2013 Co-Director: Jared Rehberg & Kristi Kremer
What does Vietnamese Heritage Camp mean to your family?
"The most valuable part of camp is the way our daughter looks forward to camp each year, and talks about different aspects of it all year. Her high level of comfort in being with kids and counselors that look like her, and being with multicultural families. Her pride in being "different" is such a refreshing contrast to how I grew up wanting to "blend in
"The kids like that everyone looks like them and they feel that they can talk to the other kids more easily because they are adopted."
"Camp is the one place where our child feels entirely comfortable about being adopted as well as Vietnamese. We live in an area with low ethnic diversity, and being able to see other kids and counselors that are so comfortable themselves has been great, especially as middle schoolers are trying to figure out how much they want to conform or be different. This is the one family activity she looks forward to and talks about all year long."
FOUR DAYS A SUMMER....IMPACT FOR LIFE!
Vietnamese Heritage Camp is one of a handful of camps in the US specifically designed for families with children adopted from Vietnam. Committed to exploring Vietnamese culture and growing as adoptive families, it is sponsored by the highly respected Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families, Inc.
The theme for the 2013 Vietnamese Heritage Camp will be “Chasing Dragonflies”. We will be using the creation myth of the Vietnamese people to explore Vietnamese identity, culture, folk stories and traditions.
“This story is about the children of Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ who are believed to be the ancestors of Vietnam. Today, Vietnamese people call themselves “the children of the Dragon and the Fairy” referring to Lạc Long Quân’s lineage from the world of the Dragons and Âu Cơ’s Fairy Clan from the highlands. Therefore, whichever part of the country one hails from, he belongs to one origin. Just as Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ promised to each other, all Vietnamese should love, honor and protect one another. This legend, then, has become the pride and bond of unity for all Vietnamese.” (From http://www.vietnam.com/article/lc-long-qun-and-u-c-the-legend-of-ancient-vietnam.html)
Along with this story, we will be sharing our own individual stories of adoption, family and identity. Doing this will allow us to strengthen our own families as well as friendships brought together through the bonds of adoption and Vietnamese culture.
What Can I Expect From Vietnamese Heritage Camp?
Join us this Summer in Estes Park!
As always, we will explore the unique gifts and challenges that come with our mostly transracial adoptive families. We realize that as your children grow, they will be dealing with issues faced by any child of color, no matter their country of birth. At our camp, they are with a sea of families who are like theirs, and with children who are in the majority for a few days. Though we enthusiastically celebrate their birth country, we also celebrate adoption as a culture of its own. The similarities of being with other families "just like theirs" is what really bonds the children and their families so immediately at our camps. The contributions from Vietnamese adult adoptees have been invaluable in this area for our campers, and for their parents as well.
We hope to see you at camp in July. For further information, please contact us or visit our Vietnamese Heritage Camp Facebook page
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