FEBRUARY 2023

This May we're inviting you to come join us just a fair-way down the road to the green of Champion Lake Golf Course for the first ever AV Open Golf Tournament! Sunny days should be par for the weather that time of year, and we're looking forward to seeing who wants to play through this slice of the Spring weekend.

All proceeds will go towards the Namie Hall renovations to benefit camper education at The Antiochian Village.

For anyone who might find making the tournament this year a little rough, but still wants to follow-through on their dedication to AV's programs, we're also accepting sponsorships for the tournament from Ace people like you.

Registration for players and sponsors is open now on our website. If you have an eagle-eye for more info, or if you're on the hook from all our golf puns and want to register/sponsor, click the links below.

The Antiochian Village's newest program debuts Saturday, May 20th, 2023.

Chilly for Florida is balmy for us! The full-time staff of AV flew down to Orlando for this year's Orthodox Youth Workers' Conference at the start of February.

Our "community of learners," as Fr. Nicholas Belcher called us during his presentation, came together to learn from each other for the week. We were blessed to hear from an incredible panel of speakers like Fr. Nick, Christian Gonzalez and the leaders of OYM (Orthodox Youth Ministry), Katrina Bitar of the YES program (Youth Equipped to Serve), Dr. Ann Mitsakos Bezzerides of the CrossRoad Institute, and many more.

After a time of fellowship, fun, and education with our fellow youth workers from across a variety of jurisdictions from the Orthodox world in America, the AV full-time staff are already hard at work enacting the knowledge and resources we gained at the conference. By your prayers, both our work here at The Antiochian Village, and the work of Orthodox youth workers throughout the world, will continue to cultivate environments beneficial to the well-being and growth of our young people, and ourselves.

Actually, 91% there! Our Summer Sessions are steadily filling up, and we recommend that if anyone is still on the fence, they sign up now before the other sessions fill up the same way that Session 2 and Iconography Camp have filled up.

For those who are holding out for a specific session, especially those high on the waitlists, while we totally understand how important it can be to go to "your session," take it from some of us who have had to switch sessions before: any session can easily become "your session," and you might not even want to switch back to your old session once you try a new one!

For Arch Week, our one week program for graduating high school seniors, we have 19 spots open.

For Byzantine Chant Camp, we still have 9 spots open.

Iconography Camp is full, with a small waitlist.

Session 1 has 32 spots open.

Session 2 is completely full, with an 86 person waitlist.

Session 3 is nearing capacity at 11 open spots for boys, and 0 for girls.

Session 4 still has 29 open spots left.

As we continue to define the roles at The Antiochian Village, learning both what the program needs from its workers as it grows and what the staff need from the program to continue their own personal development, we are building the AV Internship program into a variety of concentrated options.

Interns for the 2023-2024 year will be working directly with a member of the full-time team in the role they are applying for. That might mean doing program event planning with Cat, social media and communications work with Nick, database planning with Tamalyn, or development and alumni relations with Cade.

• Program Intern
• Development Intern
• Operations Intern
• Communications Intern
• Professional Best Friend to Belle and Louie... but really that's everyone's responsibility

Interns are welcome to apply for a Fall-Spring internship, or a shorter semester-long internship if unable to commit to the full nine months. The typical week for an intern consists of a Tuesday-Friday work week from 9am-5pm, plus being available to help with most of our weekend programs.

In addition to gaining a year of experience in a full-time camp and youth-ministry environment, interns at The Village will have the opportunity to attend conferences like the Orthodox Youth Workers' Conference and the Tri-State ACA Convention. These events are excellent opportunities not just for personal growth, but can especially be beneficial for networking with Orthodox professionals. We're not the only ministry out there, and events like OYCC may introduce you to a number of opportunities for ministry, and to the Orthodox leaders who run such programs.

We're currently searching for Nurses who are available to help 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 only 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.

We are sad to share the news that one of The Antiochian Village’s most cherished icons of Christ has passed away.

Aunt Pearl Nahass was more than just the original camp nurse. She was famous for being there for all the campers and counselors in every way, but especially for being someone who would listen to whoever needed to talk. Even Father John, the founding camp director, said that no one has done more for The Village than she did.

The outpouring of love and support Aunt Pearl gave to her camp family in her life was exemplified in the attendance of her funeral. Many wonderful things were said about her, and some were even surprised to learn that Aunt Pearl had advocated for an Antiochian Orthodox camp for many years leading up to the founding of The Antiochian Village.

You can see in this picture just a handful of Villagers who love and miss her, and who were able to gather for this picture at her mercy meal.

We hope you join us in praying for Aunt Pearl’s family, and in praying for Aunt Pearl.



May her memory be eternal!

Submissions are in for the Namie's Nook Contest, and the judges have chosen their favorite three. Voting is open until the end of the day today (Wednesday).

The winner will receive a free T-Shirt with their design on it, a T-Shirt that will be sold in the Namie's Nook store starting Summer 2023!

While we've been blessed to receive some extra funds every year from Amazon Smile donations, we're sad to hear that Amazon is discontinuing their Smile service.

While Amazon will no longer be donating a portion of your purchases to non-profits like us, you can still be purposeful in your giving and donate to us directly, or purchase items for us on our Amazon Wishlist.

We want to thank those of you who took the time to sign up for Amazon Smile and set up The Antiochian Village Camp as your chosen non-profit. Thanks to your time and purchases, the funds we have received have taken a little pressure off our budget these last few years.

Winter Family Camp was a joy for all involved, from superhero night to snowy angle ball to our awesome speakers, the Loposky's. Check out the link below for pictures from this awesome event.

Winter Camp

February 17-20, 2023

Guest Speakers: Erin Ghata, Karen Hanna, & Fr. Philip Rogers

Registration Closed

Family Camp

May 27-May 29, 2023

Guest Speaker: Fr. James and Kh. Gigi Shadid

Registration Full - Waitlist Spots Available

Summer Camp

June 18-August 11, 2023

Registration Now Open! FILLING UP FAST!