Hello FFA Advisors, 
Oswegatchie staff would like to offer your students free virtual team building sessions. Our goal is to provide student interaction opputunities while giving a taste of Oswegatchie from a far. Fill out the form below and you will recieve a follow up email from Oswegatchie confirming the dates and time frames you select. 
These sessions will take place over the zoom platform. We will provide you with a meeting link that will need to be shared with the participating students. The sessions will be 45-90 minutes long. Our intentions are to be flexible with time frame and each individual session can be adjusted to fit your needs
You can schedule your team building during a chapter meeting, or you can select a time frame that works for your students to gather with the sole purpose of the Oswegatchie Team Building Session. Feel free to reach out with any additional questions, thouhgts, or ideas. We here at Oswegatchie miss seeing our chapters here at camp. 

Much Appreciated,

Rolland Krohn
Ropes Specialist

​Let’s begin with Thank You!
 
Oswegatchie is incredibly thankful to the supporters of the Mega Duck Dash. Our “camp community” continues to be an amazing group of people that impresses us at every turn.
 
If you purchased Mega Duck Tickets, you are helping us get through the most difficult stretch we have had in 20 years. With the addition of the new dining hall, we are positioned to zoom forward when “Covid” is over.
 
If you volunteered on the Mega Duck Dash weekend, you helped us leverage our time to make the most of the rest of 2020. The next 2 months will be crucial for us to be prepared for 2021.
 
We raced 935 Mega Ducks which is the smallest amount of ducks we have raced in 25 years. With a new event, we had no idea if it would succeed or not. We are overjoyed with the success.
 
We raised $40,000, which is roughly what we raise from an average Duck Race year. Our only major expense for the event was the grand prize, and this was paid for with the first 100 ducks sold.

If you have registered and paid for camp, we will offer several options detailed below. Please continue to stay connected with Oswegatchie on our Facebook page. We hope that if conditions allow, we may be able to release other opportunities at Oswegatchie this summer.  
 
Oswegatchie is preparing to experience significant hardships in addition to those already realized. Second only to everyone’s health and safety, we must continue to fund our overhead so that camp is fully ready to serve children and families in the future. However, we recognize families across the nation are also bracing for their own challenges.

If you had may a Deposit or Payment for 2020, your options are: 

• Kindly donate funds already paid. Please call our office to discuss how you can receive a tax receipt for your generous gift. Thank you!
  
  
• Spend credit in our Online Store. Contact us to set up gift card. 
  
  
• Hold the credit in your account for the 2021 camping season.
  
  
• Or receive a full refund for the amount paid.

 
Opportunities?

We are releasing a virtual program called “Camp in a Box”. This experience will connect with those that miss Long Pond, nightly campfires, songs in the dining hall, and as many of the camp experiences possible.  You can subscribe for one, two, or three-monthly boxes, that will contain camp apparel, camp activities, camp kitchen recipes, and invitation only Zoom sessions with some of your favorite camp staff.  Plus, a variety of other surprises

As New York phases through reopening, we anticipate more opportunities happening. Stay tuned as we work through the situation, 

As a donor to Oswegatchie, how can I help?
We are beyond grateful to the members of our community – our alumni, guests, camper families, volunteers, and staff – who have recognized the challenges crises like this can pose to a human services organization regardless of their own hardships that they may be facing. For those that are able and interested, please make a gift . THANK YOU for your support of children and families during these uncertain times.

​What won’t change is our commitment to our campers.

Excelsior, 
The Oswegatchie Team

To: Interested Students,  ages 14 –1 8, in pursuing a career in Forestry & Wood Products

From:   Bill Waite, Program Director, Oswegatchie Educational Center

             Todd Lighthall , NYS FFA Leadership Training Foundation
  
             On Behalf of the NYS Wood Products Development Council
 
RE: Into the Woods, a Forestry Training Program  at Oswegatchie 
The Oswegatchie Educational Center is offering a FREE 3 day / 2 night trip, March 29 - 31, 2020.
 
In partnership with the NYS Wood Products Development Council, The Oswegatchie Educational Center is offering an intense 3 day / 2 night program at our facility in Croghan, NY. The intent is to teach interested students about the basics of forestry management and timber production. Workshops will include timber cruising, sawmill operation, chainsaw safety, and wood product marketing.  Team building and leadership skills will also be included.
 
The Oswegatchie Educational Center is situated on a 1200 acre expanse of land inside the Adirondack Park. This setting provides the perfect atmosphere for learning about forestry. The property includes 4 bodies of water, various streams, wetlands, and woodlands ideal for environmental education. Throughout the year, Oswegatchie provides programming, meals, and lodging for 4,000 students of all ages. This special program is a unique, and you do not want to miss out on this opportunity.
 
This is intended for individual students to attend and not necessarily as a school group function. School groups are welcome, but the program is aimed at those students that are interested in forestry and related wood products.

Review the 2019 PROGRAM REVIEW & PRESS RELEASE.
 
Please contact me if you have any questions about this opportunity .
 
Sincerely,

Bill Waite, Program Director
wwaite@oswegatchie.org

Program Sample Schedule

Oswegatchie will provide overnight supervision, all meals, during the program.Parents / teachers will want to arrive in Sunday by 1 PM to start.

