Family & Friends
July 31 - August 7, 2021
Hybrid Family Conference
July 31 - August 7, 2021
Hybrid Family Conference
Description
Workshops
Conference Leadership
Pricing
Description
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Family and Friends has provided a safe and nurturing community for people of all ages, from all walks of life, for the past 50 summers at Ferry Beach! We come together in community to grow, explore, learn, and build strong and lasting relationships! Family and Friends is the perfect vacation whether you come as a couple, an individual, a young adult, with your extended family, grandparents, or any combination of these. There will be something for everyone, with morning workshops and activities for adults, young adults and children. Multigenerational activities are plentiful in the afternoons and evenings.
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No one has to cook or clean up on this vacation! Come off the beach in the late afternoon, join friends for social hour, then join everyone in the DeWolfe Dining Hall, where we have a variety of choices for all kinds of palates.
So this summer, bring your spirit to the sea, stand upon the shore, and know you are home! Join us at Family & Friends 2020, and discover or rediscover the magic that happens in the Ferry Beach community!
So this summer, bring your spirit to the sea, stand upon the shore, and know you are home! Join us at Family & Friends 2020, and discover or rediscover the magic that happens in the Ferry Beach community!
Family and Friends Youth Groups
During the week while the parents are in their workshops the children get to have their own workshop with their peers. The groups are broken down by age such as Squishies (babies and toddlers with parent), 3-5 year olds (need to be potty trained), 6-7 year olds, 8-9 year olds, 10-12 year olds and Jr/Sr teens. The group age cutoffs can shift based on enrollment. The groups are led by at least 2 adults attending Family and Friends who have completed a background check. During the week you can expect to build a Covenant for the week, play games, create art and music, and learn about local ecology. The Jr/Sr teens typically will do a day trip.
During the week while the parents are in their workshops the children get to have their own workshop with their peers. The groups are broken down by age such as Squishies (babies and toddlers with parent), 3-5 year olds (need to be potty trained), 6-7 year olds, 8-9 year olds, 10-12 year olds and Jr/Sr teens. The group age cutoffs can shift based on enrollment. The groups are led by at least 2 adults attending Family and Friends who have completed a background check. During the week you can expect to build a Covenant for the week, play games, create art and music, and learn about local ecology. The Jr/Sr teens typically will do a day trip.
Workshops
Yoga - Megan Cullinane
The sessions will include a flexible schedule of yin yoga, power vinyasa, restorative yoga, meditation, inquiry, and reflection. In yin practice we will focus on the connective tissue in the body and flow slowly, holding each pose for 3-5 minutes. Our power vinyasa and and restorative practices are inspired by the strengthening Journey into Power sequence in Baptiste yoga. Community discussion will hold space for a variety of meditation, inquiry, and reflection. It will be a peaceful week! Participants should bring a mat, blanket, and pillows of all varieties.
Megan (she/they) loves leading yoga on zoom and in various other places in real life! They fell into the community at Grace and Glory Yoga where they completed hundreds of hours of transformative practice, a Yin Yoga 60 Hour Certification program, and a 200 Hour Teacher Leader Development Program. Megan went on to further their knowledge at a Level One Aerial Yoga Teacher Certification with Vata Asana. She believes inclusion is the heart of yoga.
The sessions will include a flexible schedule of yin yoga, power vinyasa, restorative yoga, meditation, inquiry, and reflection. In yin practice we will focus on the connective tissue in the body and flow slowly, holding each pose for 3-5 minutes. Our power vinyasa and and restorative practices are inspired by the strengthening Journey into Power sequence in Baptiste yoga. Community discussion will hold space for a variety of meditation, inquiry, and reflection. It will be a peaceful week! Participants should bring a mat, blanket, and pillows of all varieties.
Megan (she/they) loves leading yoga on zoom and in various other places in real life! They fell into the community at Grace and Glory Yoga where they completed hundreds of hours of transformative practice, a Yin Yoga 60 Hour Certification program, and a 200 Hour Teacher Leader Development Program. Megan went on to further their knowledge at a Level One Aerial Yoga Teacher Certification with Vata Asana. She believes inclusion is the heart of yoga.
