Speaker for the Reunion?

We have had an offer from a representative of a company that arranges birth country travel to come to the reunion and speak or hold a workshop. Most of the topics that could be addressed, of course, have to do with travel back to our children's homeland, with birth parent searches, and with the questions tweens and teens might be harboring about their birth country related to adoption.

Obviously, this particular activity would be more targeted toward parents and older children/adoptees.

Please let us know if we should pursue the opportunity of inviting a speaker of this background or if you would rather keep the reunion's atmosphere more informal. You can simply leave a comment here or email Yvonne or me to share your thoughts.

2012 T-Shirts

Yvonne and I are starting to make plans for this year's reunion at Winton Woods. One of the projects we are working on is the design for the t-shirts. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we have an idea and were hoping that you would let us know the towns/cities from which your children were adopted if you intend to join us at the reunion this summer. You can leave a comment here or email me at viviane8 @ yahoo.com. Thanks and stay tuned for more information as the year progresses.

Bulgarian Christmas Party

The Bulgarian Cultural Club of Cincinnati is organizing a children's Christmas party and wanted me to invite the families with Bulgarian adoptees who attended this year's reunion at Hueston Woods or anyone with a Bulgarian child up to age 18.

The party will be on Sunday, December 18 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm in Alexandria, KY.

The hosts are Maggie and Karina Stankova and their mom Acia who were at the summer reunion. The details are still in the works, but Acia would like to know who's interested in coming by December 1. The event may be a potluck or a small fee might be collected to pay for food and drinks.

Please contact me at viviane8 @ yahoo.com if you would like more information.

2012 Reunion Location

After checking into a few different options, Yvonne and I have decided to give Winton Woods Park in Cincinnati a try for our 2012 reunion. It’s a very nice location and you can read all about it here: http://greatparks.org/parks/wintonwoods.shtm.

We have reserved cabins 3H (Yvonne) and 4H (Viviane) and hope that we can fill up all deluxe cabins with reunion attendees. We would like to use this nice circular area as our group space for activities. Please refer to this map when making your reservations and try to be as close as possible to cabins 3H and 4H, regardless of whether you book a cabin, RV site, or tent site: http://greatparks.org/rec_camping/pdfs/ww_campground.pdf

The lodging options at the park include:

· Eight large deluxe cabins that sleep up to six (or more due to the large loft, but don't tell park staff). Each cabin features a kitchen, bathroom, heat, air-conditioning, linens, dishes, cookware, a television, wood deck, picnic table and fire ring. $125/night for deluxe cabins ($750/week) + taxes.

· 25 RV back-in sites, all with full hookup (water, 50 amp electric, sewer), picnic table and fire ring. The back-in sites have a gravel pad. $35/night for full hookups

· 12 RV pull-through sites, all with full hookup (water, 50 amp electric, sewer), concrete patio, picnic table and fire ring. the pull-through sites have a concrete pad. $45/night for pull-through sites

· 10 basic cabins with electric and AC/Heat; however, these do not have plumping or running water. $50/night + taxes.

· 68 sites with 30-amp hookups. $25/night for 30amp electric sites.

**Check out the photos: http://greatparks.org/rec_camping/site_photos.shtm.

**The cabin prices do not include tax.

Winton Woods Offers:

· The campground features a large office and store with an indoor snack bar.

· Group activity shelter,

· Playground,

· Splash park

· larger visitor parking

· nature center

· two new dump stations

· Wi-Fi access.

Please note: A Motor Vehicle Permit is required to enter the park $10.00 annual or $3.00 daily.

Winton Woods Campground Phone Number: (513) 851-2267
Check-in/Check-out times: 2:00pm/12:00pm for campsites, 3:00pm/11:00am for cabins

Reservations are accepted up to one year in advance must be paid for in full when they are placed. Visa and Mastercard are accepted. Reservations are refundable 30 days or more in advance of check-in. A campground credit (good for one year) is also available. For cancellations from 29 days to 48 hours, refunds are not available, but a campground credit will be issued. For cancellations of less than 48 hours from check-in, there is no refund or credit given.

***Information on nearby hotels will be provided at a later time as they will not book up as quickly as these cabins.

Hotels near Winton Woods Park

For those wishing to stay at a hotel for the reunion weekend, there are several options available within 4 miles of the park (sorry this is in a bad format, I am a bit rushed, but wanted to get the info out to you all):

Best Western Cincinnati West Inn & Suites ‎

11967 Chase Plaza Drive Forest Park, OH 45240 (513) 825-9600 bestwestern.com‎ SpringHill Suites Cincinnati North/Forest Park ‎ 12001 Chase Plaza Drive Cincinnati, OH 45240 (513) 825-9035 marriott.com‎ Hampton Inn Cincinnati Northwest/Fairfield ‎ 430 Kolb Drive Fairfield, OH 45014 (513) 942-3440 hamptoninn.com‎ Comfort Suites ‎ 1234 Omniplex Drive Cincinnati, OH 45240 (513) 551-5028 comfortsuites.com‎ Atrium Hotel & Conference Center ‎ 30 Tri County Parkway Cincinnati, OH 45246-3208 (513) 771-7171 thehotelatrium.com‎ Super 8 Cincinnati OH ‎ left at bp gas station 330 Glensprings Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45246 (877) 519-7378 super8.com‎ Howard Johnson Inn - Cincinnati ‎ 400 Glensprings Drive Cincinnati, OH 45246 (513) 825-3129 hojo.com‎ La Quinta Inn Cincinnati North ‎ 12150 Springfield Pike Springdale, OH 45246 (513) 671-2300 lq.com‎

2012 Reunion - Save The Date

After gathering responses from about two dozen families regarding the weekend on which to hold next year's reunion, Yvonne and I have decided that June 22-24 would be the best option. Several families preferred this weekend and many others said they'd be flexible to make it work. Choosing this date allows us to not overlap with Father's Day and Independence Day traditions and will hopefully lead to a great turn-out in attendance. So, save the date!

Stay tuned for more details on the new location which will follow soon.

Reunion 2012 - We're On It!

Well, it's only October and Yvonne and I are already discussing specs for the 2012 reunion. Last year we were a little late getting our act together, so several families couldn't attend because their social calendars were already filled up for the summer. In an attempt to avoid this issue and get onto everyone's summer schedules early, we are going to try to decide on a reunion weekend as soon as possible.

July and August are usually miserably hot and humid here in the greater Cincinnati area, so we are proposing to move the event into mid or late June which would at least increase our chances for some more bearable outdoor conditions.

If you could leave a comment here or email me at viviane8 @ yahoo.com and tell me which of these weekends you'd prefer, we would appreciate it. This is not a commitment to attend, but rather an informal poll to allow us to peg down dates, so that everyone will have plenty of notice this time around.

June 15-17

June 22-24

June 29 - July 1

Thanks, everyone, and happy autumn.