July 2023

Half The Summer Is Behind Us, Half Is Before Us, And All Of The Summer Surrounds Us

We're in the middle of the Summer, and The Antiochian Village is abounding with more love, life, and light than any other time of the year.

We've been learning about Genesis in morning program, bringing Christ-like disposition to our everyday actions during sports and our afternoon program activities, and bonding as an entire family in fellowship every evening program.

Our cabins grow closer to each other during their time on the challenge course, and we all grow closer to God every time we step into St. Ignatius Chapel.

During the overnight program our campers get the chance to enjoy the beauty of creation and the fun of each other's company, and we've been blessed to have so many guests helping us along our journey through the Summer in the form of Session Priests (and deacons), Hierarchs, Camp Alumni, and Volunteer Staff.

And, at all times, we've had the joy of the campers, staff, and all members of The Village connecting in their faith and working to transform their lives through Orthodox Christian living.

A Word From Program Director and Arch Week Coordinator Cat Beasley

Our second year of Arch Week has come to a close and to say we spent this week in "worship, fellowship, service, reflection, and education" would be a grotesque understatement. In the last day's sermon, Fr. Matthew recounted everything we had done from picking up trash in the community to playing a game of angleball that was the equivalent of running 5 miles to worshiping God in every activity we do.

This group of Archers are a force to be reckoned with and truly shine with the light of Christ. Thank you to the amazing members of our community who came and spoke with us and helped make this program thrive.

To our 2023 Archers, we love you all so much and cannot wait to see Christ work through you. Remember, the bread of life, is the bread for life. 

If you are graduating high school next year and are interested in learning more about Arch Week, please check out our page or email me.

We have some special guests coming Session 3! His Beatitude Patriarch JOHN will be visiting The Antiochian Village with his Eminence Metropolitan SABA during the first week of Session 3! Clergy and faithful from the area are invited to join us that Thursday the 20th of July at 8am to celebrate Orthros and Liturgy for the feast of Prophet Elias. We are very excited to have a visit from our hierarchs, and look forward to adding another photo or two to our welcome lodge wall.

Spots for Campers in Session 3

We have 14 spots for boys and 5 spots for girls available in Session 3! Sign up now at avcamp.org if you want to take advantage of this availability, and don’t forget that campers who sign up for a second session get a $100 discount on that second session.

Spots for Volunteers in Session 3

We still have room for Volunteers during Session 3! If you’ve ever wanted to find out what camp is like, come back to camp for just a week or two, or are simply looking for a ministry of service, our volunteer coordinator Liam is accepting Volunteer Staff applications at volunteer@avcamp.org

Adult Camp is a wonderful opportunity for newcomers to camp who have never had the chance to experience it as a youngster, or for those of us who have grown up at camp to come back and experience it again.

Winter Camp speaker Karen Hanna will be returning to The Village to speak to us about "Overcoming Struggles Through Faith", and we'll also be joined by our Adult Camp Session Priest Father Nick Belcher.

It's never too late to become a Villager! Join us this September 15-18! Registration is open to anyone from ages 21 to infinity.

There are a couple of projects that are close to being finished, like the Shrines and renaming of the cabins to Saint names. In addition to those projects, we are excited that as a result of the fund-drive this past Fall, we will begin work on remodeling the old dining hall into Namie Hall this coming fall.

The Village is a great place to lose our anxieties about the future, to take a break from the worries of life and be present in the moment with God. But that doesn't stop us from taking a look at the road ahead. We're always asking ourselves, "what's next?" What can we do to grow and improve our ministry? What will the needs of this camp be in the next year, the next five years, the next decade?

We've started compiling a list of our dreams for this camp; some things we see as answers to needs we have now, and some things that will set up future campers and staff for effective ministry.

We now have a "Dreamboard Page" on our website with a list of desired projects for us to undertake next, and we invite you, our AV Family, to take a look and get excited about them.

This year we're collecting food from any parents who can bring non-perishable donations to arrival day, and we'll be driving the donations down to local food-banks. If you're dropping of your kids this Sunday, or know someone who is coming to camp any of our arrival days this Summer, please spread the word to bring some non-perishable donations so we can be good stewards of our community!

Thank you to all those who have donated already! We dropped off our first couple of sessions worth of non-perishables last week, and look forward to ministering further to our surrounding communities.

Are you looking for a way to make an immediate impact on the Antiochian Village Summer Camp program? Check out our Amazon Wishlists and see if there's anything you'd like to donate to The Village! Make sure to check all 4; we have a list for our various Summer Programs (afternoon, morning, evening, etc.), a list for Office Supplies, a list for our Health Center needs, and a list for Arch Week.

This is especially helpful now that Amazon has shut down its Amazon Smile Donation program.

Don't forget to include a gift receipt so we can thank you for your support!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has already sent us items from our wishlists! Every package we receive makes us that much more grateful to our AV family.

We had a "Meet the Camp Director" zoom for parents of campers this Summer at the end of May. If you have questions about anything regarding your camper's experience this Summer, we may have answered them in the zoom! Feel free to check out the zoom recording below.

Hi AV! Nurse Deena (or Aunt Dee) here! So looking forward to being back at camp for the entire summer! It’s been 20 years since my husband Dean & I were on staff and now we are coming with our mini crew – Simeon (11), Adrian (9), Ephrem (8), Photini (4), and Maggie (our 3 year old lab mix). We’ll be so excited to meet & greet you all throughout the summer!

I graduated from JMU (Go Dukes!) with a nursing degree in 2006 and have worked in a variety of health care settings, NICU, women’s health, PACU, college health, and most recently as a substitute nurse at my boys’ school. I love to run, swim, bake, eat!, bike, sing in church, and be my kids’ mom. We live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and attend St Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church. We can’t wait to see you all this summer! It will be my joy this summer to have your campers in our care.

We're currently searching for Nurses who are available to help Nurse Deena take care of our campers and staff for some or all of the Summer. If you're a medical professional seeking to perform this essential and ever under-appreciated ministry (because no matter our appreciation we will never truly be able to thank you for all our nurses have done), please get in touch with Fr. Chris at frchris@avcamp.org.

Just a reminder that we have begun issuing refunds on medical fees for those who turned in correct and complete medical information by the due date. We have a large quantity of information to sort through, so we ask for your patience as we work on issuing refunds.

When we re-sided St. Ignatius Chapel, we saved the old cedar shakes from the chapel and branded them with the Antiochian VIllage Camp logo. These will be available to purchase on arrival and departure days this Summer.

Hey AV Alumni! Do you love flipping through our photo albums when you come to visit? Well our intern Constantine Kallaur has spent the last year scanning all of our photos from our photo collection going all the way back to 1981! In an effort to preserve the history of The Antiochian Village, we are in the process of digitizing as much content as we have. God willing, we'll have every session video going back to the 1990's online in the near future as well.

Check out our SmugMug photo-site below to re-live the AV memories!

We are still looking for interns for all or part of the 2023-2024 year. If you or someone you know has ever wanted to spend a year at camp, spread the word that we're looking for someone interested in any of the following:

• Program Intern
• Development Intern
• Operations Intern
• Communications Intern
• Professional Best Friend to Belle and Louie... but really that's everyone's responsibility
• Your big idea! Maybe there's a position here for you that we don't know needs to be filled yet!

Summer Camp

June 18-August 11, 2023

Registration Now Open! CAMP IS ALMOST FULL!

Adult Camp

September 15-18, 2023

Guest Speaker: Karen Hanna

Registration Now Open!

St. Raphael Pilgrimage

November 3-4

All Are Welcome