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Mosaic Art - Christine Burgess
Learn basics of creating mosaics! Do you have cracked and chipped china that you just can’t throw away? Let’s create a mosaic to honor those pieces. Bring a simple design for an 8 x 10 piece (or smaller) and those dishes. After creating our individual pieces, we will create a larger legacy piece together to install at Ferry Beach as a commemoration the Family & Friends 50th Anniversary. Adhesive, grout, and sealer provided, bring your sense of color and design please. Christine Burgess, visual art instructor, has taught several art classes at Ferry Beach over the past 8 years. She has attended Family and Friends for 28 years and created her first artwork there at a workshop offered about 18 years ago. Christine’s teaching philosophy is that everyone can express themselves through art and art changes lives. |
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Writing - Sharon O'Brien
Have you ever thought that you’d like to write your own life story, or invent one you give to a fictional character? Have you ever wanted to share writing with a supportive group and receive ideas and insights? “Everyone has a story that only he or she can tell,” writer Susan Monsky once said. In this writing workshop you will discover, explore, and shape a story (or stories). You will learn how to make your stories reach readers by drawing on the material of life and transforming it into a shaped narrative. Whether you are working in creative nonfiction, memoir, fiction or poetry you will find the workshop a place to explore your creativity. Because this is a workshop, the instructor will guide the class by giving writing prompts, although everyone is also free to develop their own. Writers will be encouraged to read their work aloud and will receive useful feedback and encouragement from the other writers. Everyone will have at least one individual appointment with the instructor, and there will be the opportunity to participate in a reading. No writing experience is necessary. Sharon O’Brien is a teacher, writer, and reader who has taught creative writing at Dickinson College for more than 20 years. She began her own writing life as a biographer of the American novelist Willa Cather, and soon realized that biography is a form of story-telling. She took creative writing classes at Harvard Summer School and later taught creative nonfiction there. In 2004 she published her own memoir (U Chicago Press), The Family Silver, where she explored the ways in which history and culture can shape people’s lives. In addition to teaching memoir and personal essay to undergraduates, she teaches writing workshops and courses in the community. She fell in love with Ferry Beach the first time she came here, and is honored to be part of the long, vibrant tradition of writing workshop leaders in this community. She believes that writing carries spiritual and emotional weight and has the power to create empathy. |
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Song Writing - Nick Bloom
Have you ever felt the desire to express yourself through song? Do you find yourself making up tunes in your head? Or are you simply curious about what it would be like to transform your thoughts and feelings into music? Whether you’ve written 1,000 songs or none, the Songwriting workshop is an opportunity to pause and spend time with music and writing. We will be spending some time learning a few of the most common forms of American popular songwriting, including blues, gospel, country, ballad, and others. Then, you will have the opportunity to write and workshop your own songs, under the loving tutelage of Family & Friends’ own Nick Bloom. We will work collaboratively, writing songs as individuals, in smaller groups, and as a whole class. We will also try to make time this year to create a song (or songs!) that celebrates the place of Family & Friends/Ferry Beach in our lives, in honor of the 50th Anniversary. If you have a guitar, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, or any other instrument to accompany yourself, you are highly encouraged to bring it. However, no accompaniment or songwriting experience is necessary to participate in this workshop. Nick Bloom is a songwriter, singer, strummer, and lover of many forms of song. He has written and performed his own music for more than a decade in many parts of the country, though his favorite place to write and perform has always been the Rose Pavilion at Ferry Beach. Nick has released two albums of his own music with his New York City-based band, Bold Forbes, and regularly performs country-folk music in his current home city, Austin, Texas. Nick cannot wait to once again lead this songwriting workshop at Family & Friends, one of the most creatively fertile, soulful places on earth. |
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Hydrotherapy - Marty Burgess
Once again the focus of Hydrotherapy will be on stand-up paddle boarding! This is an introductory course on the handling of a SUP (stand up paddle board), water safety, launching and landing techniques, and paddling techniques. Hydrotherapy is an open workshop: you can join for a day or the entire week, but the number of participants is limited each day to 12 both for safety and to allow for personalized instruction. Things you will need: paddle board, paddle and life jacket, water shoes, beachwear (bathing suit or clothing suitable to swim in), sunscreen, a sense of adventure. If you have your own SUP be sure to bring it! Improving paddling technique and board handling skill will enhance your enjoyment of your board. If you need a paddle board, I have 4 available for rent for each day and there are outfitters nearby that rent them. We also have a variety of wetsuits for your use along with safety gear to try. See you on the water! And, occasionally, in it. :) Marty Burgess is a licensed Maine guide and experienced stand-up paddle boarder. Questions? Feel free to contact Marty at martyfb7@gmail.com. |
