Thankful for Community

11/23/2016

Bring yourself back to summer time in the valley. After a long, hot day, everyone bustles into the dining hall hungry for dinner. The dining hall is full of friends, laughter, and clinking silverware. One of the cabins is called up to sing grace, we have a moment of silent reflection, and a moment of silliness. Your cabin mate hurries up to the serving line and brings back a hot, delicious tray of food for you to pass around the table and share with your cabin. We call this family style eating; we are all sitting at the table together, sharing food from the same bowl, eating together. Family style meals are one of the many things that we do at Frost Valley that build community.

Family style meals bring people together, encourage communication, allow people to relax together, and allows us to be thankful for our meal. The Family Dinner Project is a website promoting this idea of family style eating, take a moment to check it out as a family! https://thefamilydinnerproject.org/resources/faq/

Tomorrow, as well celebrate Thanksgiving, most of us will be eating family style, sharing a meal with loved ones. As you eat, take a moment to think about all that you are thankful for, think about the family that you are with, and think about the community that camp has brought to your life. I know that I am thankful for the Frost Valley community, and as I travel home for the holidays, I will be thinking of how grateful I am for my time spent with you!

I hope you all enjoy the community you are with during this special time, and I look forward to reuniting at Winter Camp! Keep doing amazing things in your communities at home, I am looking forward to hearing about how you are putting the core values into action!

Peace, Love, Bibbley, and happy Thanksgiving!

Lindsay

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nick Lomauro

Nick Lomauro is a lifetime lover of camp (overnight and day), outdoor recreation, and value-based programs. Nick grew up in the YMCA and discovered his passion for working in youth development as a summer camp counselor. Full of curiosity, Nick graduated from Montclair State University with a degree in General Humanities. Immediately following graduation Nick set off to Spain to hike the 500 mile ancient pilgrimage trail, El Camino de Santiago. Nick then returned to his childhood YMCA in NJ, of over 20 thousand members, as the Director of Youth Development. In this role he designed, developed, and implemented day camp and teen programs. In 2015, Nick returned to Frost Valley and he is now the Director of Camp Wawayanda. This is Nick's 16th summer at Frost Valley.