CEO Jerry Huncosky Announces Plans to Retire Frost Valley Celebrates Jerry’s Legacy and Initiates Search for his Successor Chief Executive Officer Jerry Huncosky has announced his intention to retire in 2023, ending a 20-year run at the helm of Frost Valley, and a 35-year career with the YMCA. During his long and successful tenure, and with the support of an extraordinary team of deeply committed trustees, staff, and generous stakeholders, Jerry expanded main camp, established new camps in the East Valley, and expanded programs across the spectrum, while increasing the number of children and families Frost Valley serves. Following his appointment in 2003, Jerry inaugurated Farm Camp on a 515-acre working farm, where children learn to tend to animals and grow and harvest vegetables. Thereafter, Jerry established East Valley Ranch and the girls’ equestrian program, which has been a joy to campers who love to ride for many years – and will be for many more. Jerry also strengthened the legacy of our Adventure Program, which provides campers access to 2- and 4-week excursions into the wilderness, building shelters, gathering food, canoeing, and hiking mountains across New York and New England. Among a range of capital projects spearheaded and supported by our generous donors, Jerry and the Board built the Guenther Family Wellness Center, creating greater access to onsite medical care, and helping to guarantee the future of the Dialysis Program and our ability to serve all children who wish to come to camp, even those with significant medical issues. Again through the wisdom and generosity of our donors, Jerry oversaw the construction of Lakeview Lodge overlooking Lake Cole, providing comfortable, motel-style lodging for visitors who prefer the respite of individual accommodations. Jerry achieved all of this and more while facing unpredictable headwinds, including Hurricane Irene in 2011, which devastated the property, and - of course - these last two years and the unparalleled financial instability brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, and from which we are now recovering. A Frost Valley Hall of Fame induction ceremony and celebration in Jerry’s honor will take place on Saturday, August 13, 2022, and will cap off Jerry’s highly successful tenure at Frost Valley with the launch of his very personal campaign proudly focused on the future of his beloved camp. Led by Board Chair Kate Lewis, our Frost Valley trustees have instituted a comprehensive search to identify and appoint Jerry's successor before his formal retirement takes place during the first half of 2023. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "It has been one of the great privileges of my life to lead Frost Valley; to be present during a time of unparalleled growth and unprecedented challenge. My tenure here would have been impossible without the support of our staff and alums, our trustees and our community of extraordinary donors - including you and all who share your unyielding commitment to the mission and core values of this very special place.” - Jerry Huncosky, CEO _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thanks to You, It's Good News All Around Once again this year, Frost Valley has been very grateful to have the unyielding support of you and other committed stakeholders. This outstanding support has enabled us to survive the fallout from this pandemic, and to position us to recover and flourish in ways that were hard to foresee during the darkest days of this public health crisis. The success of summer camp in 2021, amid stringent protocols and staffing challenges, is but one example of our renewal. A second is the recent sudden and pronounced increase in academic year reservations among our dedicated but weary public and private school visitors. Our current, joyful ability to expand our staff after two years of skeletal operations provides a third example in a groundswell of good news here at camp. We are also delighted to be able to acknowledge that the Frost Valley experience - for summer campers, schoolchildren and visiting weekend families alike - provides a powerful antidote to the most stressful effects suffered by young people over the last two seemingly endless years. There may be few other examples at present where children and families may benefit so richly from the restorative effects that time spent at Frost Valley offers. Details highlighting all this good news follow. But before you dive in, please accept our eternal thanks for your extraordinary ongoing support. This support is the reason we are still here - and why we will be here for children and families for generations to come.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "We are deeply grateful that others see what we see. Foundations, donors, parents and other folks with an awareness of how best to respond to the harsh impact of this crisis on children and young people have acknowledged the benefits of Frost Valley and stepped up in ways that suggest the road ahead is bright". - Victoria Eddings, Associate Executive Director ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Summer Camp Reopening a Success As we noted in our update to you last spring, in the many months leading up to summer camp in 2021, our summer camp team set about designing exhaustive logistical elements that would enable Frost Valley to respond to a range of potential scenarios resulting from formal Covid guidelines expected from state and local authorities. The flexibility built into our planning enabled us to fill 75% of our pre-pandemic camper slots when late word finally came down from the state to all summer camps in New York. While pressure to fill additional slots existed (our wait list was extensive) and the state guidelines permitted even higher numbers, Frost Valley decided that given our own established health protocols and the challenges of staffing, 75% would remain our ceiling. And indeed, events on the ground - including session check-in, meals, housing options, and a schedule of events and activities that required social distancing - demonstrated that our enrollment target was well designed. In addition to the complicated set of logistics, there was also a clear understanding among our team that anxieties and other issues produced by remote learning and the absence of social outlets during the pandemic among our campers would require greater individual attention from our counselors and staff. Following on the heels of this success, we are very pleased to share the news that reservations for summer 2022 have surpassed pre-pandemic reservations for the same period of summer camp preparation in 2019! Farm Camp is all but entirely full, and reservations for Mustang Village, our equestrian offering at main camp, have just a few slots remaining. Overall numbers are terrific, driven, no doubt, by the desire for children to reconnect with friends through immersive programs and exciting activities in the great outdoors. