Got those winter time blues? Summer and Camp won’t come soon enough?  Now you only have to wait till April to see your Unalayee friends and counselors.  Come for a walk and picnic with us at the Pearson-Arastradero Preserve in Palo Alto!

Come reminisce about summer camp without leaving your home town! Or if you are new to Unalayee, this is your opportunity to meet us!

Missing your friends and counselors from Unalayee? Come catch up with everyone from camp you haven’t seen in months (and those you have) without having to go all the way to camp!  If you’ve heard of us but haven’t met us yet, come and get to know us!

Will we see YOU at the play day?

Where: Blue Lake Roller Rink - 310 S Railroad St, Blue Lake, CA 95525

When: Sunday March 25th 2012, 2pm – 5pm.  If you can’t make it at the beginning or can’t stay the whole time, stop by whenever works for you!

Who: YOU! Bring your friends (Unalayee-ites and not) too. Everyone is welcome.  Katie Dodd and Mario Wyon will be there as well!

What: Roller Skating! Fun! Bring your own skates if you want or get them from the rink!

Cost: $4 for kids/teens, $5 for adults.  The cost goes entirely to the Blue Lake Roller Rink for your admission.  Unalayee is not charging any additional fee for this event.  

If you don’t know Unalayee, come over and learn more about our summer camp for kids programs and meet some of our community members and staff.

Questions? RSVP?  E-mail friends@gocampu.com

This is your chance to catch up with your friends and counselors from the best summer camp for kids ever without leaving your home town! Or if we aren’t friends yet, this is your chance to get to know us!

Where: Natural Bridges State Beach.  Meet on the beach just down from the entrance at West Cliff Drive and Swanton Blvd. 

When: Saturday March 17th 2012. 12:30pm – 3:30pm.  Low tide is at 2:00pm, so don’t be late, we want to be out at the tide pools around 1:00pm!

Who: YOU! Bring your friends too. Everyone is invited. No previous Unalayee experience necessary.  Galen Camp, Jocie Moore, Sarah Camp, Phil Lee, and Cody Hallenbeck will be there too!

What: Bring a bag lunch, we’ll eat on the beach, and then head over to the tide-pools to check out the amazing sea life that lives just a few feet off our coast line.  Afterwards we’ll head back to the beach for a game of ultimate frisbee!   

If you are new to Unalayee, come on down and learn a little bit more about our program and get to know some of our community.

Questions? RSVP?  E-mail friends@gocampu.com

Raincheck:  If it looks like rain, we’ll figure out a drier back-up plan!

This is your chance to meet Lowell Fitch, our director of over 25 years, as well as some of our other long time staff members.  If you are already a Unalayee community member and have friends who are interested in our summer camp, please let them know about this opportunity to learn more about our program!

We will have a 10 minute slideshow presentation and then answer questions and address any concerns you might have about our organization or our summer camp program.  See you there!

The two meetings are as follows:

If you would like to meet our director or staff members, but neither of these dates or locations work with your schedule, consider attending one of our Camper Play Days; many Unalayee staff members will be on hand at these events and would be more than happy to answer your questions.  

Or, contact us at friends@gocampu.com, and we’ll set up a time and a place that works for you and your family!

Happy New Year!  Hope you had a great holiday season. Despite the winter weather I hope you are getting outside and enjoying some good walks along a beach or a trail. Perhaps you are snowboarding or skiing in the mountains.

As you can see, we have a lot of things going on as we plan for the coming summer.  Perhaps I’ll get to see you at a Camper Play Day, a Meet the Staff Day, or at the Reunion.

Thank you for all of your wonderful cards, notes and support. Our membership drive is going great! I am already excited to get back up to camp and have a campfire with all of you.
                
Keep on hiking.
Lowell

Keep in Touch with your Friends:
Attend a Unalayee Event this Winter or Spring! 

Those winter nights are long, aren’t they? It’s hard to imagine sometimes that summer will ever come again.  Well, Unalayee can assure you that those lingering warm summer days are on the way, and in the mean time we’ve got a way to keep your spirits up and your mind up at Camp…

Unalayee will be hosting five free Camper Play Days this winter and spring! Attend the one in your area to meet up with your Unalayee friends that you havent’ seen in months.  We’ll also be hosting a number of Meet our Staff events if you have friends who are interested in Unalayee and want to get to know some faces.  And don’t forget about our Annual Reunion!  It’s only three months away! Yay!

