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Latin American Heritage Camp |
| June 26th - 29th, 2008 Snow Mountain Ranch Fraser, CO |
| 2008 Co-Directors: Shelley Wiley and Patrice Clark |
| Click here to download a slideshow. |
“Bravo! We had a great, great time and will return for sure.” -LAHC Evaluation Comment |
“We love camp.....The kids didn’t
want it to end.” 
Latin
American Heritage Camp in Colorado is one of the few camps of its kind in the
country, designed specifically for families with children adopted from Central
and South America, as well as those of Latino heritage
adopted within the United States. It is one of ten camps facilitated by the
highly respected Colorado Heritage Camps, Inc. Latin American 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 Latino Americans who enthusiastically share
their expertise with adoptive families.
Latino 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 Latino cooking and customs to the blessings and challenges inherent in our adoptive families.
LAHC also encourages young adult Latino adoptees to join us as counselors to
gain a deeper understanding of their culture while sharing their own adoption stories with each other
and their younger counterparts.
This year's camp will again be held in the beautiful Colorado Rockies at the YMCA Snow Mountain
Ranch facility near Winter Park, CO www.ymcarockies.org -
a family vacation destination in itself. Registration materials will be going out this Winter, so NOW
is the time to request registration information to be placed on our
mailing list.
Additionally, young adult Latino adoptees have the opportunity to attend camp as counselors or
workshop facilitators, and gain the same cultural appreciation and awareness as their younger counterparts,
while sharing their own adoption experiences. We also welcome members of Colorado's rich Latino community
who help us keep the camp culturally relevant each and every year as counselors, workshop facilitators,
activity consultants, and more!
What's happening in
2008 – El
Corazon: In and From the Heart
This
year’s theme revolves around both the taking in and the giving
out from the heart (el corazon). There are so many opportunities available
at Latin American Heritage Camp to fill everyone’s hearts. For
most families, this amazing camp becomes a yearly ‘have to’ event,
even when home is far away.
The children talk about the importance of being with others “just
like us.” From preschool through high school, there are culturally
rich classes and fun activities where children spend time together with
their peers. From Latino games, crafts, music, and more, the kids reconnect
with old friends and meet new ones.
This
year preschool and elementary kids will participate in many activities
including experiencing a theatrical mercado production, playing soccer,
making traditional handicrafts, and in the village there will be various
crafts such as making birth country placemats and creating and/or decorating
fiesta wear. They will continue with HeArt Talks which focuses on adoption
related issues. The preschoolers will also have storytime along with
an opportunity for a siesta. Some of younger grades will have a Spanish
class while older elementary will play mini-golf. Creative drama and
dance are offered for the elementary aged kids also.
The
Middle Schoolers will have a team building low ropes course along with
canoeing, plus having choices in various activities from dance or
soccer, to climbing wall or a short hike. The village projects for Middle
School and High School kids include making/decorating tin ornaments and
creating woven belts, along with something not yet decided!
High School teens will have a high challenge course to help team building
along with having choices in various workshops: dance, cooking, village,
canoeing races, climbing wall. Those kids who will be seniors next
year will be provided with a discussion of how to stay connected
beyond high
school.
There will be an Adoptee Panel workshop of young adopted adults facilitated
by our returning facilitator, Astrid Dabbeni, for each group. Once again
both groups will participate in the More than Me workshops, with the
Russ Urrutia and Cynthia Baron facilitating, where the youth will be
decorating and selling caps to make money to help support a water project
in a Peruvian village, along with deciding which country and project
they will be supporting for 2009.
We are offering a wonderful variety of adult workshops and the titles
are as follows: Adolescent and Adopted-How to Survive/Thrive as a Parent;
Latin American Holidays and Life Cycle Events; Adoption in the Movies/Media;
The Heart of Non-Violent Communication; Latin American Cooking; Giving
from the Heart; Latin American Handicrafts, Music, and the Arts; Adult
Hike; plus the very popular roundtable discussions. As parents we share
experiences and listen to one another, and learn from experts to help
ourselves become better parents.