Day One Sunday, March 29,  2020
1:00 PM-     Arrival to Oswegatchie & Orientation
2:00 PM-     Paul Smith’s Simulator / Forestry Equipment
4:00 PM-     Early Dinner
5:00 PM-     Professional Development Workshop—Ice Breakers
6:00 PM-     Snowshoe / Hike / Bushcraft till dark
9:00 PM-     Indoor Fireplace, Snacks,  and Reflections of the day
11:00 PM-   Lights Out
 
Day Two Monday, March 30,  2020
8:00 AM-   Breakfast
9:00 AM-   Workshops by Hud-son Forestry Equipment
                   - Chainsaw Safety
                   - Sawmill Operation &Firewood Mill
                   - Forest Measurements
​                   - Maple Sugaring

12:00 PM-   Lunch
1:00 PM-     Forestry Workshops Continued
4:00 PM -    Break
5:00 PM-     Dinner
5:45 PM-     Lewis County Economic Development Video—Resource  Based Industries
6:00 PM-     Marketing of Wood Products—Procurement Forestry
8:00 PM-     Campfire and Reflections of the day
11:00 PM-   Lights Out
 
Day Three Tuesday,  March 31,  2020
8:00 AM-    Breakfast
9:00 AM-    Workshop Switched—Instructor TBA
11:45 PM-   Thank You Letters and Group Photos
12:15 PM-   Lunch &  Lodge clean up
1:30  PM-   Departure to Johnson Lumber Company
2:00 PM–    Arrival at Lumber Company
3:15 PM—   Finish Tour
3:30 PM—  Parents Pick Up students at Johnson Lumber Co.  in Carthage, NY

2020 Into the Woods : Forestry Training Program 

Memo to Student Participants
 
From: Bill Waite, Program Director
 
Re: Preparing for a Cold Weather Trips to the Adirondacks
 
As you prepare for an excellent 3 days in the Adirondacks, I would like to suggest a few things to help you prepare for your trip.

· If you have any special dietary requirements, let us know in advance.  Either communicate with your teacher or email us at wwaite@oswegatchie.org.

· If you have any special medical needs, make sure to communicate with your before arrival.

· You will need to bring your own bedding, pillows, towels, and toiletries for your stay.

· Lastly, the weather is always different here than it is at home. Somedays its 70 out and the next day there is snow. Bring warm clothes or pack layers to be at camp. Boots are essential in April. A rain coat is also practical.
 
· Mountain weather is always worse than you can predict, be ready for anything.
 
We look forward to meeting you. This will be an experience at a  place that has meant many great things to many people. You will meet students form other schools and parts of New York. Come to Oswegatchie with an open mind and be ready to learn!
 
- Bill Waite
​Program Director

​Since 2000, Oswegatchie has hosted these environmental and leadership development programs at our center. We are looking forward to giving this opportunity to your students again this year. The Oswegatchie Educational Center is situated on a 1200 acre expanse of land inside the Adirondack Park. This setting provides the perfect atmosphere for learning about our natural world. The property includes 4 bodies of water, various streams, wetlands, open fields, and woodlands ideal for environmental education. Don’t miss out on this opportunity for you and your students. Apply today!
Please contact me if you have any questions about this opportunity .

The PDF of this program is above, you can review the form / file below.
 
Sincerely,

Bill Waite,
Program Director
Oswegatchie Educational Center 
wwaite@oswegatchie.org

Shari Lighthall
New York Agricultural Education and Outreach
 slighthall@cornell.edu

​This is a Custom Adventure Basics Training that the HIGH 5 Adventure Learning Center provides at our facility which parallels the course  Adventure Basics Training: Level 1.

The difference between the courses is the ability to adapt and focus on the information the group of participants would like to address. Below are several of the basic areas the course will touch upon. Click here for the High 5 Course Description .  Full 3 day Program $600

​Bulleted below is an excerpt from their website.

• Essential challenge course skills for the operation of low and high challenge course elements including spotting skills training, equipment use, knot tying, belay skills and risk management techniques
• A wide variety of icebreakers, warm-ups, cooperative games, and problem solving exercises
• How to create a positive environment for learning, positive group norms and reflection/processing techniques
• Curriculum development ideas: selecting and sequencing activities for optimal outcomes with different groups.

​HIGH 5 is providing the trainer while Oswegatchie is providing the facility. High 5 trainers are highly skilled and provide an elevated experience in expanding skill sets of participants through their trainings. This method is effective in cost for each participant between traveling, lodging, meals and the training.

Participant's registration includes 7 meals, lodging at Oswegatchie, and the training. For lodging participants will need to bring your own bedding. They are not required to stay at Oswegatchie over the course of the training and can commute. All participants are welcome to stay and utilize our facility after each day of training. Oswegatchie is able to provide meals for those that are gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, allergies, and most dietary restrictions with notice in advance. We are very accommodating and receptive to these needs.

Oswegatchie is a summer camp and year round retreat center. To see accommodations or to learn more about what we do, go to www.oswegatchieretreats.org . Oswegatchie does not have cellular service or wifi, but a tremendous amount of waterway and acreage to give any outdoor professionals a great time while unplugging from the world for a few days. 

See You on the Ropes, 
Rolland Krohn
Ropes Course Director