The celebrations of the 90th Anniversary of Camp Rising Sun are well under way!

This year, to mark the 90th anniversary and to celebrate with our wide, international alumni community, we will be visiting our international alumni association across the globe. This month we kicked off our tour when Board President, Tim Conners ‘73 visited events in Berlin, London, Helsinki, and Enniskillen! Read about his experience visiting with international alumni below. 

You can help us engage with our world-spanning alumni community! If you are interested in hearing about upcoming events close to you, reach out to Tim (timothyconners@gmail.com) today! If you have not heard about events in your area, we may not have accurate contact information to reach you. Reach out to contact@lajf.org to get your email address and other contact information updated.

Board President Tim Conners visited London, Berlin, Helsinki, and Enniskillen: 

90 years!   What a wonderful time to step back for a few moments and acknowledge all we have accomplished as a community!!!  Please also consider passing this information on to folks that we may not have current contact information for!

Want to hear about the initial celebrations?   Here are some people and some memories recalled…

IN LONDON, 

Chris Angus CRS ‘65 and Mark Bowden CRS ’67  remembered shaking Robert F. Kennedy’s hand during post-camp conference! A rebuild of the bridge across the Sawkill occurred in 1965. In London, we also regaled with our memories of Council and Wisdom Circles. Thanks to David Bauer ’02 for a top-notch tour of the Oxford campus and Melanie Almonte 97‘  who wrangled participants

IN BERLIN, 

I caught up with Michael Anyfantankis ’89 (living in Nottingham, doing business in Berlin and originally from Greece).  He is lobbying for a 90th celebration event in Greece!   Any alumni from Greece or living in Greece interested?  A visit to Abhijeet Nain’s ‘99 Café 12 (a Restaurant/Pub he owns), resulted in recollections of a positive connection that evolved between the Palestinian and Israeli campers. In addition, construction projects memories helped one believe that “if you can dream it, you can do it!” 

IN Helsinki,

As we celebrated 90 years of CRS, we noted that Finland has sent 100 campers to CRS. The day following the celebration marked the selection of campers 101 and 102!  The dinner conversation commentary included good memories of open friendships made, multi-talented campmates that hiked the Catskills successfully, completed construction projects, and high impact instructions.   Memories of the trip to the Smithsonian were also warmly remembered. This group had three campers that remember the trip to camp taking 11-12 weeks as it included two trips across the Atlantic in a ship, an 8-week camp, and an extensive post-camp conference.   A big thank you to Markku Huvinnen ('68) for his help seeing the key sites of Helsinki and Katri Raudaskkoski ’08 for organizing the evening celebration!

IN ENNISKILLEN,

If anyone is in doubt the green isle is, in fact, green, I am witness to that “greenness”! As a conversation ensued at dinner, memories of the Vigils, the camping trips, and the breadth of religious diversity at camp prevailed. A memory of being initiated to the New York sun included memories of the extraordinary sunburns.  

My trip to London, Berlin, Helsinki, and Enniskillen was a wonderful start to marking our 90th anniversary!  If you are curious about upcoming events or interested in helping organize an event in your region, Check out the events on LAJF.org or write timothyconners@gmail.com or alumni@lajf.org! If you have not heard about events in your area, we may not have accurate contact information to reach you.

The 90th anniversary year is underway, consider getting engaged!! 

Tim Conners

CRS ‘73, LAJF Board President