Mercedes
Hammer, an adult adoptee and native of Nicaragua who has participated
in camp for the past 11 years brings her enthusiasm and dance moves back
to camp, sharing that Latin flavor with us all! So many of the children
LOVE Mercedes and enjoy learning and performing new dances! Our Saturday
night Fiesta will include dance performances by various groups of our
children along with Mercedes, plus more! We may even have a talent show.
From Denver’s Latino community, we welcome back Russ Urrutia and
Cynthia Baron, who are a married couple and Latino counselors. They bring
their knowledge, enthusiasm and good humor to camp. They will once again
be working with middle school and high school kids as well as conducting
adult workshops.
Back
for her third year, Astrid Dabbeni, an adult adoptee originally from
Columbia, will share her insight and expertise with the older kids and
parents. Astrid is uniquely qualified, both personally and professionally,
to speak on the topic of adoption movies and media as well as leading
an adoptee panel and dealing with issues of trans-racial adoption. We
are totally thrilled to have her returning again to camp! Everyone who
meets Astrid seems to get their hearts filled full as she is so affirming
and supportive, as well as a wonderful teacher.
We also are pleased with all of the rest of our wonderful presenters we have lined up this year: Monica Heptner is returning again this year to camp to lead the elementary children in creative drama; Maria Garcia is also coming back to teach Spanish to the younger children; Julio Laris and Mario Plaza are both appreciatively returning to camp to assist the preschool and elementary kids with soccer; Viky Valencia and Jeff Orrey will be first timers to our camp and will be providing these preschool and elementary children with a theatrical production of a mercado (how cool is that?!); Kathryn Jens, a Denver psychologist, will lead workshops on dealing with raising adopted teens; Shari Blint, from Minnesota and executive director of Common Hope, will present workshops talking about this organization and its partnering with families from Guatemala; Margie Rodriquez, from Denver, is returning again to teach her popular Latin American cooking classes for both HS and adults; Rita Wallace, also from Denver and returning to camp, will be offering workshops on traditional handicrafts for the elementary grades and will explore Latin American music and arts with the adults; our own LAHC parents, Sue Jordan-Kertzner and Ron Kertzner, who will lead workshops dealing with nonviolent communication; and last but not least, John Hammer, a Denver resident, will once again be leading a hike for middle school and also another hike for adults who sign up to get out in the fresh air.
The Market will be filled with crafts from all over Latin America, and
memorabilia from soccer balls to flags that celebrate your child’s
country of origin. There will also be an assortment of adult and children’s
books on topics ranging from adoption to Latin American Fiction.
Whether you've been coming to camp since the beginning or are thinking
of attending this year for the first time, LAHC 2008 will have something
for everyone in your family! We are excited to meet new and reunite with
old friends and we invite you to join us for a heart filled week-end.
Located 75 miles west of Denver in the heart of the Rocky Mountains,
the setting is truly spectacular!
Come for the HEART FILLED week-end.
Create HEART FILLED memories
for a lifetime!
We hope to see you at LAHC 2008!
Thinking about giving camp a try but want to know more?
PLEASE
contact one of our co-directors Shelley Wiley or Patrice
Clark who would be
happy to answer any questions!
Come one, come all to LAHC 2008,
THE place to be June 26 to June 29.
Space
is limited, so please sign up early.
Click here to read about last year's camp.
For more pictures of Latin American Camp 2007 click here
We look forward to seeing your family at camp!
Though
we have generated very strong support from Colorado's Latin American community,
we are always looking for more volunteers to
work with the kids, teach workshops, cook meals, etc., and to be counselors at
camp.
As a non-profit 501 C(3) organization, Colorado Heritage Camp is always
seeking financial assistance to help keep camp costs reasonable for families,
and still provide 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 out of state speakers. If you have miles you can donate please email us at info@heritagecamps.org
For more pictures of Latin American Camp 2007 click here
We hope to see you at camp this summer. For further information, please contact us.