Visit our Events Page frequently to keep up on all of these exciting upcoming opportunities for you, your friends, and your family!

Thank You for 17 Years of Amazing Service

As we move into 2012 we celebrate the first birthday of our new website. With this event in mind, we would like to send out a special thank you to Rick Perlman, Eric Perlman, and Ed Corpus for the countless hours and dedication they gave to making our origional website a reality.

Rick and Pam Perlman, long time Unalayee Community members and supporters, came to Unalayee for many years and sent their children Eric and Caitlin to camp again and again.  Rick and Eric first registered our domain name, unalayee.org, in 1995, and hosted it on their server, “Yikes”, for free for the following 17 years. The donation of their very reliable server and the support they gave us in keeping unalayee.org on the web have been fundamental in bringing Unalayee into the 21st century and getting us where we are today.  

Ed Corpus, refered to Unalayee by long time board member Mohini Peters, was instrumental in designing, maintaining, and updating the webpage for over 7 years.  His artistic and web design talents made the webpage an attracitve workable website which has bringing campers to camp for well over a decade now!

Both Ed and Rick were Camp Unalayee Board of Directors members for many years, and we cannot express our thanks enough to all three of these amazing community members who have selflessly donated their time and expertise to us over the years. 

Program Spotlight: Girls Getaway

The 2012 Summer season isn’t so far off anymore.  Registration is now open for all of our programs! 

This summer we are bringing back an awesome Special Program: the Girls Getaway! This extended 11-day backpacking trip is designed especially for girls of all ages.  It gives the girls a chance to get out into the wilderness with other kids like themselves and learn how much they really are capable of. Use the buttons below to learn more about Girls Getaway or register today for any of our camper programs. Space is limited, so don’t wait too long!

Photo Contest

And the most important information first: last newsletter’s answer!  The building in the December newsletter was the old foodshack! We had many correct guesses and some not so correct ones, but they were still good tries; keep up the good work!

Forward! Where was this photo taken?
Be the first to e-mail your answer to friends@gocampu.com and receive a water bottle as a prize! Or have your prize sent to a friend as a reminder that you are thinking of them in the off-season!  Good Luck!

Click here to forward this to a friend

Didn’t get this newsletter by E-mail?  If you’d like to, fill out the “Sign Up for the CampU Updates” box on the right hand side of this page.  Make sure to click the link in the follow up e-mail in order to complete your sign-up!

This year we are planning to do more of these fun get togethers, and we are coming to an area near you!  This winter and spring we are planning to have camper get togethers in Santa Cruz, Palo Alto, The East Bay, Arcata, and Ashland.

Keep checking back here for information, dates, and the exact locations of these upcoming events! Click the location to get more information on the specific event.

Santa Cruz – March 17th – A St. Patrick’s Day Party! Come celebrate the Irish with us at Natural Bridges State Beach.  We’ll have lunch and go tide pooling!

Arcata – March 25th – Roller Skating at Blue Lake Skating Rink!

Palo Alto – April 7th – Nature Hike and Picnic in Pearson-Arastradero Preserve. 

East Bay – April 21st – Come take a hike with us and get ready for Earth Day on Sunday!

Ashland – May 19th

At Camp Unalayee we know that it is important for new parents to meet the people that their child will spending the summer with.  We find it equally as valuable for prospective parents and campers to learn about the Unalayee experience from campers and parents that have actually experienced our summer camp for kids. There is no one that can explain the wonders of Unalayee like someone who has been there!

Our currently scheduled Get to Know Camp Unalayee Events for 2012 are as follows:

Meet our Director, Lowell Fitch – Friday March 16th, 6:30pm – 7:30pm @ the Peninsula Conservation Center in Palo Alto

Meet our Director, Lowell Fitch - Friday April 13th, 6:30pm – 7:30pm @ Director Lowell Fitch’s House in Santa Cruz

Or attend one of our free Camper Play Days and meet some of our counselors and past campers.