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JP's Jazz Jam - John "JP" Pearson
After many years of being a casual "pick up" activity, JP'S JAZZ JAM will debut as a fully scheduled and official workshop during Family & Friends' 50th Anniversary Week. Participants will enjoy creating community as they share their INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL musical skills. As in the past, ALL LEVELS OF MUSICAL ABILITY ARE WELCOME as long as you come with your own instrument (even those you may not think of as traditional "Jazz" instruments - we'll make it work and make you happy!). Make certain to pack a desire to explore, expand, and create new abilities among supportive friends. We are excited that the new "scheduled" meeting time will provide a better opportunity to address and nurture individual needs and preferences along with providing more time for small group and ensemble projects. In addition to greater active participation, we will also be able to spend some meaningful moments listening to recordings of Jazz masters as examples and inspiration for developing styles and ideas for improvisation and performance. In addition to your own instrument, it is highly recommended that you bring a personal recording device (cell phone/tablet/??) and music manuscript notebook for individual practice purposes outside of our sessions. You might want to bring a folding music stand and any sheet music you might like to work with. As in the past we will be developing a total group performance piece for Thursday's "INTER-GENERATIONAL TNT show". We are all so very much looking forward to seeing and playing with as many new and old Family & Friends musicians from years gone by in honor of this 50th Anniversary celebration! Mr. Pearson retired after 35 years of teaching music in the Bridgeport, Connecticut, public schools, 29 of which he served as Band Director and Music Department Coordinator at Bassick High School. He has been a music educator serving private- and college-level students for more than 40 years. He enjoys a legacy of former students who have become world-class performers, educators, and active music industry participants of note. He now focuses on improving his own music skills and expanding his performance opportunities. He was introduced to the trumpet in fourth grade, began private instruction with Victor Salvo in White Plains, New York, and continued to study the trumpet through graduate school, studying with James Maxwell of the Tonight Show Band in New York City. Mr. Pearson has been a member of such musical groups as The Bridgeport Downtown Cabaret Theatre Orchestra, The Penfield Pavilion Concert Band, The Connecticut Symphonic Band, The American Festival Concert Band, The Jazz-Haven Big Band and The New Haven Jazz Orchestra, The Organizers and Classics wedding combos, The (U.U.) Revelation Jazz Ensemble, The John Pearson Jazz Quartet, The Alumni Swing Band, The New Additions Jazz Orchestra and freelances with numerous other groups. Mr. Pearson has also been fortunate enough to perform with such notables as trumpeter Clark Terry, saxophonists Jimmy Heath and Marion Meadows, and pianist Billy Taylor. His prolific musical experience is complemented with both a B.S. and M.S. in Music Education. |
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Conference Leadership
Please call 207-282-4489 x1 or email info@ferrybeach.org for questions related to the programing or to get in touch with the conference coordinators.
Pricing
Pricing per Person |
Adult: $448.00 (Includes Conference Fees + Meals) Youth: $329.00 (Includes Conference Fees + Meals) Online Attendance Only: $25.00 (if applicable to your conference) Off-Site Daily Fee: $64.00 Adult / $47.00 Youth (Includes all Meals) On-Site Daily Fee: $19.00 (Staying On Campus and Not Registered for Programming. Does not include Meals. Note: A minimum of one adult per party must be enrolled in programming.) |
Lodging |
Lodging Prices Vary. See our Lodging Page for pricing information. |
Membership |
Membership must be paid to attend any Ferry Beach program and is due annually. Individual Membership: $30.00 Family Membership: $50.00 See our Membership Page to learn more and to purchase or renew a membership. |
Or Call 207-282-4489 x1 to Register by Phone
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Due to our financial situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ferry Beach will not be able to provide the traditional amount of support for our conference volunteers. If you are able to, please consider donating to help support a volunteer this summer and ensure your conference runs as smooth as you expect!
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Our mission at Ferry Beach is to awaken hearts to explore, grow and renew the spirit of universal love.
We work by creating programing and events in the areas of Arts & Culture, Education, Spirituality, Sustainability, Personal Growth and Justice & Action.
We work by creating programing and events in the areas of Arts & Culture, Education, Spirituality, Sustainability, Personal Growth and Justice & Action.
