Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia July 5th- 8th ,2011 American Corner Bitola Youth Leadership & Creative Writing Camp 2011
Mar 24, 2016
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
American Corner Bitola
Youth Leadership & Creative Writing
Camp 2011
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
In order to enhance young people's creativity and generate
understanding of the concept of leadership, the American Corner
Bitola organized the Youth Leadership and Creative Writing Camp
2011 from 5th- 8th July. The Youth Leadership and Creative Writing
Camp 2011 was an amazing opportunity for the 24 participants to
learn more about the leadership concept through the various
workshops organized in the beautiful camp site in Pretor, in Prespa.
Traditionally, fourth year in a row, the Creative Writing Workshop also
took place during the four camp days. In the text bellow, you will find a short
overview of every presentation, workshop and event organized during the AC Bitola
Camp, as well as the results from the feedback forms which were filled by the
participants on the last day of the Youth Leadership and Creative Writing Camp
2011.
Watch the camp video!!! It was especially made for this Camp!
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
Creative Writing Workshop
The first day of the camp started with the Creative
Writing workshop during which the participants
developed their English writing language skills and
searched for new ways of expressing their ideas.
Rozita Gjorgievska, Ivan Nikolovski, PCV Lauren
Hofer and AC Bitola Intern Zlatko Tasevski, the
ones in charge of this workshop, led the kids
through it with pleasure and ease during the four
camp days. The workshop started with the participants making their folders, and
continued with writing the Name acronym, which in the next days picked up to writing
poems, Sudoku puzzles, River stories and Plays. At the end of this outstanding
workshop the acting of the plays took place and every team got the chance to
present their work. The teams Awesomes, Steal Pillots, Wall Eggs and White snake
made the best theater for this summer!!!
Feedback form results: Like- 25; cannot decide- 2
Day 1- July 5th
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
YMCA Leadership Workshop by Vikitor Iliev, president of YMCA Bitola
The schedule continued with
YMCA’s representative Viktor Iliev
for an interactive leadership
workshop. The participants were
fully involved and responded very
well to the practical applying of
team work by making wooden and
paper towers. Each group gave
their best and the workshop more
than successfully finished with
achieving the main goal-
understanding team work!
Feedback form results: Like-20;
cannot decide- 7
Interactive workshop on Negotiation by PCV Phebe Phillips
PCV Phebe Phillips stole the show from everyone with this
intro catchy line - “with the techniques I will teach you, you will
get what you want without letting them know”. Everyone paid
maximum attention and was eager to try negotiating
techniques with Phebe, face to face. Everyone present on this
workshop had the opportunity to reconfirm the truth about the
fact that communication means everything in today’s world,
and learning how to speak, think and act at the right time and
on the right place is essential.
Feedback form results: Like- 27
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
Scrabble Tournament
The two hours after dinner on Day 1 were reserved for
developing the competitive spirit among participants.
Everyone did their best at the game of Scrabble. Filip
Joshevski and Stefan Tabakovski were the best in the
Scrabble competition and won awards from the AC Bitola.
Feedback form results: Like- 19; cannot decide- 8
Highlights of the Day
After every day filled with programs and
activities, it was time for the best
moments of the day!!! Videos were
made with the best photos of the day
and were screened so everyone was
eagerly waiting for the next photo and
laughing to the funniest moment during
that day.
Feedback form results: Like- 27
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
“Kick like a girl” movie screening
Exhausted and ready to relax the children
headed into what they had known as the
working area only this time it was a movie
theater. The transformation struck them pretty
well and they “fought” their way to a chair as
near to the screen as possible. The campers
watched the documentary “Kick like a girl”
which as they stated “was really motivating and interesting to watch”. The daily
activities finished with the animated movie “Tanged”. After the movie the participants
bounced their way back to the bungalows- some sleeping on their feet and others
still full of energy and impressions from the day that passed. After an intense battle
to get them into bed, the staff was finally able to get off their feet and head to their
own beds.
