Save the date: The American Youth Foundation is kicking off its centennial festivities with a virtual gathering Wednesday, April 16! Join President and CEO Liz Marshall and other AYF leadership...

The lessons Amy Hughes learned during International Leadership Conference and National Leadership Conference in the mid-1990s laid the foundation for her personal and professional life today. Hughes is a medical...

Save the date: The American Youth Foundation is kicking off its centennial festivities with a virtual gathering Wednesday, April 16! Join President and CEO Liz Marshall and other AYF leadership...

Summer camp often calls to mind visions of youth adventuring daringly as they hike through rugged terrain or aspiring nobly as they master sailing or kayaking in open water. However,...

Spark, a four-day retreat designed for adults, returns to Miniwanca for its fourth year Sept. 11 to 14, 2025. Registration opens Monday, March 17. This year, Spark welcomes keynote speaker...

Learn more about working at Miniwanca! Learn more about working at Merrowvista! At first glance, it may not be obvious how coordinating a high-energy skit or Night’s Doings correlates to...

The songs, stories, and lessons learned through American Youth Foundation programs are the throughline that connects generations of the Gehres family. Tony Gehres first experienced them as a Merrowvista camper...

The American Youth Foundation strives to create vibrant, expressive spaces for its camp communities, and this year, it bolstered those efforts through new artist-in-residence programs at Miniwanca and Merrowvista. Vice...

Miniwanca and the four-fold way of living were fundamental to Albie Bell and Katie Maus as teenagers attending and working at camp in the ’80s and ’90s. They passed these...

The American Youth Foundation kicked off its centennial year Tuesday, Jan. 28, when it opened registration for four celebratory events taking place at Miniwanca, Merrowvista, and in St. Louis. The...

The American Youth Foundation invites you to join us once again for a virtual experience that will bring intention to your new year, called the YearCompass. Originating over a decade...

Miniwanca and Merrowvista campers of the 1920s and 1930s would find some camp elements unrecognizable: cabins with screened windows, elaborate high ropes courses, a wild cardboard box race inspired by...

We are blown away by the overwhelming response to our Giving Tuesday challenge! Thanks to 229 generous donors, we soared past our previous Giving Tuesday records, raising $57,452 for AYF...

When we count down to the new year on Dec. 31, we aren’t just ringing in 2025. We are also kicking off a year of celebration as we welcome the...

Merrowvista Community and School Programs provide growth opportunities to thousands of kids and teens, but there’s another key group that benefits, too. The dedicated internship cohorts who develop and run...

About 40 students recently gathered for the Michigan Middle School Leadership Initiative, a youth empowerment program at Miniwanca. In four days, they built a community and discussed how to create...

More than 60 people descended on Miniwanca for four days in September to pursue their personal bests during Spark, the American Youth Foundation’s retreat for adults. This is the third...

Sydney Freeman is often the first person people meet when they arrive at Miniwanca and the first voice they hear on the phone. As Office Manager, Freeman knows her role...