Here's the deal: per our contract with camp, we need to have enough people registered by September 15th to raise $5000.  This will guarantee that we have Camp all to ourselves.  If registration is not high enough to cover this amount, we are still going to have an amazing weekend, we just may be sharing the space with wide-eyed spectators.  Although we are over halfway full, we are not quite at this goal.  If you are waiting to register, PLEASE DO SO NOW!  If we lose any of this coveted ground to others, room availability may drop off drastically.  The conference center rooms are going the quickest, which means that if you'd like to stay where all the action will be, you need to get your name in now.

If you are on the fence, let us know why.  Is it too expensive?  Need the deposit waived?  Only coming for one night?  Just going to drop by for lunch? Too expensive to bring the kids?  Please feel free to email any of us on the board and tell us what the holdup is.  We really want everyone there.  It is the community that has always made Chanco such a remarkable place and none of us want anyone to miss this auspicious occasion for reasons that could have easily been remedied.  Email us and let us know your concerns … we can work them out!!! 

Here's the list of those already registered, all of whom are sure to be in rare form for the weekend!  As of now we have 38 families.  Who will be there, you may be asking?  Leslie Riddick won the prize for being the first to register, followed next by Melanie Cheadle Jewell.  Need more names?  The entire CCAA board including Jenny Schroder Alfano, Tater Roberson, Chuck Alley, Sarah Ethridge Cargill, Greg Willis, Dave Belote (all the way from Las Vegas), and of course Helen Hamaker Somers.  Did you think Boomer was gone for good?  Heck no!  He'll be at the reunion, too!  Not convincing enough?  What about Emma Lowry, Marguerite (once known as Cissy) Alley, Linda Ryder Wolf, Sarah Musgrave, KK Leigh West, Julie Young, Sherri Lively, Talley Sale Banazek, Chuck Sale, Cari Long Hall, Evan Pierce, Mike Kellam, Jim Camp and Jon Best?  Jevon Garrett?  Eileen (once known as Pat) Walsh?  Do you remember English Alan?  From England?  Yep, he'll be there, too.  And if he can make it, anyone can! 

Would you like to make an extra donation to give someone else the opportunity to come out and celebrate with us?  Email us and let us know!

There really are no excuses!  Please, please, please register today!  Yes, we are begging!!!!

See you in October!
The CCAA Board

Email Jenny at:  jennyalfano@gmail.com

Email Tater at:  tater911@gmail.com

Email Ann at:  annandstefan@hotmail.com  continue reading »

Welcome to the Camp Chanco Alumni Association Smoke Signal, our online newsletter. This is our first virtual publication. Look for it from time to time for the latest news on all of the goings-on in the Alumni Association and Camp Chanco.

This edition has big news! Not only are we an official, legal organization, but there is a lot going on with us and at Camp Chanco. Come join us, pay your dues and check out the full text of our news letter. Here is the link to the full Smoke Signal:

http://chancoonce.com/files/Chanco-Smoke-Signal-0807.pdf

And while you're at it why not download and signup for the alumni reunion. Please fill out this form and email or mail it to Jenny Alfano at the address listed on the form.  The $50 deposit may be paid online.  We want to see you again this fall!

http://chancoonce.com/files/2008-alumni-registration-form.pdf

Our fondest regards,

The CCAA Board of Directors

Ann Krannitz, President
Jenny Alfano , Vice President
Tater Roberson, Treasurer
Chuck Alley, Secratary
Helen Somers, Director
Dave Belote, Director
Sarah Cargill, Director
Greg Willis, Director of Wizardry

p.s. A special THANK YOU to Helen, who literally spent many sleepless nights working on this!!! Without her, we'd probably still be wondering who was going to put together the Smoke Signal. Without us, she'd probably still be sane.  continue reading »

Hey Chanco Alumni!

On behalf of the CCAA Board, I would like to give you an update on all that's going on with the CCAA.  

First and foremost, mark your calendars for the Alumni Reunion:  October 10-12.  As many of you requested, this year the reunion will be a 2-night event.  We plan to make it bigger and better than last year, so please spread the word!!!  continue reading »

It's been a while since we've done a CCAA update, so we want to let you all know what's in the works. The CCAA Board had a conference call Sunday night to plan our upcoming in-person meeting on April 19th and discuss recent events involving the Chanco Board.

We are very close to getting everything set up to legally accept dues and be tax-exempt. We will let you know when we are ready to start our membership drive.

The Fall Alumni Reunion is scheduled for October 10-12th at Chanco on the James. One of the big topics for our April meeting is the planning and running of the reunion. We'll keep you all posted on what we plan and we will be calling on volunteers to help out.

We are also still working on ways that we can help the mission of Camp Chanco in light of recent events. It is no secret that we are disappointed that the Executive Director position was eliminated, however our main goal here is ensuring the continued existence of Chanco. One of the things that we talked about was supporting the Camp Chanco Open Houses that are coming up. Although details will have to be filled in, the CCAA board is willing to contribute in time and manpower. And we will continue our discussion on this.

As always, please keep Chanco in your prayers,

Ann Krannitz

CCAA President

Hey Fellow Alumni! On behalf of the Board, I wanted to check in and let you all know that the CCAA is alive and kickin'! As Tater mentioned, we had our first CCAA Board meeting on Feb. 1-2 at Chanco. Chuck will be posting the minutes, so I won't go into too more than a quick recap as to what we did. We had a great weekend, and the board really connected as a group. This is a great asset when you have to work together! We have lots of wonderful people involved and they all have terrific ideas and a heap of motivation. I am confident that we will accomplish our goals.

Our main issue was simply the organization of our association. As any of you who have had experience with setting up a non-profit know, the initial job of obtaining this status is quite laborious. Fortunately, we were able to come up with a plan to help us move forward and it seems as though we are on the right track. We hope to have this finished in the next few months. Once this is done we should be able to start collecting dues and building on our membership. The advantage of having non-profit status will be that all of YOUR donations are tax-deductible.

A big chunk of the meeting was devoted to our bylaws. Yes, we voted on them once, without the aid of personal contact and group discussion. Since the initial vote we have had some great input from alumni and have, as a board, voted on and made simple revisions. These bylaws will once again be voted on by the members of CCAA as a whole sometime in the near future.

A few of the less pressing issues we addressed were the Alumni Sleepover this fall, the committees we need to establish (we'll be asking for volunteers later!), and the maintenance of our website. We were also able to brainstorm some fundraising ideas, which Chuck will explain later in further detail.

As Boomer mentioned, our meeting ended with a visit to Annual Council. We were more than happy to show our support for Chanco, and we were even able to make a few contacts with people willing to support our group.

I am so thankful that I once again have the chance to be a part of Chanco, and am really looking forward to working with the CCAA Board. We are all looking forward to our next meeting in April. Until then, check your emails and the website for information regarding the bylaws and fundraising, and continue to keep Chanco in your prayers.

Love and peace,

Ann

WOW! What a weekend! Thanks so much to everyone that helped make it happen. The food was delicious, the music was great, the weather was perfect, and the friendships rekindled made the weekend one that I will always remember. And yes, time did fly.

My husband Stefan, my daughters Reilly (6), and Alina (4), and I made the drive down from Fredericksburg on Saturday afternoon. It had been more than 15 years since I had been down that way, and it was … uh … rural. Much more so than I had remembered! We had a few minutes to spare so I took the family on a short detour past the old camp. ("Just a few more minutes!" I kept promising my kids as they protested from the back seat.) How strange to see it now occupied by homes!

Once we arrived at the new camp, it took me a few minutes to get my bearings. So much has changed...  continue reading »