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Presidents’ Letter: Wecome Home, Travelers!

The roller coaster pulls into the station and the ride has begun. My turn is up, and the initial anticipation for the ride to begin is only matched by the thrill of the climb towards the first drop. Holding on as it rips around curves and twists around corkscrews, it swings upside down in this adrenaline rush of a thrill ride. The front seat has always been my favorite on a roller coaster, but sometimes I’ll take the ride from a different angle, stepping aside to let others experience the rush of the lead.

I’m extremely fortunate to be part of our Chapter and am honored to have had the opportunity to work alongside so many great Chapter members. I have thoroughly enjoyed being co-president with Carol Retseck during the past year. Thank you all for making my ride thrilling and for going on the ride with me.

Our Chapter has continued to grow rapidly and we’ve been able to send/will send a record number of delegates this year to 4 Villages, 1 Summer Camp, 2 Junior Counselors, 6 Seminar Camps, 4 Interchanges and 1 International Youth Meeting. It’s amazing the life changing experiences our kids have had! This is incredible considering how new our Chapter is compared to a number of other Chapters throughout the U.S.

During the past year our Chapter has had so many successful events. Thank you to all of you who volunteered your time to make these events as successful as they were. The 2010 International Peoples Project we held here in Denver in conjunction with the Denver Indian Center was so much fun and the delegates from the other countries were fantastic to meet and wonderful participants. We also held a very successful silent auction house party (even though it snowed) and a very successful Junior Branch garage sale (even though it rained) to make money for both the Chapter and the Junior Branch. In addition, at the end of January we hosted the Faces of Denver Multi-Cultural Mini-Camp, which consisted of numerous schools within the Denver Metro area making it a truly diverse event. The kids all had a great time. The Junior Branch campout later in June was a fun event (even though it rained-again). Many of our Junior Branch members participated and although they got little sleep, they were happy and energized when we picked them up the next day! In a nutshell, weather in Colorado rarely agrees with our plans, but our spirit keeps us warm.

We continue to need volunteers for our upcoming programs. We will be hosting an International Summer Camp in 2011 and another Village in 2012 for which we will need MANY volunteers. When we send out emails asking for volunteers, please respond because we can use all the help we can get and even if you can only contribute a little bit, that little bit counts a great deal. If you don’t know quite how you might help, we can let you know and you can decide to what extent you can get involved.

Please join me in welcoming our new co-presidents Bruce Miles and Carol Retseck for the 2010-2011 year. They will be a great team. We are fortunate to have them.

I challenge you to try out the front seat of the roller coaster and feel the excitement. If you’re not quite ready for the front seat, hop into another seat and go for the ride. It’ll be a blast!!

In Peace,Marianne Rayburn, Co-President

Fall 2010:Travels: Stories and Faces! 2

International People’s Project" 6

JB update! 7

Upcoming Events ! 8

SAVE THESE DATES!COME TO OUR ANNUAL FALL MEMBERSHIP MEETING ON SEPT. 12. THEN BUY COOL STUFF AND SUPPORT CISV ON November 13 AT

THE ANNUAL AUCTION AND HOUSE PARTY. SEE PAGE 8 FOR INFORMATION.

Netherlands DelegationFarum Village delegates

Travelers: Stories and FacesOslo, Norway Village

The Norway village was the best thing that ever happened to me. I had such a great time there and met so many fantastic people that I will never forget and am still in touch with. Overall this was an amazing experience and I loved every minute of it except for the bittersweet end. I also got to see alot of Norway and learned about many unique cultures. I learned how to be more accepting and many other lessons. One of the things that taught me the most was Rich and Poor Day. I learned that life isn’t always fair. Some people may have more than you and some people may have less than you. We need to give to people who do not have as much. I loved this village and I will never forget it.