Feedback form results: Like- 21; cannot decide- 6
Day 2- July 6th:
Visiting the Church of Kurbinovo
In the morning of Day 2, the long but fun walk to
the Church of Kurbinovo took place. After the
half an hour walk to the church, Meri Stojanova,
an ethnologist and tour guide from the NI
Institute and Museum Bitola, gave a great
presentation about the history and the
significance of the church and the Prespa region
as a whole. Nothing was left out- every story,
legend and detail about the church and the valuable frescos in it was explained fully.
It was obvious how much the children enjoyed
the adventure; it was expressed on their faces.
“You can’t go into the future without knowing the
past” is what some of them said. Feedback form
results: Like- 23; cannot decide- 4
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
“The History of Leadership in Macedonia” by Meri
Stojanova
The past and the present leadership practices were compiled in
Meri Stojanova’ presentation about the variety of leadership
concepts and different approaches characteristic for the past
and nowadays governance. The evolution of leadership
represented in the “History
of leadership” convinced
everyone that great ideas
are not a special
characteristic of our time, but of all the ages
and nations through the centuries.
Feedback form results: Like- 15; cannot decide-
6; Dislike- 7
Red Cross First Aid presentation by Ivanco Cagorski, representative from Red
Cross Bitola
Ivanco Cagorski from the Red
Cross Bitola gave the participants
extraordinary tips on how to help
the people in danger and if
possibly, save their lives. The
techniques for giving first aid were
explained and everyone got the
chance to try this technique on the
life models- MatinI vanovski and
Stefan Dzalev. The essential
knowledge transferred to the
participant was a valuable and life lasting guide to saving someone’s life when there
is a need of it.
Feedback form results: Like- 23; cannot decide- 4
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
Party Time: The magic Show, the Marshmallow party& JEOPARDY
The evening on Day 2 was announced to
be a Movie and Magic show night! The
campers had the chance to see the magic
tricks by Vladimir Gjorgievski, AC Bitola
Intern and were amazed by his abilities and
card tricks. After the hour filled with magic,
the surprise Marshmallow party followed
and the TuTu Train made by the campers
travelled to the kitchen where everyone got
the chance to try the tasty marshmallows. After the nice surprise “Jeopardy” was
played and the competitive atmosphere was brought at the camp. The teams were
astounded by the game and this turned out to be, as they said: “The best game we
have ever played!”.
Feedback form results: Like- 21; cannot decide- 6
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
Energizers with PCV Lauren Hofer
Starting from Day 2, PCV Lauren Hofer warmed up the atmosphere with her
energizers. It turned out that this activities were outstanding and the campers were
eagerly waiting for the “Bananas of the world-Unite” and the “Shark in the water”
energizers with Lauren. Becouse of the amazing atmosphere created after the
energizer, the AC Bitola together with all the campers, announces PCV Lauren
Hofer for the MOST POPULAR PERSON ON THE CAMP. This was definitely proved
with the feedback forms filled by the participants where from 27 comments, 20 of
them finished with the sentence: “I love Lauren, she is awesome”.
To see the videos from the energizers please click on the following links: LINK
1&LINK 2.
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
Presentation by the representatives from the President Ivanov School of
Leaders –Alumni Association: Katerina Veljanovska and Emilija Dzurovska
“Dreaming in Color”
The representatives from the President Ivanov School
of Leaders, Kate and Ema, very successfully managed
to depict the significance of becoming a leader, gaining
leadership skills and how real success stories can
inspire you to achieve your life goals. Their personal
experience from
the Ivanov
Leadership School reflected their words as
they guided the participants through a
refreshing and highly motivational interaction
with the children. As the passion could be felt
in their
motivational
speeches,
they surely got their message across. Very skillfully,
combining all of the things the participants had
been learning previously, they taught what a good
leader consists of, how a person will grow into a
leader and how to make the most out of the
experiences life throws at you- things that shape the young minds into the next
leaders of our community.
Feedback form results: Like- 24; cannot decide- 2; Dislike- 1
The presentation on volunteerism by the NGO Together Macedonia by
Andrijana Karanfilovska and Jordan Trimbrone, an EVS from France
The day's schedule continued with Together
Macedonia’s presentation. They held a
presentation about the history of volunteering and
the advantages and experiences you gain while
volunteering.
