June 2023

The AV Staff of 2023 Have Arrived and Are in the Middle of Discipleship Weeks!

They're here! The 2023 AV Staff have touched down at The Antiochian Village Camp grounds and begun their journey through Discipleships Weeks, our Staff Training.

This year, we've been taking our staff training back to the basics, focusing on the small things that make the big moments happen in the Summer.

The First Annual AV Open Is a Huge Success!

About fifty Antiochian Village and Golf enthusiasts came together to whack some golf balls and support the cost of renovating the Old Dining Hall into Namie Hall this May. We had a wonderful day, despite the rain, and had some fierce competition! Thank you to all the sponsors, golfers, and volunteers who made this outing a success, and congratulations to the Karos team on their inaugural win!

Save the date for the next AV Open, Friday, May 17th, 2024!

Family Camp Closes Out the Spring Season

This past memorial day, our AV family made our weekend by coming back to camp for Family Camp! We were blessed to hear from guest speakers Father James and Khouria Gigi Shadid, who brought their whole family, and to engage in fun, fellowship, and prayer with every camper from the babies to the parents.

At over 300 family campers from 58 families, this was our largest family camp yet! We hope this amazing program continues strong, and can't wait to welcome everyone back next year with guest speaker Bishop JOHN Abdalah!

We were truly blessed to have his eminence Metropolitan SABA visit the Antiochian Village camp grounds shortly following his enthronement as our new hierarchical shepherd. Metropolitan Saba met with Father Chris and the camp staff, and took the time to get to know the camp grounds that so many campers have called home for the last four decades. We look forward to giving him a big AV welcome this Summer when he returns to meet the campers!

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 21to infinity.

Wow! This has been a busy year! We've replaced the siding, posts, and porch roof in the Pavilion; we've replaced the aging benches in the St. Thekla Outdoor Chapel; finished some updates to the Volunteer Cabins; installed a new roof on the Health Center Porch; completely remodeled the old infirmary; re-finished the St. Ignatius floor, which included completely re-doing the Sanctuary floor and the basement floor and bathrooms; and that doesn't even include the Shrines and new Cabin Saint Name Signs which are still being installed.

We have to thank The Antiochian Archdiocese of North America with all our heart for sponsoring so many of these renovations that will improve the quality of the Antiochian Village's environment and mission, and we also want to thank the donors who immediately offered to cover the costs of the rest of these projects upon hearing of the works we wanted to undertake.

The unity of our Antiochian Village Family, be they current staff, campers, or alumni, is inspirational, and we have you to thank for being part of the momentum that is helping The Village continue to transform lives through Orthodox Christian community living, faith, and love.

As we mentioned before, 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.

Concept interior rendering of a future indoor recreational sports and activities center which would potentially connect The Gathering Place, The Dining Hall, and Namie Hall into one large facility.

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 a local food-bank in Johnstown, PA. 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!

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.

A new year means a new office staff! Read on to find out who you might be on the phone with when you call this Summer.

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 only have a couple of spots open now in our Summer Camp Sessions, like 7 girls spots in Session 1, 2 girls spots in the one-week option for Session 1, 10 boys spots and 1 girls spot in Session 3, and a few spots left for graduating high schoolers in Arch Week! Make sure to nab a spot in one of our open programs now and finalize your Summer plans!

If you’re a graduating high school senior, Arch Week is just for you! Arch Week is a one-week program that seeks to provide resources for graduating high school seniors who are preparing to face spiritual, mental, and vocational growth. Arch Week helps students “bridge the gap” between life after high school and their beginning of young adulthood by helping “Archers” grow in their faith together through worship, fellowship, service, reflection, and education. All this takes place within the fun environment of camp, with classic camp activities like evening program, sports events, and cabin times.

The program is guided by clergy who lead the various church services throughout the week, teach lessons, and promote discussion. Arch Week also provides guest speakers who offer help with topics like mental health, serving Christ in the secular world, and transitioning to new environments. In terms of hands-on experience, Archers will get the chance to go off-camp to explore Pittsburgh and work with Neighborhood Resilience Project and Orthodox Volunteer Corps as their capstone. And, of course, it wouldn’t be camp without a fun group of counselors who take a week out of their Summer to help prepare this engaging and fulfilling program.

Arch Week has 11 spots left, so register now! All 2023 High School Graduates are welcome

to join us July 2^nd-9^th, 2023, at the Antiochian Village Camp. If you have questions, learn more at the lick below, or contact us by phone or email at office@avcamp.org, (724) 238-9565

Volunteer Staff applications are still open for this Summer. If you're interested in spending a week or two at The Village, contact volunteer@avcamp.org.

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!

Liam "Bouroulakis" Boris (with Luke Shadid)

Our Spring has turned to Summer, and our interns Liam Boris and Constantine Kallaur have officially turned in their house keys and moved on to Summer Staff. Liam and Constantine were a huge part of our AV team and year-round family this year, and their tireless work and projects benefitted both the office and the greater AV community. We hope you all join us in praying that God will grant them many years, and a blessed future as they move forward in their professional lives.

Constantine "Tino" Kallaur

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!

Our Antiochian Village Staff began to arrive halfway through the month of May, eager to prepare the programs that the campers will be experiencing this Summer.

In addition to preparing their respective programs, the Summer Staff also went out of their way to help with programs like our new AV Golf Open and Family Camp.

Our full Support Staff, affectionately called the trunk crew this year, finished arriving in time to run Family Camp at the end of May. During the following week, our Week One of Discipleship Weeks, the support staff finished setting up the various programs of the Summer like our Christian Education Morning Program, our Ropes and Challenge Course program, and the many other activities that engage the campers and provide them with opportunities to grow.

Week Two of Discipleship Weeks saw the arrival of our full staff. The counselors learned from our trunk crew and the guest speakers and trainers we were blessed with for week two. Thanks to the hard work of the staff and the dedication of our colleagues in the camping community, The AV 2023 Staff have completed numerous trainings and certifications to make them qualified to maintain a safe environment for every camper that visits this camp this Summer, across a variety of areas.

Through it all, our Head Counselors Alexandra Kallaur and Jojo Karos have been tirelessly working to provide the staff members themselves opportunities to grow closer to each other, closer to God, and closer to the campers they will eventually be ministering to.

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