We will be gathering to connect and hang out as well as decorate cookies. We will donate our completed cookies Preble Street (an organization serving families experiencing homelessness). Who: Any Friends Camp community member. Bring a friend who might be interested in Friends Camp! Children should be accompanied by adults. What: Decorating cookies, snacking, and hanging out. When: Saturday, December 16th, 4-6 pm. Drop in any time. Where: Portland Friends Meeting (1837 Forest Ave) Why: To enjoy being together and engage in service. *********** Teenage campers are invited to stay from 6-8 pm and join the Portland Area Quaker Youth Group for board games and pizza! RSVPs for the teen gathering are appreciated, so that we can plan to have enough food. RSVP here, or check out the Facebook event. ************ We are looking for a few volunteer families to bring cookies (ready for decorating). Please email Anna (director@friendscamp.org)  if you are interested in helping out.

Top 10 Reasons to Work at Friends Camp (as told by the 2017 summer staff) You know your work matters, because impacting campers is so important. It feels like even the little things you do help people. Bonding with people from all around the world and creating lasting friendships with fellow staffers. Your bosses and coworkers care about you as a whole human and value the things you are good at. The food rocks. (Plus, if you’re lucky you might get some yummy cookies). Stretching your creative boundaries—if you can come up with the program idea, you can usually make it happen. Alien invasions, bottle rockets, the list is endless. A summer job where housing and food is taken care of for you. We even do your laundry and give you basic first-aid. Summer in Maine. The weather is lovely, and there’s lots of beautiful outdoor, relaxing, or culinary adventures you can explore on time off! Emphasis on Quaker Values—everyone contributes and has value. It is incredibly motivating to be trusted and appreciated by campers! Develop skills that will help you in almost any career, including teamwork, planning, thinking on your feet, communication, and more. Many employers love to hire former camp counselors, because they know they are dedicated, creative, and caring. To apply to work at Friends Camp, visit the employment page of this website. You can also contact the camp director, Anna, at (207) 445-2361 or director@friendscamp.org.

Diversity in Session Names for 2018 For about ten years, the four sessions at Friends Camp have been named after famous Quakers whom we admire. In examining our session names, the Friends Camp Committee wanted to be sure we were honoring the diversity of our camper population and of historic Quaker wisdom. We are very excited to present Lucretia Mott and Bayard Rustin as two new sessions. We admire these Friends for their work advancing racial justice and equity and for their Quaker teachings. To make space for Mott and Rustin sessions, we have retired the session names Dyer and Fox, after Mary Dyer and George Fox. We’ll still be singing the George Fox song, though—a camp favorite! Jones Session (Ages 7-12) Rufus Jones Rufus Jones (1863-1948) is a local Friend. He was born and raised in South China, within a few miles of Friends Camp! Rufus’ father was a farmer, and he came from a family with deep Quaker roots. Rufus was a student at Moses Brown School in Providence, RI, and then at Haverford College, where he later became a professor. He was a co-founder of the American Friends Service Committee and a prolific Quaker writer. He saw Quakerism more as a “movement” than a religion, and he is credited with popularizing the George Fox quote that there is “that of God” in everyone. Sources: Wikipedia and the American Friends Service Committee Website (www.afsc.org) Lucretia Mott Mott Session (Ages 10-13) Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) was an abolitionist, teacher, mother, minister in Quaker meeting, pacifist, and proponent of equality among men and women. Born on Nantucket to a Quaker family, Mott was unrelenting in her pursuit of equality for women and [...]