Julia Schlaff

All our bags were packed, we were ready to go, headed to Holland with plenty of oranje in tow. It was the 8th of June, and the five of us Superheroes (Drew Brinen, Jackie Diaz, Ben Sirizzotti, Magi Sterling, and myself) were off to one of the world’s biggest cross-cultural celebration: 16 different countries coming together to watch Holland take on Spain in the World Cup final. Upon our arrival in Holland, the kids were carted off by their host families to explore the city’s historic canals and windmills, Anne Frank’s house, the beach, and eat cheese and poffertjes to their hearts desire. Meanwhile, the staff, leaders, and JC’s were anxiously preparing for their arrival. It wasn’t long before the kids came shuffling through the doors in twos and in fours, to meet complete strangers from all walks of the world, who would become their best friends in twenty-eight days. In the end, Holland didn’t win the World Cup (Mr. Octopus was right again); however, we all witnessed something far more meaningful than a futbol (or is it soccer) victory. What took place over the course of the next few weeks was something that can’t possibly be explained or understood. We ate chocolate sprinkles for breakfast (every day), redefined the boundary between the USA and Canada ( it’s North America), discovered a mutual hatred for the early rising rooster, learned that it’s easy to walk like an Egyptian, the hard part is talking like an Egyptian, and a few of us even found CISV life partners. Arriving back in the United States was surreal; we still had our oranje in tow, but also managed to come back with an entire new suitcase full of memories and stories that would last a lifetime, and more importantly, a unique bond shared with people all over the globe that will undoubtedly continue to grow in years to come.

Superhero Village!Evertsoord, The Netherlands

Denmark Village

Travellers (cont.)

When I was selected to go on a Seminar Camp this year I was really excited and could not suppress the smile on my face. I had heard from many people in the chapter that it was about 10 times more emotional than any other program and I found

that to be absolutely one hundred percent true. However, I never thought that it would change the person I had already become. I went to Indonesia as a loud talkative American who really didn’t know how to just sit back and listen to other people. When I returned, I came back as a listener. As

we sat in discussions, I found myself listening first to what others had to say about the topic we had been discussing. I realized that it was extremely important that I listen before I talk about the US.

We spent the entire three weeks together…cleaning, cooking, laughing, talking, getting to know one another, and just being together all the time. I learned the hardships of living with other people, the frustrations that came with having people talk about your country in a negative way, and that the simple act of a smile goes a long way.

I really wanted to know exactly how Seminar Camp would be before I left but by the end of camp I realized it was true what they said…that every seminar camp is different. It was very hard to go there and have little idea of what was going to happen. All I knew for sure was that there would be a number of people there and we were working with a LMO one day. As the camp went, on we made our own memories and created what turned out to be one of the best experiences of my entire life and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. This experience changed both my perspective on the rest of the world and the person that I am today. Indonesia was an amazing experience where I met friends that I hope to have for the rest of my life and learned more about myself than I thought I needed to.

Haley Killian

Indonesia Seminar Camp

Finland Seminar Camp

Lithuania Seminar Camp

Poland Seminar Camp

C-I-S-V!

(Say it with feeling!)

Happy Faces: Finland, Lithuania &

Poland Seminar Camps

Travellers (cont.)Italy Interchange

The Italian interchange was an amazing experience to all who participated. The families in both countries were welcoming to all and made sure to do their best to make sure everyone felt at home. One of our group’s favorite memories was the group trip to Venice! Shopping, gelato, endless walking, and more shopping filled our agenda while in Venice, the beautiful water and streets awed us all in amazement. Minicamp was also a main highlight in our trip, the beach, ocean, and gelato shop were right out our door! Gelato played a big part in our daily lives there, along with pizza, and cookies.

Our train rides together were memorable because they were normally a good hour or two. On our train ride to Venice we passed the time by listening to music and talking to each other. The memories that we made on our interchange will never be forgotten and our Italian friends never out of our minds and hearts.

Peru Interchange: Gabe Rose-Gonzales (leader), Marin McCoy, Nicole Kerman, Nicole Walters, Oliver Henry,

Taylor Sperry, Quinton Sirizotti and our new Peruvian friends.

Poem to say bye!

