Almont Summer School, She’s Alright!

Hello from some of the teens at 2012 Almont summer camp!

Don’t Stop Believing

Every year on the last night of Paulhaven camp there is a spectacular dance party followed by an impressive fireworks show.  It is a highlight of camp.  Everyone gets dressed up.  The girls go to the lodge where there is electricity so they can do their hair.  It is a memorable night for all.

Hello from 2012 Paulhaven Camp

One of the many joys of attending the 2012 Paulhaven camp in Alberta Canada this past July was the opportunity to teach the 15 and 16 year old class.  Here’s the class saying hello!

convention expierence.

Tony

Convention was amazing ! I had so much fun ! My favorite parts was playing ultimate frisbee with my friends and doing a chapel service . My least favorite part was saying goodbye to every one I had met.

Bridgewater Convention 2012!

This July, I attended Convention as SCYL west coast and public relations officer. What a treat!
I’ve attended Almont summer camp since I was five, but this was my first full convention (I attended the
Seattle convention part time back in 2009, commuting home each day for My Fair Lady rehearsals).

After a 6 hour, red-eye plane trip, I arrived in Boston at 7:30 am where I then took both bus and
train rides and finally rolled into Bridgewater State University around 9:30. After lunch, I prepared
myself to read quietly in my room awaiting the rest of the teens. I’d sat hardly a minute when I was
bombarded by familiar Almont faces including our current SCYL president, Celie Bauer, who was my
roommate. From that moment on, I had no hope of getting any reading done during Convention. The
teens kept busy—from croquet and late night Frisbee games

to planning our superhero themed worship
service and subway surfing during our day trip to Boston

to meeting Dr. Oz and impromptu jam sessions
in the dorms,

the days were full to the brim of fun and uplifting activity.

The music of Convention was a highlight for me. I feel so blessed to be a part of a youth league with so many talented musicians!  I and a couple other teens participated in the choir directed by Laurie Turley which was a blast- especially singing in a trio with good friends Nina Sasser and Tam Mounce.

The people of Convention are largely why I went in the first place. My friends from Almont are like family to me; however, the new faces in the teen group really made the Convention stand out forme. Coming a day late without knowing the other teens can’t have been easy, but Abby, Sarah, Joyce, Jillian and Otto seemed to fit right in.

Abby was co-author of the skits in our service which- for those of you who missed the experience- involved some dire situations (which may have involved an alien or two)and our Swedenborgian superhero Average Man (played by Alex).

Sisters Sarah and Joyce shared their
strong voices with the readings during our service and played pool quite well for first timers.

Jillian read during our service as well, but was also an especially great contribution to our Frisbee team Saturday
night after learning to play only 24 hours before.

Our worship service would not have been the same
without Otto running slides and music on the computer. We ended up scrambling a bit last minute to
get the technology to work but he coolly handled it all and made the service complete.

Old friends are always a blessing- but I hope to see these new faces at more retreats and that they’ll be old friends as well.

Finally I want to thank our amazing youth director Kurt Fekete and his assistant at convention, Jen Tafel. They both are fantastic at leading without being overbearing and are just overall easygoing
great people to be around. They made convention a fun and sacred time for me and I’m sure I speak with the teens as well.

I returned home from Massachusetts sad that convention was over- of course-
but overwhelmingly glad that it had happened and I certainly hope to make it again next year.