By Koen Roskamp, Merel van Helten and Gerrianne Pennings

While it was still freezing at Clinton, the first days of spring weather had arrived in the Netherlands. For a couple years, the Dutch alumni enjoy that lovely spring weather together. Not only at the spring gathering to welcome the new campers, but also during the National Day of Community Service, called NL Doet, which can be translated to ‘the Netherlands Acts’. The idea behind this day is to come together as alumni and to apply what we learnt at Camp Rising Sun to our own country. A little bit of project time on a Saturday in March. Our youngest alumni organise this yearly event with support of a board member of the Dutch Alumni Association. This year the task was up to Merel van Helten and Koen Roskamp (CRS ’16). More than 15 alumni that attended camp somewhere between 1971 and 2016, including family and friends participated this year. We had an exciting day of building and digging.

NL Doet started fifteen years ago. The foundation behind the organisation sponsors all kinds of projects in the whole country. This year more than 350.000 volunteers participated in 9.500 projects. This year, the Dutch alumni came together to help in Utrecht at a public garden that grows vegetables and fruits for the neighbourhood, local restaurants, and volunteers.