(written for National Night)

The past four weeks here were unforgettable and fun From the mountains to the beach Under the sun Breckenridge, Venice, Denver, Verona, Bow Mar, Gorizia, Highlands Ranch, Keystone and Liganno Next time were here we will go to Rome and Milano The friendships we've made will last forever. Is it something we'll forget? Never!! Gelato all the way Stratchatella and limon for Chris and Tasha everyday One cone yes please two cones si!!Everyday; Gratzi......e Pizza pasta yum yum yumIt just fills my tum tum tum When we come home we will see chrispys cat We will really look American and fat We will miss y'all so muchThank you to the parents and Agnese for everything you've done We've had too much fun!

Peru Interchange

Otto’s Excellent Adventure

Lyon, France InterchangeWhat a great summer! I was excited from

the moment my parents asked me if I was interested in doing a CISV Interchange to Lyon, France. It was great getting to know all of the people in our delegation. It took alot of time and many meetings to prepare for our trip, but when it was time to go we were organized and ready! I also made a deal with my parents that I would work hard to earn money for the trip and that I would do my best to learn French before the trip, so I was very busy. The trip was amazing! We saw so many wonderful things and learned a lot about French culture. It was also great when the French delegation came to America because they got to experience a bit of our life here. I’m so glad that I was able to participate in this program and make 11 great new friends.

Otto Lucas

July 2010 was an exciting time for the Lyon, France Interchange. With Carah Killian as their leader, Elizabeth Humston, Julia Beasley, Maggie Washington, Max Stroeher, Otto Lucas and Ted Walker had an experience of a lifetime. Highlighted by making new global friendships, the two weeks flew by in Lyon. One of the many memorable experiences included hiking in the Alps and crossing over into Switzerland during family weekend. Trying new foods was also part of the experience.... frogs’ legs and escargot were a few of the delicacies encountered. The last half of July had the French group arriving in Denver. Mini camp at Snow Mountain Ranch and visiting the U.S. Olympic Center were part of what the group shared about Colorado. The Interchange saw the kids grow and stretch themselves as individuals and a CISV family. Hugs and a few tears marked the goodbyes

Lyon, France Interchange

The trip to Czech Republic was so amazing! After an unbelievable summer camp experience to Australia last year, I thought any other CISV event wouldn't compare, but it did. Both of the delegations were so great and our leaders were the best! Everyone got along really well and we had so much fun together. The sights in Prague were amazing and I really enjoyed exploring the culture in Czech Republic. My partner, Vojta, and his family were really fun and always found ways to keep me entertained, such as taking me to the beaches on the river, going tubing, or just simply playing soccer with Vojta's brothers and sisters. The Prague delegation planned many fun activities like exploring the caves of Bulgaria, going to a water park, seeing the castles of Czech Republic, and going to a music festival. The mini camp location was amazing. It was in the mountains of Czech Republic and it also included a Swedish delegation. The trip overall couldn't have been better. And when the Czechs came to Colorado I thought it wouldn't be as fun because we're not in a foreign country. But it was great. We gave the Czechs a taste of Colorado by going to a Rockies game, exploring the city of Denver, going to Boulder and Colorado Springs, hiking, and swimming. The mini camp was at Snow Mountain Ranch and also included the Peru and French delegations. The experience of hosting was incredible for our family, and Vojta and I became close friends. Overall, the Interchange couldn't have been better.

by Dylan Crossland

Prague Interchange

Community

The wide green lawn in front of Denver Indian Center may become orchard and garden through the help of local and international volunteers as part of a youth-centric, late-July frenzy of farming, playing lacrosse or basketball, interviewing elders, and painting murals with youngsters.

DIC, with the International People’s Project of CISV, an international peace organization, is working to develop a sustainable relationship of volunteerism with local businesses through Business Service Corps LLC which in turn seeks to create a “legacy of social responsibility” for its clients. Some 20 participants from the U.S. and Germany, Sweden, Egypt, Spain, the Netherlands and the Philippines joined volunteers from Microsoft, Sprint, Avaya, Pepsi, and others in conducting a youth camp, decorating classrooms for an early education center, and talking with elders in an oral history documentation project that may become part of a public television presentation on “Urbanizing the American Indian.”