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Ultimately, good planning paid off. Summer camp 2021 was a resounding success, especially under such extraordinary circumstances." - Zach Eigenbrodt, Senior Director of Camping Services __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Project 332 is at the Heart of Our Mission As you know, Project 332 is Frost Valley’s annual initiative to raise funds for campers from communities with limited resources, many of whom would be unable to be present at camp without the success of this annual appeal. The most significant and exciting segments of this summer-long campaign took place, as it always does, on the closing day of each session, when camper parents stepped forward and made contributions as they arrived to collect their campers. Giving among our generous parents on each of these days was heartwarming to observe and profoundly appreciated by the counselors and staff, who know so well how important it is to provide access to children from a broad range of cultural experiences, and the many benefits cross-culturalism engenders for all campers.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "During the entire period of the Covid-19 challenge, giving to Project 332 has been wonderfully gratifying, never more so than during the last day of each session, when families came to collect their campers and the entire Frost Valley team focused on celebrating the value of camp, for one and for all." - Katie Taylor, Senior Dir. of Youth Development __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Networking for Frost Valley As our trustees know so well, Frost Valley’s mission is critical to our ability to attract donor and foundation support. But as is so often the case in our competitive world, establishing personal contact with potential supporters can be of equal importance. With this in mind, our trustees and other donors and stakeholders examine and leverage their professional networks for the advantage of Frost Valley and the work that we do. The results can be deeply gratifying:
Promoting Health and Wellness Even while budgets at Frost Valley were under great pressure last year, we were still focused upon key tenets of our mission, including the need to promote healthy living through healthy eating. With a generous grant from the CVS Foundation, our main camp greenhouse was restored to peak utility and splendor, and reopened to become our newest green attraction; all of this thanks to our newest grantor. In addition to helping Frost Valley recreate a beautiful, verdant winter garden and more program space for summer camp and year-round, garden-based activities, the largest share of this grant underwrote a new position at Frost Valley: Our new Garden Manager now oversees the greenhouse and gardens at main camp and in the East Valley, as well as activities that take place within these green spaces. This grant is also aiding Frost Valley in our efforts to reimplement our Food Sustainability Plan - permitting our campers, visiting schoolchildren and families in every season the privilege of witnessing firsthand the useful gardening techniques and best agriculture practices that support sustainable food preparation and healthy eating. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Each year, the gardens of Frost Valley provide thousands of pounds of farm fresh produce, berries and herbs to our dining halls. The revitalized greenhouse at main camp now provides us with the ability to get a jump on spring plantings and expand our growing season." - Karina Buckholz, Garden Manager ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Supporting Universal Access Following up on their healthy living initiative, the CVS Foundation has most recently awarded Frost Valley with a 3-year grant to fund camp scholarships for children from underserved communities. The first annual installment will support campers coming to Frost Valley in the summer of 2022 through our long-established Partnership Scholarship Program, which was founded in 1967 in response to turmoil in the city of Newark that inspired community leaders there to send children and young people to Frost Valley to access the peace and tranquility of the natural world.
The Partnership Scholarship Program, as you will recall, is a cornerstone of our historical and ongoing commitment to provide outdoor educational access to all children who wish to come to Frost Valley and experience all that we have to offer. And like all campers, scholarship campers may choose the camp program of their choice from among our offerings, including farm camp, equestrian camp, traditional overnight camp or our adventure trips, which take campers on weeklong hikes to exciting destinations such as the Adirondacks, New England’s White Mountains, and coastal Maine. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Each of our foundation partners understands the transformative effects these extraordinary opportunities can have on the lives of our campers, their families, and the communities to which they return." - Nick Lomauro, Director of Program Innovation __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Welcoming Schoolchildren Back to Frost Valley Through a generous grant from the Landsberger Foundation, two New Jersey schools that have been very significantly challenged by the pandemic now have the opportunity to participate in our Environmental Education Program, once again. This program was utilized by nearly 200 schools annually prior to the onset of Covid19 brought these visits to a standstill. One of these schools - Newark’s Discovery Charter School - brought a small group of 18 students to Frost Valley this past December for three exciting days of activities, many of which are very familiar to Discovery Charter, which has a history of annual visits to Frost Valley stretching back 20 years. At Discovery Charter, students are chosen to participate in the visit to Frost Valley based upon their academic efforts, constructive contributions to their classes and within their school community, and the efforts they have made to overcome obstacles and undesirable behavior. Being selected to attend is considered an honor, and students look forward to this trip each year. Like all visiting students, Discovery Charter kids enjoyed activities such as outdoor hiking and the indoor climbing wall, as well as participating in a wide variety of team-building exercises. Horse grooming was particularly popular with this group, though some students expressed nervousness being around such large animals. Many had never been around a horse or any animal of that size. Watching the students gain confidence around the animals - learning how to talk to them and move them and care for them - had a powerful impact. The tactile nature of the activity, the interaction with the animals and the ability to overcome their fears were highlights of their visit to Frost Valley. We are very happy to report that the schedule for reservations for school visits is nearly full for the spring, and next fall’s schedule is also filling up very nicely. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "The return of schoolchildren to Frost Valley is incredibly heartwarming, given just how quiet camp has been during the last two academic years. To hear joyful shouts and squeals; to see the rough and tumble of activities as camp comes alive again in the seasons beyond summer has brought joy to our entire Frost Valley team." - Brett Tillman, Director of Education, Family and Group Programs ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank You Again! We are forever grateful to you and our other donors, who give to Frost Valley in so many different ways. Thank you again for helping to save Frost Valley and for assisting so generously in our recovery. To learn more about our development initiatives, please visit frostvalley.org/ways-to-give