Adopteen’s 2017 summer programming closed out last weekend when both the Adopteen Wilmington leadership team and our Zhuzhou AGBOST landed home safely.  This year was an overwhelming success, and the summer passed in a whirlwind of beautiful memories and amazing new friendships.

In June, Adopteen came back to Colorful Colorado from June 21^st-25^th after a gap year in 2016.  Though it was our 6^th (!) conference in Colorado, it was our very first time in downtown Denver, and we had a blast!  The highlight of camp was absolutely exploring 16^th Street Mall, and packing every camper into a couple cars on the train to get there.  We also visited Water World, took part in some late night team competitions, cheered on our camp leaders in an…interesting…eating competition, and took part in workshops such as Adoption 101, Dance, Self-Confidence, and so much more.  We packed our Denver schedule full to bursting, and are so grateful to every camper that stuck it out with us and enjoyed every minute.  In all, Adopteen Denver brought us 74 campers with 12 camp leaders, representing 19 different states, 20 birth provinces, and 2 birth countries.

July brought Adopteen Wilmington, with 70 campers and 8 camp leaders, representing 23 states, 15 birth provinces, and 2 birth countries.  In Wilmington, we had the chance to visit the beach and boardwalk area, as well as to explore downtown after an amazing ghost tour.  Though it was rainy most of the time, the area decided to give us a reprieve just in time for the last day of camp – our beach day!  We had an amazing time, and cannot extend enough thanks to the fantastic team at UNC, our local volunteers, and everyone that came – it’s always hectic bringing everything that we do out of state, and our team in Wilmington knocked it out of the park!

Of course,we would be remiss to not mention the entire month that Amy spent in China!  2017 was the first year that we have had two summer AGBOST trips, and as ever, it was an unforgettable experience.  Both trips were in Hunan, the first at Yueyang Social Welfare Institute from 6/28 to 7/8 and the second from 7/12 to 7/22 at Zhuzhou Social Welfare Institute.  Our travelers (48 total, with 18 from Hunan!)were amazing, embracing the call to service and together this year’s AGBOST brought in over $20,000 in donations for the Yueyang and Zhuzhou orphanages, which will go towards large capital improvements for the buildings.  Our travelers in Hunan became best friends with every kid they worked with, and we couldn’t possibly be more proud of them. (Check out the end-of-the-year CCAI Circle Newletter for more photos!)

Thank you to everyone that made our Summer 2017 such a success – we really, truly, could not have done it without each and every one of you.     In all, we met 129 new friends, while 83 of you decided to join us yet again.  We hope that every single one of you will hang out with us again in 2018, when we will celebrate our TEN YEAR anniversary.  Look out for announcements on our upcoming programs in October!  We miss you all and cannot wait to do it all over again.

~ Your Adopteen Team