Camp Rice: This Is What the Love of Korea Is About

Both the Korea Times and the Korea Daily featured stories today on Camp Rice 2016. Here is the English translation.

Children and adults adopted from Korea, along with Korean-American volunteers, are showing off Taegukki that they made with Sylvia Kim of the Washington Korean Paper Folding Institute

This past weekend,  a Korean Culture Camp, Camp Rice, took place at the Pearlstone Retreat Center near Baltimore, MD.  ASIA Families hosted their annual camp between July 28 and July 30. The theme for this year was Love of Korea.  

Opening ceremony began with adopted children’s hanbok march and singing Korean and American anthems led by Kwang Gyu Lee, singer.  Minsoo Park, the minister counselor of the Ministry of Health and Welfare at the Korean Embassy, gave welcoming remarks.   Esq. Jong Joon Chun with the Washington Law Firm shared his life story about how his failures contributed to his successes. He shared that his successes would not have been possible without help from his parents, friends and families. He encouraged adopted children to have “UThinking,” both positive thinking and caring for others, and inspired them to become leaders to change the world. 

Selah Art Group led by Chunghee Kim enacted several Korean folktales in a fun skit format. Children's classes consisted of paper folding taught by Sylvia Kim, cooking classes, Sangmo turning, team building, folktales, outdoor activities and Korean language.  

Karin Price, an adoption professional, worked with adoptive parents and went over the developmental stages of adopted children. Adoptive parents also had a chance to learn Korean language, Tae Kwon Do, traditional dance as well as listening to adult adoptee panelists’ talks.

Special visitors to Camp Rice included Dan Magnolia, Korean adoptee guitarist, and Stan Kang, a Korean American actor who told the audience about how his identity as a Korean American shaped throughout the years and his experiences as an adoptive father of a child from Korea. 

Two adult adoptees received scholarships of $500 each with designated donations from two Korean community members (Sangja Rhee and Danny Shin).