NPYM Junior Friends

Welcome to the NPYM Jr Friends website! For registration materials and information about the Annual Session, see the sidebar at right. Also in the side bar is a link that will take you to the Junior Friends listserv, where you can sign up to receive regular notices about Junior Friends events.

Who are we? 

Junior Friends are a lively group of Quakers from every corner of North Pacific Yearly Meeting who have completed 8th grade up through the summer after graduation from high school. Their program is self contained and will finalize their plans at their first business meeting of Annual Session on Thursday evening. They usually participate in intergenerational worship sharing with the rest of annual session. Any Junior Friend who comes to annual session without a parent needs an adult sponsor, and a medical release form signed by a parent which authorizes the sponsor to make emergency medical decisions if needed.

What are we doing?

The next event that Junior Friends will be having outside of annual session is Junior Friends Camp. It takes place directly after Annual Session, in the same state. This year, it will be at Beverly Beach State Park on the Oregon coast, from  July 20th to July  24th. To register, click on the registration materials on the side panel or visit the listserv.

A group of NPYM Junior Friends recently took a  service trip to Puerto Morelos, Mexico, where they worked to restore a kindergarten that was hit by a hurricane in 2005. They felt it to be a very enriching, eye-opening, community-building experience. They also got the opportunity to visit Mayan Ruins in Tulum, go to a soccer game in Cancun, swim in the Caribbean and a cenote in the jungle, and go to a botanical garden. Tentative plans are being made to have another service trip in summer 2009.

Another Junior Friends Event is Ski Trip, which takes place on President's day weekend each year. Ski Trip is four fun filled days of skiing, snowboarding, or simply being a lodge bunny. This year it took place at Camp Koinonia in Cle Elum Washington, near Snoqualmie Pass.