent directors, Fr. John Chupek and Larissa Sovyrda. From further back, Argyra Lapchuk, Argyrios Milanos, Fr. James Stavresky, Matushka Barbara Kucynda, Gregory Melnick, Nadia Brunke, Michelle Kadola and Stephanie Reimund.

Visiting Clergy:

This year, because of our transitional nature, we did not have a resident priest. The OCA’s All American Council in July made finding available clergy difficulty at times. We are grateful to those who could respond to Daria's call for help with services during the camp season. Thank you to Fr. Michael Anderson, Fr. John Chupek, Fr. Stephan Janos, Fr. David Smith and Fr. Rastko Trbuhovich. They all seemed to enjoy the campers and Fr. John Mutyan might be able to spend the whole summer with us next year! We will be able to give him some time off by filling in with many of this year’s visiting priests who also expressed a desire to return for a weekend next year!!!

Special Programs

Visiting artist Robert McNamara - renowned wildlife naturalist painter - spent an afternoon challenging campers to accomplish two projects one individual and one that required a group effort to create a collage from parts of a painting. Pieces were reproduced individually and joined to create a multi-perceptional whole. This collage now hangs in our recreation hall. We discovered many hidden talents among our campers. When they become famous we will be able to say “I shared a room with ________ one summer at St. Andrew's Camp.“

Father Rastko Trbuhovich, of the Serbian archdiocese and Matushka Julia of St. Mary's in Binghamton visited us and held a choral workshop helping campers learn the importance of community worship and choral singing in the church.

We thank all these especially talented people for sharing their gifts with us.

Continuing Needs

Those of you who have visited the camp know we are always grateful for donations. In addition to operating funds we need:

• Arts and crafts supplies including, acrylic paints, watercolor paper, canvasses, clear spray and plain white t-shirts for painting.
• A commercial ice maker
• Canoes and row boats for the waterfront
• Couches and chairs in good condition for the lounges
• Outdoor benches and wooden picnic tablesA snow blower
• Woodworking tools including (but not limited to) a circular saw.Plans for the future

The Board is entertaining the idea of fund raising for a new boys dormitory, a multipurpose activity and storage barn and an expanded waterfront. Hopefully, the cottage will be rehabilitated so it can be of use for our staff.

Our plans also include:

• Purchasing inexpensive trees to plant along the road
• Other landscaping and beautification projects
• Developing a two-year, five-year and ten-among other things, take advantage of the world-renowned quality bass fishing.
• We’d like to consider expanding the teen program
• We’d also like to have more retreats for adults, seniors and campers throughout the “off season”
• We are considering developing an Orthodox library. Please send good books that have moved you.

Please send us your good ideas and suggestions. Everyone’s help is needed.

Board of Directors

Olga Shewchuk
Bettye Malone
Argyra Lapchuk
Stephan Shostak
Mary Kotash
Deborah Ellingsworth
Very Rev. Yaroslav SUdick
Very Rev. John Chupeck
Very Rev Igor Burdikoff
Igumen Christopher Calin
Very Rev. John Nehrebecki
Rev. Micheal Anderson
Deacon Peter Danilchik
Tanya Danilchik
Julia Sinay
Isabel Cywilko
Daria York
Pauline Blood
Very Rev Alexander Garklavs