“I think we are going to start seeing that we are a lot closer as global citizens than we think we are,” Jay Grimm, Diné, DIC director, said. Of the youthful volunteers from abroad, “The connection between their lives and our community is wonderful – these kids are embracing them wholeheartedly.” Many Americans know as little about indigenous culture as do the international volunteers, he said, noting in an orientation session for IPP volunteers that both Diné and Swedish folk-dances followed the direction of the sun.

“Emerging from a long history of settler oppression, many 21st century American Indians and Alaska Natives still live on reservations without running water,” said an IPP statement about the DIC project. “But the indigenous of Denver, Colo. have looked as far as the Philippines for the progression of their people and the preservation of their tribal cultures.”

Grimm told volunteers that the Denver Native community is growing rapidly and has reached approximately 30,000 people in the metro area as part of a national trend in which about 70 percent of American Indians now live off-reservation. In what he described as the “only negative” he would discuss, he noted that although Natives in Denver are about 1.2 to 1.4 percent of the population, they represent 15 percent of school dropouts.

Itziar Ezquiaga, Madrid, Spain, a youth camp volunteer, said that because “Natives have the highest dropout rate in the United States, some of the games are geared to showing the benefits of higher education.

An IPP description of the project explained that Native students have the lowest graduation rate in Colorado, with only 55.9 percent graduating in the 2008-09 school year, and its collaboration effort with DIC is to “address some of the complexities facing Native cultures in an urban setting.”

Benje Lefers, 27, from Hamburg, Germany, a former youth camper, said she is a 16-year CISV volunteer and camp leader who has stressed “getting kids to know others from different cultures in ways you usually don’t know as a kid.” Working with the DIC camp for those ages 9-14 is enjoyable, she said, and it is “very gratifying” to take youngsters from one setting to another “and see how they grow within the program.” Lefers noted that CISV for more than 50 years has placed 11 year olds from 65 countries in international peace camps.

In addition to the youth and other activities ongoing by local and international participants, volunteers from Woodbine Ecology Center south of Denver were preparing soil in front of DIC for a pumpkin patch and indigenous plants. “We are working on a design for the preschool sensory garden courtyard area,” Shannon Francis, Woodbine indigenous permaculture coordinator/instructor said. “We will plant native plants with raised beds, a vermicomposting pile, a living fence, and a possible living hoop house.”Cristin Tarr, IPP worldwide director and managing director of Business Service Corps LLC, Denver, said she has volunteered with CISV on a personal

level over time and BSC is involved on a volunteer basis with the organization. “DIC is a unity of tribes, and we’re bringing in a unity of the world. There’s just such synergy here – opportunities to learn and grow and learn about each other. It’s also important for non-U.S. citizens to learn about our indigenous cultures.”DIC responded to a request for proposals

issued by BSC and won out in competition with others because it offered “several programming opportunities we could get involved in,” she said, noting South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce will also be a part of the project.

Through a needs assessment, BSC determines a defined project with ongoing needs to build a sustainable collaboration and then seeks a for-profit business with a similar mission, according to the BSC Web site, striving to strike “a balance of social change with the organization’s bottom line.” Was it a successful week for the young “clients?” “If our kids don’t like it, they just won’t come back,” Grimm said. “But these kids have come back every day.”

Volunteering has an international flair

Benje Lefers, Hamburg, Germany, was a volunteer from the International People’s Project. She said she enjoyed working with those from ages 9 – 14, particularly seeing how “they grow within the program.”

This story by Carol Berry appeared in the August 6 edition of Indian Country Today

IPP: A Heartwarming Experience

At the July IPP interchange between the Denver Indian Center and the American, European and Middle Eastern delegates, it was inspiring and heart warming to watch the interchange between individuals from around the world and from our own back yard. The murals inside and outside with the Indian children were beautiful. The games and farming activities were exciting to watch because they revealed how different cultures’ ways of thinking were shared. The opportunity for IPP delegates to interview Indian elders was unique and fascinating.

