All Star 2 2016

All Star II Family Conference 2016    Saturday, July 9 - Saturday, July 16, 2016

Family-friendly, creative, and diverse, All Star II is a week that can be as active or relaxing as you’d like it to be. Opportunities abound for both adults and children to make or enjoy music and art; dive into a game of baseball, volleyball, or tennis; explore the harbor by rowboat; investigate the island’s history or marine and bird life; play games; join together in the candle-lit stone chapel; take a morning polar bear dip or a yoga break; bring your talents to the stage on stunt night or at the musicale; watch the sunset at a music-laden marshmallow roast; engage in the morning lecture series or afternoon talks on the rocks; partake in the many All Star II traditions; or just settle into a porch rocker to talk with friends new and old or read a good book.  There are few demands but many temptations, and even more opportunities to create the kind of lasting friendships that continually delight new Shoalers and keep old Shoalers coming back for years.

Our Children's Program

Experienced and dedicated program staff guide children—from newborns to high-school students—through their week. Grouped by age, children gather with their leaders for an hour and a half every morning and most afternoons. Together, they’ll visit the art barn to delve into guided art projects, investigate island mysteries and lore, row to nearby Smuttynose, spend lots of time outdoors, and—among many other activities—explore the marine lab’s touch and temporary holding tanks that showcase the surrounding sea life. Care is taken to help each group bond, and each child prosper. Highlights include the children’s stunt Show, where kids take to the stage to perform skits and songs before an enthusiastic audience, and the Great People Hunt, an island-wide, highly spirited game of hide and seek that involves all ages.

Each group has its own meeting space and two leaders. Before you arrive on Star, your child’s leaders will send a welcome letter noting any special requests for the week. Recent high school graduates can opt to participate in the senior-teen group.

Theme of the Week: Changing the Story, Fixing the Future

We are living between two worlds. There is the world we have always known, but realize now has deep system flaws like extreme inequality, climate change, and global instability.  And there is the future world, one that we can have a hand in shaping. What are the stories and narratives that hold the old system in place? And what are the possibilities for transforming the future? Can we create a new narrative and new ways of engaging socially, economically, and politically? And how can we leverage our own personal gifts to aid this changemaking process?

Together with storyteller, author, and agitator Chuck Collins, we’ll learn about new, rapidly accelerating movements that focus on resilience, resistance, and reparations. Through presentations, discussions, small group work, and even a story slam we’ll explore ways to veer off the tracks that keep leading to crisis, and transition to the kind of world we want to live in. Of great interest to all ages—from millennials to seniors—trying to imagine and create a positive future in a complicated world.