All Star 2 - 2019
Lecture Videos
All Star 2 Family Conference 2019 Saturday, July 6 - Saturday, July 13, 2019
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.
Read more about Star Island in the March-April 2017 issue of Harvard Magazine or in this 2012 article from the Boston Globe!
All Star 2 registration page at StarIsland.org
RECENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Conference Photo 2019
If you have not seen it yet take a look at the new video from the Star Island Corporation. (You may recognize a few faces)
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A Note From the Chairs:
See you on the dock – Meg and Dottie
We are having a great time planning this year’s conference. We’re very excited about some new things we’re planning, as we continue to make sure the traditions we all love stay alive. If you have ideas, questions or thoughts to share, please contact us at as2chairs2019@allstar2.org. It’s going to be a great week!
Both of us have been coming to Star Island for many years. Dottie began attending All Star II in 1998, when she came with her partner, Lydia Spitzer, a long-time Shoaler. Meg first came to Star with her family in 1962, and has missed only a few summers since then. Both Dottie’s partner Lydia, and Meg’s husband Ed were past chairs, so it seemed to make sense for Dottie and Meg to form a team!
TWO WEEKS UNTIL REGISTRATION!
Registration opens February 1, 2019! If demand is anything like last year, free registration will fill up quickly. People who sign up after the initial slots fill will go on the wait list. In the past, most people on the waitlist find room in the conference, but doing so sometimes depends upon the types of rooms available, so if you want to be sure – REGISTER EARLY!!
We are looking forward to seeing all your names in front of us as registered conference attendees soon, so we can start planning every detail! Feel free to email us at as2chairs2019@allstar2.org to share your thoughts, hopes and suggestions. YOU WILL COME BACK! -- Meg and Dottie
Your 2019 Conference Chairs: Dottie Deans and Meg Doty
Welcome to the 2019 All Star 2 Conference webpage!! We are thrilled and honored to be the 2018 chairs and are excited to share information about the week.
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: Following the Sun: Renewable Energy for Your Home and the World
Solar energy is more than just panels on the roof. You can build or renovate a house to use the sun for heating, cooling, and proper lighting. Hilton Dier will be showing you how to use siting, landscaping, design, and materials to make your home more comfortable, more earth-friendly, and cheaper to live in. He’ll also offer some perspective on the worldwide forces that affect your energy use and where you fit in to the big picture.
About the Speaker: Hilton Dier III
Our speaker is an Old Shoaler whom many of you will remember: Hilton Dier III is a long-time All Star II conferee who attended with his family throughout his childhood. We are thrilled to have him join us this year as speaker. Over the past 15 years Hilton has built electric vehicles, worked on small hydroelectric projects, designed and installed residential solar electric and solar hot water systems, and designed commercial scale renewable energy systems up to half a megawatt. Hilton lives in the solar powered house he designed and built.
Minister of the Week: Reverend Anne Mason, Senior Minister, First Parish UU in Lexington, MA
Anne brings a deep passion for ministry to her position as Senior Minister at First Parish. Her journey through life has taken her to unexpected places, but she has always maintained her spiritual connection as a foundational core of who she is. Becoming a Unitarian Universalist Minister has been a journey of joy and discovery, and she is excited to walk with this congregation on their path of religious quest. How we show up in the world is connected to the faith we discover along the way. Our purpose is to be true to our deepest selves while we work to make this world a better place. Anne finds deep meaning in the weekly affirmation of faith - that our covenant exists "to the end that all souls shall grow into harmony with the divine."
Music Director: Simon Andrews
Simon was born in England and educated at Christ Church, Oxford, the Royal Academy of Music and the University of California at Berkeley. Winner of the 1985 Benjamin Britten International Composition Prize, his music has been featured at the Aldeburgh and St. Alban’s Festivals, broadcast on BBC radio and widely performed in the London, Oxford and San Francisco areas, as well as New York, Boston and Baltimore, France, Australia, Africa and China. His arrangements and original music for church choirs is published by St. James’ Press. The documentaries for which he provided the music, The Amish and Us and Saving Pennsylvania, have accumulated more than one hundred airings nationally on PBS. His edition and completion of the Mozart Requiem has received performances and rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. He is also active as a pianist, harpsichordist and conductor, having worked with the Berkeley Opera, Berkeley Contemporary Opera, North Bay Opera, Capitol Opera of Sacramento, the Concert Opera of Philadelphia and Opera Lancaster, as Music Director of the Harrisburg Choral Society. He has held faculty positions at Franklin & Marshall College, and Millersville University. He was Head of Theory and Chair of the Choral department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, serving as its Dean from 2010 until its close in 2011, and Director of Music at Highland Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, PA from 2007 to 2016 where he directed Adult, Youth, Children’s and Bell Choirs and ran a concert series featuring the Chancel Choir and orchestra in works such as Haydn’s Creation, Verdi’s Requiem and the Britten War Requiem.
Registration, Fees, and Logistics
Registrar contact information:
Brooke Cordes
Notifications:
All notifications (including acceptance letters, communications about wait lists and volunteer jobs, and the "boat letter" that will give you all the necessary information for the week) will be sent via email, so don't forget to include your email address on your registration form. If you do not have an email address, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with your registration and we will snail mail the letters to you.
Financial aid:
For those in need, financial aid is available through grants from the Ginny Levine Fund. For information and an application click here or contact financial.aid@allstar2.org. All inquiries and awards are kept confidential.
Star Island Corporation also has a financial grant program. The confidential program is available to individuals and families who are registered for a conference. Although you may apply for both a conference scholarship and financial grant from Star Island Corporation, you may not accept both, and will have to choose between them. Please use the link below for more information:
http://starisland.org/programs/registration/#financial-grants
Boat schedule:
Depart Portsmouth, N.H. aboard the Thomas Laighton on Saturday, July 6, at 2:25 PM. Depart Star on Saturday, July 13, at 8:20 AM. (Times subject to change - the boat letter has all the details.)
Information for Shoalers (conference attendees)
Frequently Asked Questions -- and their answers
The Ginny Levine Grants -- financial aid for conference attendees
Past Conferences -- list of chairs and speakers from previous years
Job descriptions -- Editable descriptions of all conference volunteer jobs
Children's Program -- An experience your kids will never forget
Behind the Scenes
All Star II Family Conference Corporation -- the organization that runs the conference
The Star Island Corporation -- the organization that runs the Island