Day 1 - Welcome to the camp WE CARE!

This year we made it for the camp on foot. Believe it or not, we could not wait and reached the camp site faster than the bus could take us :-)

Hello! We are Fausta, Milda, Arnas, Gvidas, Airidas, Tadas and our teacher Eglė. We are from Biržai, Kaštonų Basic School. Our school is well known for its sport achievements and active involvement in project activities. We are very glad to participate at this camp and can‘t wait to learn more about everybody here. Our team hopes to gain new knowledge and understanding of democratic values and how to instill them in everyday life. Improving our English language skills is very important as well :-)

We are Kamilė, Vaida, Arnas, Jaunius, Naglis, Tadas from Kruonis Gymnasium, Kaišiadorys region. We are in the camp together with our English teacher Dalia.  We have a variety of interests like all teenagers have, such as, sports, dancing, drawing, playing various musical instruments, singing, taking pictures, etc. But more than this, we care about the world and what is going to happen if we all don‘t take any actions. We are sure that the experience gained during the camp will be priceless. If all the people of the world tried to find ways to save our planet, if we all cared not only about ourselves, if we consumed less natural resources, if we all became friends, people on Earth would be much happier and our planet Earth would be greener and cleaner. So, let‘s join our hands to reach common aims to be real global citizens. WE ARE HERE BECAUSE WE CARE!

Greetings to all participants of the Camp 2018! We are Ignė, Deimantė, Augustė, Gabrielė, Natali and Augustė and our teacher Jolanta from Kaunas Juozas Grušas Art Gymnasium. Our school is big with over 1000 artsy, creative and open-minded students studying here. We are very excited to meet students of all kinds of different interests, learn more about democracy, improve our English skills and bring home the best memories. Looking forward to meeting everyone!

We are from Vilnius Santara Gymnasium: Aleksandra, Andrej, Kamila, Danila, Andrej, Polina and our tutor Alla. Our school is situated in the heart of Vilnius. It is big - 1200 students of different cultural backgrounds study here. We are happy to meet peers from Lithuania, Poland and the US. By participating in various activities we hope we will learn more about values, form our own ones and become more positive, confident and successful. Plenty of fun and laughter are guaranteed!!!

Hi. This is the team from Szkoła Podstawowa nr 5 w Świdniku in Poland. Bartosz Apanasienko, Filip Hostman, Amelia Kuchta, Natalia Miłosz, Weronika Olejnik and Patryk Strzałkowski together with their teachers Beata Adasik and Marcin Paśnikowski. The school does its best to provide for the students with special needs, students gifted at English, Spanish, Maths and Sciences, as well as sports athletes. We participate in various education projects, such as Comenius and Erasmus+ and travel to different countries and learn about their cultures. We've been cooperating with Charles Wright Academy for 10 years. A lot of teachers and students are also involved in organising numerous charity events. We hope to have a great time, make friends, learn about important values and improve our language skills. Working together we can make the world a better place.

The team from Šiauliai Didždvaris Gymnasium: Marija, Austėja, Beatričė, Deina, Gustas, Alanas and their tutor Kristina Urbonienė are saying HELLO to all the participants of the camp!!! We are active students from Šiauliai, a town in the North of Lithuania. Didždvaris Gymnasium is one of the oldest gymnasiums in Šiauliai, famous for respecting old traditions and celebrating its 120th anniversary this year. Our Gymnasium is involved in various European and international projects and hosts volunteers from European Voluntary Service organisation. More than 600 students are taught following the National Curriculum or the IB Diploma programme at our Gymnasium. We are looking forward to meeting new friends from different schools and sharing our ideas on values, democracy, cultural and global issues. Our team members are sure that we will improve our English skills, foster our understanding on tolerance and later – spread the ideas among our Gymnasium students and in the town. We are ready! With energy, enthusiasm and smile!

We are Alie, Andy, Ben, Carter, Tricia, Zoha, and teachers Ann Vogel and Jim Albers. Our school, Charles Wright Academy, is located in Washington State, USA.  We are focused on getting a global education, learning at least one world language, hosting other students during the school’s Global Summit (in which the Polish school from Swidnik participates) and working toward social justice, inclusion, friendships, and peace. Our school has over 300 students in the high school. Although the curriculum is rigorous and college-preparatory, teachers and students believe learning works best when there is plenty of humor and fun. Values Camp certainly will provide both of those and the team from the USA is ready! 

Hello! We are from Grigiškės  Šviesos  Gymnasium. Our team consists of two girls Evelina and Barbora, four boys Nojus, Dominykas, Mindaugas and Ainis and teacher Gitana. We live in a small provincial town near Vilnius. Our school is very modern and spacious with a huge stadium. We hope to make new friends and improve our English, and we welcome our new friends from Poland and the US!

We started our first day at the camp with introduction and communication games, which in just a couple of hours let us talk to almost every student at the camp and learn quite a lot of interesting facts about each other. We also drew each other on large envelopes and then tried to find out some more information about each other to add to the portraits. Our ‘creations’ ended up on a Friendship Line where we will leave messages to each other for the rest of the week, so it will also serve as the camp’s post office :-)

The fun part was followed by a more serious activity – we worked in groups to create our Camp Rules. We discussed every site at the camp using the World Cafe method and finally worded the rules that we are ready to follow every day that we are on this camp.

The first day quickly came to the end with a ceremonial ignition of the Campfire. The fire was ignited in the water to signify its origin - the great ocean of the cosmos, and carried from one student to another, with wishes of happiness and plentyfullness, to the main central fire. Legends were told of the fire and of the people of old and even of the great kings of Lithuania! It is good to know that many more campfires and many more legends are yet to be told and learned. And of course there is much more ahead!