CISV Atlanta Newsletter – Summer 2005
My name is Tim Banning and I am the local JB Co- President for the Atlanta Area JB. This summer I traveled through CISV as a JC, Junior Counselor, to Springfield, Massachusetts where I participated in CISV Village. The village is for 11 year olds and is set up to promote peace through understanding, which is done through bonding, friendships, educational activities, enthusiasm and an exciting group of adults who make it happen.
As a JC I was part of the adult group who made the village happen. At my village in Springfield, Massachusetts delegations from Brasil, Ecuador, Italy, Indonesia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Phillipines, USA, and Israel. The best part of village was making friends with the five other JC’s from USA, Brasil, Hungary, Guatemala, Norway, and making friends with the 11 year olds who were amazing and so much fun to play games with. At the village we played social games, educational games, bonding games, and we went on excursions which were to places like Six Flags and Boston. Through all the activities and cultural understanding everyone made a lot of friends that we didn’t want to leave when the camp ended.
As a JC I learned leadership skills, organizational skills, became more creative, matured, learned a lot about other cultures, laughed, made 60 friends from around the world, became more confident in myself, loved, cried, had fun, traveled, much more, and had an amazing experience and the time of my life.
Being a JC was the best experience I have ever had.