How Does Memorial Day Relate To Cultural Exchange?

This Memorial Day weekend unofficially kicks off the summer and summer means camp and camp means adventure for thousands of international staff from all over the world. Of course just like other holidays the real meaning behind it is sometimes lost to the family reunions and barbecues and swimming pool openings.

In this case I refer to the reflection, honor, respect, gratitude, and debt that we owe to all who have worn the uniform to defend our country over the last 238 years of our history. Thanks to their sacrifices we have, over that time, become the strong, diverse, intriguing and compelling nation that all of these young international adventurers are looking forward to experiencing so richly this summer.

Further, let us not forget that many of these young people from different reaches of the planet are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who wore different uniforms to fight against each other in so many conflicts over the last century. World War I was just a hundred years ago and Europe was entrenched and in flame. World War II brought global conflict and warfare to yet another plateau. There were many other wars. Now the descendants of former enemies will be sharing their skills and cultures with American children side by side at camp, experiencing our local communities together, making life-long friendships, molding characters, stretching their personal limits and growing as human beings together. They are in no small part making the world a better place.

So as we think and remember those who so bravely served, it is indeed a tribute to them that we are engaged in an enterprise that will do much in future to avoid the horrors that they suffered and the profound sacrifices that they made. Just as we will never forget them, we will be ever aware of the role that we play in sparing today’s youth from having to make the same sacrifices. I refer to your campers, our own children and grandchildren, and the Camp America participants who arrive in the great United States of America in the coming weeks.

God Bless America, have a great Memorial Day and an awesome camp season. May mutual understanding and cultural exchange long endure, and may we never, never forget!