I must admit that Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays at the Kelly household. Many of our family members enjoy cooking and entertaining, everyone loves to eat, and it gives us time to think about what we’ve been grateful for over the past year.
A Merry Thanksgiving
One thing I am grateful for is receiving notes, emails, and calls from our families and staff during the year. Over the holiday weekend, we received this picture of many of our CITs ’16 sitting around the Thanksgiving table together. (Behar family, you are troopers!)
The picture was great but what makes it special is that those smiling young men and women hale from five different states – New York, Florida, New Jersey, Texas and California. They built such a strong connection over their summers at Weequahic and wanted to keep the connection going.
The Call
The cherry on top of this GACsgiving treat was the call I received from one of their moms later in the week.
“Cole, did you see the picture of our children together?” she asked.
“Yes, it was amazing! Did all of the families get together?”
“No, just the kids. Here’s the thing. Those young people are so incredible – they are kind, and generous, and just good kids. We trust them all so much that we put them on planes to go see their friends. And, there were so many families to help pick them up and house them! I don’t know what you do at Weequahic to turn out such great kids but it’s working!”
The Weequahic Experience
It’s wonderful to think that our community has had such an effect on these young peoples’ lives. They come from caring families who expect good things and work with their children to make them happen.
That’s the type of experience we strive to build each summer and throughout the year – something that binds great kids together in all the right ways and walks with them as they grow. We are lucky to have so many families who trust us to do so with their children.
Thank you, CITs ’16, for putting a big smile on your camp director’s face. I’m so grateful for you all!
With GAC,
Cole
