Chinese Heritage Camp September 4th - 7th, 2009 at Snow Mountain Ranch Fraser, CO |
| 2009 Directors: Dawn Hinsvark, Pat Lyman & Wendy Hanophy |
|
Chinese
Heritage Camp was one of the first camps in the country exclusively created
for families with children adopted from China.
It is one of the ten camps facilitated by the highly respected Colorado Heritage
Camps. Chinese Heritage Camp offers programs for infants through middle school.
This will be the 12th year families from across
the country meet in Colorado to gain a deeper understanding of the Chinese
culture and share their adoption stories.
This
year's camp will be held over Labor Day weekend in the beautiful Colorado Rockies
near Winter Park, Colorado at the YMCA
of the Rockies Snow Mountain Ranch facility www.ymcarockies.org a
wonderful family vacation in itself!
Registration information will be going out soon, so request registration information NOW to be placed on our mailing list. It is very important to register EARLY as this camp consistently has a waiting list!
Chinese Heritage Camp is a family
camp with programming for each member of the family. Campers from toddlers to grandparents participate
in classes and workshops taught primarily by Chinese Americans who enthusiastically share their expertise
with adoptive families. Asian American counselors serve as role models and mentors to the children
as they participate with them in cultural classes while adult family members attend cultural and adoption
related workshops ranging from Chinese cooking and customs to the blessings and challenges inherent
in our adoptive families.
What's happening in 2009?
This year’s theme is Festivals of China. Festivals provide vivid insight into China’s history and magnificent culture. The Chinese observe a wide variety of traditional and modern holidays, based both on the lunar and solar calendars. Many of China's traditional festivals, such as Chinese New Year, Lantern Festival, Full Moon Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, are familiar to many. Other traditions, such as Tomb Sweeping Day, are not as well known!
The festival theme will be carried throughout the cultural experiences and workshops in camp. For example, high school campers can expect to celebrate the Water-Splashing Festival of the Dai ethnic group during their raft trip. Girls of Dai ethnic minority of China dip branches into the river and sprinkle each other with water to express their friendship and best wishes. The climax of the water-splashing activity is when all attending the festival splash water upon each other, using buckets. Although all the people are soaked to the skin, all participants are happy!
Last year, the Denver Zoo did a program for middle school campers on the Chinese Zodiac. The Year of the Ox will be celebrated this year. People born under that sign are said to be hardworking, tolerant and persistent. Interestingly, our new president, Barak Obama, was born during a year of the ox, Aug. 4, 1961.
As always, with our wonderful facilitators from the Chinese community provide information, insight into tradition, storytelling, games, songs and dances to help both the parents and kids learn about China's rich and varied culture!!
With the help of our amazing Asian counselors and volunteers from the Chinese community, plus a cadre of professional speakers, we will again provide specialized programming for every age group. Middle and high school groups will have many exciting workshops and activities designed to promote friendships, including great recreational activities that can only be experienced in the beautiful Colorado Mountains. We expect that the Mahjong competition that the high school group started last year will continue.
The younger kids, from age 3 through 5th grade, will share the adventure of the Chinese Village, and learn new Chinese games, songs, dances, customs, tradition, and have one workshop that focuses on adoption related issues in an age appropriate way.
The adults can choose to attend sessions on adoption and family related issues, traveling to China, various cultural sessions, enjoy games of Mahjong, experiment with Chinese Cooking, or zip through the mountains on the Zip-Line.
Thinking about giving camp a try but want to know more?
Click here to read our Frequently Asked Questions and
"Four Days in the Life of Heritage Camp"
Click here to read about last year's camp. (Coming Soon)
For more pictures of Chinese Heritage Camp 2008 click here
Though we have generated very strong support from Colorado's Chinese community, we always need more volunteers to work with the kids, teach workshops, cook meals, and to be counselors at camp.
As a non-profit 501 C(3) organization, Chinese Heritage Camp is always seeking financial assistance to help keep camp costs reasonable for families, while providing an outstanding program. If you'd like to help, please go to the Donations section of this web site, and thank you very much in advance.
We are also in need of donations of frequent flier miles to help defray costs of our out of state speakers. If you have miles you can donate please email us at info@heritagecamps.org
We hope to see you at camp this summer. For further information, please contact us .
