Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year to our Vega families, staff members and alumni everywhere!

The holiday season is a time to celebrate with friends and family, and reflect on the year past and the one to come. We invite you to take a few moments to reflect upon the Vega Values, and how we can use what we learn at camp to make our holiday season, and every day, happier for ourselves and those around us.

Believe in Yourself: Camp is a place to set goals and challenge ourselves. Believing that we can achieve our goals is the first, and most important step in reaching, or even surpassing them.  At Vega we all learn to persevere, embrace challenge, and strive for excellence.  In doing so we develop resilience that makes us stronger throughout our lives.

During this holiday season, use this grit and self-belief to overcome the challenges that are a part of all our lives, set goals for the future and encourage others to do the same.

Have Empathy: Empathy is a skill that allows us to put ourselves in other peoples’ shoes and connect with how they might be feeling. At Vega, it is of the utmost importance that everyone feels included, loved and accepted.  With empathy, we can understand and respect each other, and is an important reason why the Vega community is a safe and loving one where special friendships can be made.

For the holidays, our hope is for World Peace and for people everywhere to live responsibly and safely. We can all help make this happen simply by showing empathy to everyone.

Live with Integrity: The quality of being honest and having strong moral principals is something we should be constantly striving for.  At camp as in life, we must be aware of and accountable for our actions.   As we spend time with friends and family this season, remember to be authentic, responsible, and follow the Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated!

Build Unity: We all need social support to live happy lives.  If there is one thing that the world needs, it is to build Unity! At camp, unity is built on many levels – as a whole camp community, as an age group, on the sport fields, in a show, as a team, and many more. Respecting and continuing camp traditions, like important holiday family traditions, can build unity and bring us closer together, including strengthening bonds between generations.

Choose Gratitude: Gratitude is a choice! We believe that happiness leads to success (not the other way around) and the research is mounting that gratitude makes you happier. Gratitude has an important role at camp because we learn to take advantage of our short time together; we encourage each other to focus on the positive and expend energy on thinking about all the good in our lives, rather than dwelling on the bad. Challenge yourself to truly appreciate the little things, even if it’s something we often take for granted, like having a roof over our heads and food on our table.

We are full of gratitude to our Vega families and alumni throughout the years who have been our friends and supporters, enabling Vega to shine brightly, like the Vega Star, through these past 81 years of existence.

We hope this holiday season finds you with joy, peace, and happiness throughout the New Year.

Warmest Wishes and Love,
Kyle, Emily, Linda and Michael

• 
•