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| Julie, with her children Sarah and Caleb |
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Dear Friend,
For many of us, our children are the single most important part of our lives. We want the best for them, and make every effort to provide them with all the tools they need to become happy, healthy, productive adults who feel good about themselves. These are important goals for everyone, but for children adopted into families of a different race, this can be especially important. In my own family, I have two children who joined our family through adoption. My daughter and son are African American. We have been so blessed by adoption, and feel that our multi-racial, multi-cultural family is special. Together, we can celebrate and learn about our diverse backgrounds, while growing together as a family. Families like mine are becoming more and more common. In 2008, approximately 130,000 children will be adopted in the United States. 17% of them will be of a different race than their new parents.
Along with the countless joys, transracial adoptions bring special challenges. My children do not have many African American Adult role models in their lives. They do not get a lot of opportunities to see families who look like ours. We often receive questions and unwanted attention in public. Even daily tasks such as hair and skin care can be challenging. To address these issues, a group of African-American community leaders, transracial adoptive families, and the Fox Cities Rotary Multi-Cultural Center have joined together to develop a very special retreat for transracially-adopted youth.
UMOJA is a Black Heritage Experience created for families who have adopted or are fostering African American children or children from the African continent and the diasporas. Our camp provides an opportunity for children ages 3 to 18 and their families to examine, explore, reflect, understand, and celebrate the rich and diverse traditions of Black identities and culture in the United States. The program takes a family-based approach by providing a fun, nurturing, celebratory, positive and safe environment for all its participants. Umoja is committed to helping children and their families experience a sense of pride about Blackness in American society. 31 families and 130 participants joined us for our first camp, which was held in October of 2007. Our evaluations were extremely positive and many of the parents commented on how their children finally made friends with someone with which they could identify. One parent wrote, “Umoja has moved me, emotionally and intellectually, to a new place. The individuals who spoke, those who nurtured the idea and planned the conference opened up a new world for me. And I was filled with hope that Umoja would continue.” Our next camp will be held in October this year
Umoja is committed to helping children and their families experience a sense of pride about Blackness in American society. I hope you join my family in this unique experience.
Thank you,
Julie Ryno
Founder
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Schedule of Events - |
Schedule will be updated, as the event gets closer. For a copy of the 2007 agenda click here. |
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Friday October 24, 2008
- 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM Registration and checkin.
- 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM Dinner is served.
- 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM Evening Activities.
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Saturday October 25, 2008
- 7:30 AM - 9:00 AM Breakfast.
- 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Morning Break out sessions for children and parents
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Lunch
- 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Afternoon Break out sessions for children and parents
- 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM Dinner is served.
- 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM Evening Activities
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Sunday October 26, 2008
- 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Morning Family Activity
- 10:00 AM - Soul Food Brunch
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| Costs: | $60 per adult and $40 per child 3 and older. |
| Costs include all meals and programming. Hotel reservations are made directly with the Green Lake Conference Center at 920-294-3323. Mention Umoja for special rates. |
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Events |
- Age appropriate Afrocentric games and activities.
- Mankala (Ayo), African dancing.., Story telling.
- Interactive activities on history and culture.
- Family adult based workshops on transracial adoptions.
- Braiding workshops for children and families.
- Raising Black sons and daughters: What do I do?
- Speakers who "walk the talk"..did that, done that, it worked!
- I am Me workshops for children.
- Drumming activities.
- Soul food Dinner.
