December 18, 2023

Every year, the American Youth Foundation puts a call out for volunteers to ready its sites for the summer. The turnout, staff will tell you, …

February 27, 2023

As youth returned to Merrowvista and Miniwanca in 2021 and 2022, the facilities teams focused on how the sites could best serve participants in the …

December 9, 2022

For most of my adult life, I have kept a small paperweight on my desk that reads, “Every wall is a door.”  We all need …

July 27, 2022

Hannah Puma’s AYF experience began when she was a small child, running around Miniwanca as her mom worked at camp for multiple summers. She couldn’t …

May 17, 2022

Upon joining City Year AmeriCorps, each member is presented with a red jacket, which they dedicate to a person, idea, or cause that inspires them …

April 22, 2022

The American Youth Foundation has played a pivotal role in DD Danforth-Burlin’s life. The four-fold way of living has steered her through her youth as …

March 22, 2022

by Dana Rieck High school physics teacher Robert Pike works hard to learn his students’ names within the first three days of each semester, so …

January 25, 2022

While the COVID-19 pandemic brought many losses, it also ushered in new methods for creating community using virtual tools instead of live gatherings. One such …

December 15, 2020

Eight-year-old Kate Hampson had returned home to River Forest, Illinois after her first summer at Miniwanca in 2013. Almost every day, she watched a group …

December 15, 2020

Since the summer she spent on the sand dunes of Miniwanca in 2013, Taylor Eldridge has become an investigative journalist who has written award-winning work …

August 27, 2020

Willky’s AYF journey began at Merrowvista when was a 9th grader at Codman Academy. In the first days of forming their new school community, Codman …

August 19, 2020

Lexie has grown up at Miniwanca Girls Camp and the National Leadership Conference, returning each summer and completing the Odyssey cycling trip from Michigan to …