Feedback form results: Like- 19; Cannot decide- 7;
Dislike- 1
Day 3- July 7th:
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
“Leadership workshop” by the YES Alumni Simona Ristovska and Martin
Ivanovski
Next up was the presentation from the
YES Alumni. Martin Ivanovski and Simona
Ristovska did an outstanding presentation!
They had an amazing year filled with long
lasting memories and life changing experiences
while studying in the USA as exchange
students and were more than happy to share
the skills, experience and knowledge brought
from the U.S. Still, their presentation about leadership was the cherry on top
because it was easy to see how much the children had progressed on that topic and
how, more than this, their creative
thinking had flourished. The YES
Alumni succeeded in showing the
fact that communication is the key
of becoming a great leader trough a
game.
Feedback form results: Like- 27
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
FREE TIME ACTIVITIES on the Camp!
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
Day 4- July 8th:
Performance of the Creative Writing Workshop Plays!!!
To finish up the awesome AC
Bitola camp, the four teams from the
Creative Writing Workshop prepared their
plays and everything was ready for the
small outdoor theater in Pretor. After 4
days hard work on various tasks during
the Creative Writing Workshop the ideas
were flowing everywhere! The four
teams: Awesomes, Steal Pilots, White
snake and Wall Eggs showed that acting could easily be their life profession.
Impressed by the stories and the acting of the young people, the thundery applause
was inevitable! A great way to finish the
Camp!!! The winner of the Best Team
went to the team Awesomes.
FilipJoshevski won the Best Director
Award, Martin Ivanovski and Teodora
Mishevska were chosen as the Best
Actor and Best Actress! Congrats to
everyone!!!
At the very end, the only thing
that left was the certificates rewarding
and the cleaning of the Camp. As we
were popping up on the bus the wonderful memories of the four AWESOME days led
us to saying in one voice: “See you next
summer!”
P.S. As the participants surprised us and
made their own camp video, we also had a camp
word- “Awesome”. It was heard constantly , on
every occasion, used for everything by everyone,
millions of times !!!
Pretor, Prespa, Macedonia
July 5th- 8th ,2011
THIS IS WHAT OTHERS SAID ABOUT THIS CAMP:
Marta Zmijewska( AC Bitola FB fan): Great project! Congratulations!
Miron York( AC Bitola FB fan): The t-shirts are great good job Ana :D
Mima Geras Dochovska(parent): Many tanks to AC Bitola for the well done work. Kids were happy,
parents very pleased. Congatulations!!!
Cano Josevski (parent): Thank you AC Bitola for Creative Writing Camp 2011! You are the BEST!
Comments from participants:
“The camp was great! I love the friendship. I am so sad to go home ”- Filip Joshevski (11)
“Next year if there is a cam again, I definitely want to come! Love you all! ”- Rula
Chalamani (13)
I loved the movies, playing Jeopardy and the plays we did! Looking forward to the next
summer camp!- Mihail Krstevski (12)
“Everything was really nice. The presentations helped me learn what a leader is and how to
become one. I especially liked the presentation by the President Ivanov School of Leaders
Alumni Association. We had a lot of fun and we loved the staff!”- Marija Torkovska, YES
Alumni (18)
“This camp made me gain new friends. All the presentations and workshops were very
useful and a great guide to show us the right way to the top”- Lea Dimova (16)
I am really glad I had the chance to come at the camp and learn more about the leadership
skills that will help me in my life. I loved playing Jeopardy… and GO TEAM
AWESOME(CWW)!- Igor Stamenkovich (17)
“This camp is the coolest, and I love everything about it! I want to stay here for the rest of
this summer!”- Dimitar Bezanovski (13)
“This camp was really awesome. I enjoyed all the time and I was really happy!... I forgot
something- I love Lauren(Peace Corps Volunteer)!”- Jasmina Lozanovska (18)
“Well I loved the company, the games, the people, the presentations… I think that it has
improved my self confidence and I learned more about team work. One of the best things
were the highlights of the day and I hope that next year I will be chosen to come again.”-
Iskra Dochovska (16)