The Spark newsletter to the BYM Camp families contains the following: A Letter to Campers The directors of our camps have a letter written directly to your children. Here’s what they want to make all campers hear from them before camp starts:
To all our fabulous campers new and returning (and to all of those wonderful staff and volunteers too!) Our friends, I’m sure you’ve noticed that we are in a hard time in our country, a time where lots of people are being judged and excluded and treated badly. That weighs heavily on our hearts and it makes us more excited than ever to create a community with you this summer where each of us can be fully welcomed and belong. So we wanted to get a jump start on reminding you now that in just a few short months, we can’t wait to welcome you!
We can’t wait to welcome you and your family if you have been in this country since your grandparents, grandparents, grandparents, or if you’ve just arrived, or if your ancestors were the first humans who ever lived here. We can’t wait to welcome all the things you want to share about that family: the languages you speak, your favorite comfort food, the funny inside jokes you have, the pet name your aunty calls you.
We can’t wait to welcome all our boys and girls (no matter who someone said they were when they were first born) and all our campers who aren’t boys or girls! We are excited for you to show up just as you are with all of the fun quirks and special sauce that make you you. We trust you when you say who you are. And we love creating lots of space for you to still be figuring that out too.
At camp we know that every group of people is equally full of goodness or “Light” even though we are not all the same. By respecting each other's differences (and being open to the places we might be more similar than we thought!) we can learn from each other and have fun in new ways. We are excited for you to bring all the things you’ve learned from whoever your people are.
At camp we want to celebrate the awesomeness that comes in bodies of all different shapes and sizes, and in minds of all different types and styles. We all challenge ourselves to do new things, knowing that what is hard for one person might be easy for another and vice versa. But all of us bring gifts to the community that only we can bring and the community wouldn’t be the same without each one of us.
Because of all that, we are excited to welcome you, each one of you, and all parts of you. We can’t wait for the community you will help us create together! With so much love,
The BYM Camp Directors: Dyresha (CQC), Brick (OQC), Hope (SQC), Rosie, and Jesse (TA)
Encourage kids aged 9-14 to sign up for camp. There is a sliding-scale for registration fees and RFM has additional scholarships available. Encourage your non-Quaker friends to sign up their kids too!
If your child is already signed up, you can earn $200 by referring other kids who sign up for camp.
Sign up for Spring Work Days. The one at Shiloh Quaker Camp is the first Saturday in May.
Donate to BYM Camps scholarships or to RFM scholarships.
Ask how else you can help: Anna Best and Al Best are the RFM contacts.
Judge Theodore Chuang has blocked the Department of Homeland Security from conducting enforcement actions (raids, arrests) "in or near any place of worship" associated with our lawsuit. This is a temporary block and is specific to the places of worship that filed our case. Nevertheless, we can be hopeful that similar cases will also be successful. Read the press release from Democracy Forward.
Three Friends travelled to the Pawnee nation in Oklahoma to deliver a $10,000 check from Baltimore Yearly Meeting. The check was the first of two offered in reparation for a school run for several years in the late 1800s by BYM Quakers that was disrespectful and disruptive of native culture. Check the upcoming winter Interchange for an article on our visit. A more complete report will be placed on our committee’s website.
At the time of this writing, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (H.R. 7227, S.1723), which passed the U.S. Senate on December 20, is awaiting a vote in the crowded agenda of the U.S. House of Representatives. Thanks to all who have worked for this bill and made calls on its behalf. Stay tuned to news from the Friends Committee on Legislation’s coordinator for Native American legislative issues, Rachel Overstreet, a member of the Choctaw Nation. You can sign up to receive FCNL’s Native American legislative update at this address: https://www.fcnl.org/issues/native-americans
The Fourth and final session of Quakerism 101 will be held at the Meetinghouse on January 26 at 9:30 am.
Topic --"Quakers in the Wider World."
Kelly Kennedy will facilitate beginning with a PowerPoint including maps of Quakers in Virginia, the nation, and worldwide. With the help of three Friends with deep experience in organizations such as Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Friends General Conference, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and Friends in Unity with Nature, we'll look at how Quaker values drive their work and their outcomes.
Bring your coffee and join us Sunday January 26, at 9:30 in the Community Room. Childcare will be provided at 9:15.
The Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM) Annual Session will be in person for the first time since August 2019 with online programs as well. It is the time where folks from all over our Yearly Meeting gather to worship, conduct business and enjoy a wide variety of programs and activities, including morning worship sharing groups, evening plenaries, in person and on-line workshops, intergenerational activities, Meeting for Worship with attention to Business, interest groups and a two day retreat. There is programming for children, Junior Young Friends and Young Friends. Come up for the day or stay for as long as you like. ASE has funds available for people wishing to attend. Explore all the information about the Annual Session on the BYM website. Commemorating 350 Years and 100 years of Camping Programs Theme: Consider the Wildflowers- Rooted in History, Growing Toward Spirit August 1-7-In Person Hood College, Frederick MD Pre-Session Online Workshops-6/26. 6/28 and 6/30 DEADLINE for In-Person Registration: July 15
The Baltimore Yearly Meeting wholeheartedly supports the establishment of a national commission to seek truth and a measure of justice for those still suffering the residual effects of public policies that created and maintained hundreds of boarding schools for Indigenous children in the United States from 1869 through the 1960s. We support legislation to fund such a commission. Once established we will hold the people who come before it and the commission members in the Light, in expectation that airing of harms and traumas will lead to some healing of long-suffered wounds. We want a commission that yields real results and changes, not a report that gathers dust on a shelf.
We applaud the fact that one intention of the commission is to prevent continued removal of Indigenous (American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian) children from their families, communities, and cultural connections by adoption and foster care agencies.
We urge research by faith groups that ran residential schools, especially the Religious Society of Friends, to provide explicit data requested by the federal government as part of the commission’s documentation of all boarding schools and students. We believe accountability requires robust cooperation.
Let’s be clear. It is OUR job to do the physical work to open our BYM camps. Work is available for all abilities and skill levels. Sign up and invite others! Announcements will go out in newsletters, but personal invitations help.
There is a LOT of work to do. BYM Staff cannot and should not do it all. Let’s descend on camps in such numbers that we run out of work to do--early.
How to Sign Up
Three Sign Up Genius links, one for each of the residential camps:
BYM Camp Registration opened on January 15 at 7 pm! There are still slots at all of the camps and we encourage all 9-17 year-olds to attend one of our three residential camps or Teen Adventure. https://bymcamps.org/
This year the BYM Camping Program Committee has dramatically changed our fee structure this year in hopes of making camp more accessible to all who want to attend. As you probably saw in the 2020 Firecircle (https://t.e2ma.net/click/kaj8ki/06ak7t/kq3apkc) there is a new sliding scale fee structure for campers this year. CPC has long sought ways to provide the BYM camping experience to a wider range of kids regardless of their ability to afford the full cost of camp. The sliding scale gives each family the opportunity to choose a fee which fits their budget.
In years past RFM and other monthly meetings have sponsored campers from their monthly meeting by paying either full or part of the cost of camp. This has allowed campers from families with limited financial means to experience Quaker camp. With the new fee schedule, some campers will pay the full cost of camp, some will attend for less, and others may pay in excess of the full amount. But to make sure camp expenses are met with this sliding fee scale, the CPC is asking monthly meetings to consider making scholarship money used in the past to sponsor individual campers a contribution directly to the camping program. Individuals are also encouraged to donate if able, using a one time or monthly contribution to the camping program.
If you have questions, please call Anna Best or Brooke Davis who currently serve on CPC. Brian Massey, our new Camping Program Manager, would also be glad to talk with folks who have questions about the registration system, as well as how the sliding scale and work grants could help their children, grandchildren or other kids attend camp this summer.
Friends, you have heard about the upcoming moi spiritual formation program at RFM - an opportunity to deepen our spiritual understanding and practice, as individuals and as a community. Baltimore Yearly Meeting's spiritual formation program serves as an umbrella for local spiritual formation groups - like the group at RFM - across the yearly meeting. BYM offers a fall and spring retreat each year to support and enhance the spiritual formation experience in local meetings. The 2020 fall retreat will be online Sept 18 and 19 - information below or at https://t.e2ma.net/message/ky9c5h/0igo71cThe retreat will be led by experienced facilitators Amy Schmaljohn and Alan Evans. It's an opportunity for a time of retreat and a chance to connect with Friends across the yearly meetingThe retreat fee will be "pay as led" so cost should not be a barrier. All are welcome at this retreat - whether or not you are able to participate in Richmond's Spiritual Formation program over the coming year.
For information about the upcoming year-long spiritual formation program at RFM, please contact Joe Ball at jball@newarka.edu
Contact me if you have questions about the BYM weekend retreat - it's under the care of BYM Ministry and Pastoral Care committee, where I serve as a member.
