Greetings!
We hope this email finds you and your family healthy and enjoying the summer. Summer 2020 looks very different from what we had anticipated, but we remain committed to our campers and we want to tell you about the summer programming
and exciting activities we prepared for them.
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Summer Programming Update
Every one of our 2020 campers received a summer care package that included an activity box, access to “how-to” videos for camp activities, crafts, and sports encouraging them to get outside and get active, as well as the opportunity to participate in a 3,300-mile virtual group hike from Maine to Colorado, with stops at each of our associate camps along the way.
Our campers, families and mentors came together in this virtual trek and absolutely crushed the challenge! Click here for more information on the A Thousand Summers Camp-to-Camp Virtual Hike and watch the video of myself and a few of our team members crossing the finish line at Cheley Colorado Camps!
Our Board also authorized a Summer Support Check for each of our campership families to alleviate some of the unanticipated costs of feeding and providing care for their child(ren) for the four weeks that they were supposed to be at camp.
We realize that this support and these activities cannot replace camp, but it is our hope that they encouraged our campers to continue to be active, learn new things, meet new challenges and make new friends this summer. The smiles on the campers’ faces says it all!
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The Kratzer Family
“What time and planning has gone into this adventure, I’m sure is much more than I can ever imagine. Rolling with the change and making such a positive difference in these
kids’ lives regardless of in-person opportunities shows such thoughtfulness and compassion.
We are honored to be so blessed and wish to let you all know how
humbled we feel by this generous act of reaching out.”
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The Amstutz Family
"My kids just opened their boxes and were completely blown away! What a generous gift box! We are so blessed to have you all in our lives!
We also received a check which brought me to tears to know how much you all care!
You all are amazing and so kind. We are beyond blown away! We can't thank you all enough!"
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Meet Our New Board Chair - Gus Euston
Greg “Gus” Euston is a public relations executive from the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. When he was invited to join the board of A Thousand Summers, Gus jumped at the chance. Gus says he’s motivated by his own love for the outdoors and the notion that every kid deserves a chance to climb a mountain, wade through a creek and wonder about the trees and the hills and the clouds passing above. For those reasons and others, Gus believes that the camp experience is more important today than it has ever been.
Before joining A Thousand Summers, Gus volunteered with Scouting BSA and sat on the boards of the Georgia Conservancy and the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Stakeholders, a grassroots organization focused on water use in ACF River Basin.
Gus lives in Marietta, Georgia, with his wife, three teenagers and an incorrigible dog. His kids, by the way, are third-generation Sanborn campers. Their grandfather was not only a Big Spring Warrior, but was also Sanborn’s first official garbageman, a fabled position often remembered at evening announcements, campfires and reunions.
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Other Board News
A Thousand Summers is proud to welcome four new Trustees to the Foundation Board: Sam Carkuff (Aurora, CO), Kimm Kittle (Dallas, TX), Ann McCollum (Albuquerque, NM), and Terry Taylor (Denver, CO).
The following Trustees left the Board in July after many years of service: Leigh Fatzinger, Mara Friedman, Kate Verlaan, Jeff Nichols, and former Board Chair, Kirstin Sullivan. We offer our sincere thanks for their dedication and support of our mission.
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A Thousand Summers
Camp-to-Camp Fund
Great news! Our community met the challenge of raising $5000 in 30 days, unlocking a $5000 matching gift. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated and contributed! Click here for more information on the camp-to-camp hike!
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30th Anniversary
Video Timeline Series
Click here to watch our 30th Anniversary Video Timeline Series. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to share in our rich history over the last 30 years, celebrate our accomplishments, and look forward to our next chapter.
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30th Anniversary News
The 30th anniversary edition of our newsletter is in the mail! To read the electronic version of the newsletter, including stories about our very first camper and our 1000th camper, click here.
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Thank you for your support of the John Austin Cheley Foundation and A Thousand Summers. We look forward to a spectacular summer of 2021 and hope you will partner with us in our commitment to all our kids in the year ahead.
Sincerely,
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Tim Lucas
Executive Director
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