Cornelia Sidley-Parker

SCENES FROM THE INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE’S PROJECT

Junior Branch Update

JB CAMPOUT A GREAT, WET SUCCESS!

If there’s any one group of people in this world crazy enough to stick around playing games louder than a sideways rainstorm, inside a tent being murdered by said storm, and still deciding to stay the night…it’s us. And here, I speak from experience. I speak of the CISV Chatfield campout in June 2010, and I speak of the courageous few who dedicated their one night in June to brave the storm and stick around for a starry (and slightly cold) night which I refer to as the calm after the storm. And if there’s any group in this world who can be so comfortable as to arrive at a place where not everybody knows everybody, and immediately feel like they’re at a party…it’s us. Said party includes Jonah Berger and his chosen groupies for the moment driving in circles at the site blasting “Santeria” by Sublime, an endless purring in the distance of motorized model planes and jets that never seemed to run out of fuel, a special revised version of hide and seek on the playground, the hopeless struggle to find sticks for marshmallows that were long enough to keep our hands at least medium-rare, our sizing up the boy scout camp next door with their portable houses they brought to sleep in, extreme drumbeats around the campfire with some seriously off-key singing, a few of our attempts to sleep outside during the night, the early awakening to a giant hot air balloon taking off near us, the drive for a few to the store in the morning for some delicious melted donuts, Nick Ferrari’s self-painted self-portrait pillow, the feast for dinner at which we all found out that Oliver Henry is in fact a hands-down-rock-on vegetarian…oh, and I forgot, I misplaced my green poncho. Among these few accomplishments in that one-night campout, there are many more echoing between the lines, so if ever we have one again (and let us all pray that we do), everyone must be there…or else you get the shortest marshmallow roasting stick next time I see you. Consider yourself warned.

Mileah Rayburn

CISV FALL MEMBERSHIP PARTY!!!!!

SUN.,SEPT. 12, 2010 4-6 PM

AT THE HOME OF PHYLLIS AND JIM CHRISMAN

6322 EAST RADCLIFF AVENUECHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, CO 80111

303-795-1211

CISV Rocky Mountain Denver invites you and any family/friends to attend our

Fall Membership party. This party is always well attended and a very fun

event you won’t want to miss!Recent traveling delegations will be

introduced and will share their exciting travel experiences. It’s a great time to

experience what CISV is all about through the eyes of our children. Their

stories are amazing to listen to. We will also hear about our very

successful first International Peoples Project held this summer in conjunction

with the Denver Indian Center. In addition we will talk about our upcoming

Summer Camp we will be hosting in 2011. This will be the first time we have

hosted a Summer Camp here in Denver. There are a lot of exciting things happening in our Chapter and we want you to be at the party to hear more. If you can, please bring a snack or drink

to share.Come join us to socialize, meet other

CISV folks and have a ton of fun!

YOU’RE INVITED!

CISV AUCTION &

HOUSE PARTY

Saturday, November 13, 2010 6:00pm - 8:00pm

at the home of Madeline Collison and Jack Crawford

685 Emerson Street, Denver 80218

Bring the whole family! Bring friends!

There will be fabulous auction items to bid on – international dinners, get-aways to the mountains and fancy hotels, restaurant gift certificates, salon and spa gift certificates,

unique international gift baskets, handmade jewelry – and we will have tasty appetizers, drinks and fun CISV activities for the kids. Also, be sure to check out our new CISV

RMD merchandise!

Suggested donation: $15 for an individual and $35 for a family.

Each CISV family is requested to secure at least one donation and we are asking each

traveling delegation to put together a delegation donation (i.e. Italian Interchange Italian wine and food basket). Be creative

and have fun!

WHY ARE THESE KIDS SO HAPPY?(They all traveled with CISV this summer...)