If none of our planned events work for you or your friends we would be more than happy to set up a different time for you to connect with a Unalayee representative.  Unalayee community members, staff representatives, campers, and parents live all over California and Southern Oregon and would love to meet with you.

To set up a meeting contact us at friends@gocampu.com

Jessie Camp

Do you have children in Kindergarten through 8th grade?  Or perhaps you are a teacher looking for the perfect fun and educational outdoor experience for your class?  Either way, have I got the program for you…

Fieldguides Inc, also a small non-profit, has been providing custom outdoor education programs for schools throughout California since 1983.

James Camp

Jessie and James Camp, the co-founders and directors of Fieldguides, are long time Camp Unalayee staff and community members.  James came to our summer camp for kids for the first time in 1969, and hasn’t missed a year since! Many of Fieldguides’ staff members and board members were also once staff members at Unalayee.

Fieldguides fosters the same ideals and goals of stewardship for the environment, community building, and providing these experiences to every child, that are so important to Unalayee.

For more information on Fieldguides Outdoor School, visit their website at www.fieldguides.org, or call them at (650)969-6325. 

Now, as snow blankets the Unalayee camp basin, the deer have migrated to lower grazing grounds, and the holiday season approaches it is a time to count our blessings and reflect on our year.

What a wonderful summer we had! It was filled with adventures, fun, and great friends to share it with. We had snow to glissade down, creeks to cross, sunny days to laze at the lakes, ruby red slippers to find, fish to grill, relay races to win, and stars and stars to count.

I would like to thank everyone who made it such a memorable Unalayee summer. We had the most amazing group of campers. They courageously challenged themselves leading songs at campfire, hiking more miles than they thought possible, and living two weeks away from home in the wilderness. We had another absolutely wonderful staff who were there every step of the way with the campers. A special thank you to the parents, grandparents, and camp supporters who shared with us their confidence, resources, and most precious beings − their children.

I would like to wish everyone a happy and joyful holiday season. I hope you get lots of time to spend enjoying your family. I hope to see you around a campfire before too long.
   
    Lowell

Thank You for your outstanding contributions in 2010-2011!

We want to send out a huge thank you to all of our members that made it possible for us to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.  

This holiday season we ask for your generous support once again as we begin our 2011-2012 campaign.  Last year we awarded over $95,000 in camperships to 90 children.  Your continued donations over the years is the primary reason Unalayee is able to provide these camperships.  Please help us continue to achieve our mission of providing the best wilderness summer camp experience possible to children of every economic background. No child left inside!

Make your contribution online:

  

Or send your membership check to:
Camp Unalayee
3921 East Bayshore Rd.
Palo Alto, CA 94303

Expect e-mail updates on this year’s drive, I’m sure we can have another very successful drive!

Thank you for your everlasting support!  Our community is what makes Unalayee, Unalayee.   

In Loving Memory of Candace Steele

On September 28th, Candace Steele, a loving member of our community since 1960, peacefully passed away in her sleep.  

Candace was an avid member of the Unalayee Community since she and her husband Charles bought one of the lots acquired in the initial purchase of our Trinity Alps land.  She served as a member of the Board of Directors and was Camp Nurse.  

 

She will be greatly missed by her friends in the Unalayee community and our fondest thoughts go out to her family.  We can’t thank her and her family enough for the friendship they’ve given to Unalayee over the years.

 

To read more about Candace’s life, check out our Blog Post.

Thank You for giving us your feedback!

Photo Contest

O’Melveny and Myers, one of the world’s leading corporate law firms, have recommended that we convert our existing structure from a “membership” organization to a “corporate” organization, where decisions are made by a majority of the Board of Directors and not by a majority of “members.”  The Board of Directors plans to recommend this course of action, and vote on the adoption of the proposed bylaws (found at the bottom of this page), at our upcoming annual meeting on January 19th, 2012 at 7pm at the PCC in Palo Alto, CA.  

We want to emphasize that the core mission of Camp Unalayee, which is to help serve the broader community to learn the joys of living in nature, remains unchanged. I invite you to read our mission statement below as well as review the current and proposed bylaws that follow. 

Camp Unalayee Association Mission Statement:

Current Bylaws 

Proposed Bylaws