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| Costs: | $60 per adult and $40 per child 3 and older. |
| Costs include all meals and programming. Hotel reservations are made directly with the Green Lake Conference Center at 920-294-3323. Mention Umoja for special rates. |
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Highlights (2007) |
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| African Drummer Dancer |
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| Dancing |
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| Drumming |
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| Games |
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| Kwanzaa activity |
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| Kwanzaa |
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| Learn to dance |
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| Learning to drum |
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Travel/Accommodations |
| Please make your hotel reservations early and mention Umoja to receive these special rates. Most of the activities will take place in the Kern Lodge. It is recommended that rooms be reserved as early as possible. Rooms will start to be released to other groups on July 22nd, 2008. |
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 Kern Lodge |
| The Kern Lodge has family style rooms. |
| K-2 rooms have two (2) queen beds - max occupancy is four (4). |
$88.00 per night |
| K-Family rooms can accommodate up to five (5) people. |
$88.00 per night |
| K-Queen rooms have a queen bed and two (2) twin beds - max occupancy is four (4). |
$88.00 per night |
| K-Handicap rooms have a queen bead and two (2) twin beds - max occupancy is three (3). |
$88.00 per night |
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 Bauer Lodge |
| Bauer Lodge has Queen Suites with a maximum occupancy of 6 |
$142.00 per night |
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 Roger Williams Inn |
| Roger Williams Inn rooms have one queen and two (2) twin beds with a maximum occupancy of 3 |
$78.00 per night |
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| Hotel room rates listed are for one or two adults per room. For an additional adult per room, add $15.00. No additional charge for children under the age of 21 staying in room with parents. |
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Registration Information |
| $60 per adult, $40 per child 3 and older |
| Costs include all meals and programming. Hotel reservations are made directly with the Green Lake Conference Center at 920-294-3323. Mention Umoja for special rates. |
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| The registration form is available for download |
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| Contact us at |
Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center 128 North Oneida Street Appleton, WI 54911 (920) 882-4056 fax (920) 882-4060 email: Umoja@focal.org
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Registration Forms Information |
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Julie Ryno |
| Julie Ryno is the adoptive mother of Sarah (age 5) and Caleb (age 3). Because of her desire to raise healthy, black children she sought out prominent black members of her community to develop Umoja. Outside of Umoja, she is the sales and marketing manager for a educational furniture company. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband, Bill and children, Sarah and Caleb. |
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Amy Steuer B.S.W, C.S.W. |
| Amy Steuer is a Southern Wisconsin Post Adoption Resource Specialist with Catholic Charities. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree and is a Certified Social Worker who has been working with Adoptive Families for 19 years. |
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Andrea Huss B.S.W, C.S.W. |
| Andrea graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a bachelor’s degree in social work. The first part of her career involved working in child welfare at the county level. For the majority of the time, she worked as a delinquency social worker. Currently she is the coordinator of the Post Adoption Resource Center with Family Services (PARC). As the coordinator of PARC she provides information and referral services to adoptive and foster families, facilitates support groups, and provides education regarding adoption issues. |
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Dr. Bola Delano-Oriaran |
| Dr. Bola Delano-Oriaran is a Nigerian immigrant to the United States and a professor in the education department at St. Norbert College in DePere, WI. |
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Shauna Ejeh |
| Shauna Ejeh is an African American community leader and the director of the Women's Fund of the Fox Valley. |
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Toni Taylor |
| Toni Taylor is an immigrant from Sierra Leon and Vice President of African Heritage Inc. |
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Nancy Heykes |
| Nancy Heykes is a attorney and the director of the Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center. |
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Richard Langan |
| Richard Langan is a retired police officer, and along with his wife the adoptive parent of Andrew. |
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Juliet Cole |
| Juliet Cole holds a bachelor's degree in social change and development, a co-major in social services and a master's degree in cross-cultural counseling from UW-Green Bay. She is currently the Associate Director for the Institute for Learning Partnership at UW-Green Bay and teachs a course titled Cultural Images in Materials for Children and Young Adults. She serves on several boards and committees in Green Bay and the Fox Cities and is involved in many roles designated to improve diversity and minority student achievement in schools and in the community. She does diversity and multicultural education programs/training in schools and community organizations, including African storytelling, dance and speaking presentations/ diversity training. She also facilitates diversity circles and trains diversity circles facilitators for Brown County and the Fox Valley area. She is the founder of the Nia African/African American Dance/drumming group. She had a wealth of experience in student services, program administration, advising, counseling and teaching and international experience while working professionally in Nigeria and the Middle East. |
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