Are you ready? The 2024 Eastern Advance is now less than one week away. Preparations are furiously underway, and by the time we descend upon Callaway, Virginia next Thursday evening, your leaders will be ready to deliver a powerful and impactful weekend.
You all have placed trust in us, trust in MenLiving, and trust in its leadership to provide you a weekend of growth, engagement and connection. You will get all of this……and more. We take your trust seriously, as well as your financial and time commitments to spend a long-weekend with us. Although it is a long weekend — trust me — this weekend will fly by.
Below is information you will need in preparation for the weekend. Please read EVERYTHING very carefully.
Phoebe Needles Center, Inc.
732 Turners Creek Rd.
Callaway, Virginia 24067
Phone: 540-483-1518
ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE TIMES:
Plan to arrive on Thursday night between 6:30 and 7:00 PM on Thursday (and with your belly full of food – we are not providing a meal on Thursday night). We’ll begin the evening at 7:30 by picking rooms/beds followed by a couple of processes.
Plan to be done on Sunday at 12:00 PM on Sunday. We will make sure everyone has rides to make outbound flights back home. See below.
TRAVEL LOGISTICS:
For those of you flying in, we will handle logistics of getting you from the Roanoke airport to the camp. We’ll get in touch with you next week on how we will get you to the camp. Also, we’ll make sure we get you back to the airport on Sunday as well.
EXPECTED WEATHER:
Friday, April 26 – 69 with 30% chance of rain
Saturday, April 27 – 75 with 30% chance of rain
Sunday, April 28 – 78 and mostly sunny
THINGS TO BRING:
* Yourself
* Comfortable/outdoor shoes – two pairs in case it rains
* Jacket/warm clothes (for evening outdoor activities/bon fire)
* Comfortable clothes (we will be doing some light movement at times)
* Toiletries
* Flashlight
* Pillow
* Sleeping bag/bedding/sheets
* Towel
* Soap/shampoo (the camp may have this, but I’m not positive)
* Water bottle/coffee thermos
* MenLiving swag (if you don’t have any, we’ll provide you with some)
* Personal snacks (we will have snacks, but if you have dietary restrictions and/or have personal favorites, please bring)
WE WILL PROVIDE:
* Meals (Friday morning through Sunday morning)
* Snacks
* Water/Coffee
* Journals
* Pens
SLEEPING ACCOMODATIONS:
This is a camp, and we will be sleeping in cabins that have rooms with multiple sets of bunk beds. The camp does NOT provide bedding, so please make sure you bring bedding/sleeping bag/pillow for your bunk. If it is too difficult to travel with for those of you flying, let me know ASAP and we’ll arrange to get your bedding to the camp via one of our leaders who is driving to the camp from the Chicago area.
EMERGENCY NUMBERS:
Jason Cell 630-417-6536
Phoebe Needles Camp 540-483-1518
This is my personal cell phone number – I will have this on me at all times during the weekend. Please give both numbers to your immediate contact(s) in case they need to get in touch with you over the weekend.
PHONES/ETIQUIETTE:
We are asking (not demanding, but asking) that all participants make this a technology-free weekend. The weekend is designed to be immersive, and phone distractions can limit the level of immersion. Of course, if you need to check your phone for personal / important considerations, you are certainly free to do so. Please also contact the camp if an emergency arises and for some reason, I don’t get the call. If you HAVE to check your phone for messages from your partner, family, etc., all we ask is that you do it in privacy. Don’t disrupt the immersive-nature of the weekend of others if you need to communicate with the outside world during the weekend. That said, we acknowledge that you all have other people/partners/dependents in your lives that may require some communication. We trust your judgement and your discretion.
MEALS:
We will have meals prepared by the camp, as well as one meal provided by a restaurant one evening. Please come to the camp on Thursday night with your belly full, and meal service will be taken care of from Friday morning all the way through Sunday morning. All dietary restrictions that were communicated to me will be accommodated by the camp.
WEEKEND AGENDA:
You will soon find out! Just be prepared for a mix of growth, work, play, and connection. The agenda is planned to be very diverse to allow all of us to enjoy various aspects of the camp, the surroundings, and the program being developed by the leadership team.
COVID PRECAUTIONS:
We will not be making any specific COVID precautions, nor are we requiring any pre-weekend tests. However, as a courtesy to the rest of the attendees, please do not come to the weekend if you are feeling ill, have COVID, or think you have COVID. We will be together in relatively small spaces for the weekend, so let’s not make this a super-spreader event. Feel free to wear a mask for the weekend, but we will not be providing masks for attendees.
LIABILITY WAIVER:
In the next couple of days, I will send out an electronic Liability Waiver that I’ll need all of you to sign prior to the weekend. Expect to see another email from me on that soon.
THE MEN OF THE WEEKEND:
Mike Patterson – LEADER
Jason Samatas – CO-LEADER
Jeremy Samatas – EMERGING LEADER
Glenn Wright
Will Farmer
Chris Bruzzini
James Riely
Harry Hitzeman
Todd Adams
Matt Huffman
Charlie Gardner
Andrew Gilliam
Valdon Johnson
YOU/INTENTION:
Come as you are. Whatever you are mentally and emotionally bringing with you to the weekend, bring it! You are headed into a weekend with a group of men who will be there to accept and support whatever you may be going through. This is not the weekend to hide stuff. This is the time to let go, get real, be vulnerable, bring what you got, and engage on a level that maybe you have never engaged in before. Also, think about what YOU want to accomplish over the weekend. What are you here for? What area(s) of your life are you wanting to deeply explore? Why are you choosing to spend time and money at a camp in the middle of Virginia with 13 other men?
WHAT I NEED FROM YOU:
Please do NOT “reply to all”, but reply to me only with your cell phone number so I can get in touch with you, if necessary, prior to the start of the weekend. Thanks!
FINALLLLLLLY:
Thank you. Thank you, again, for your trust and your commitment. If you have any questions or need any further clarifications, please do not hesitate to contact me. We are beyond excited to spend the weekend together.
Jason
630-417-6536
Phoebe Needles Center
732 Turners Creek Rd
Callaway, VA 24067
April 25 @7:00pm EDT
April 28 @ 12:00pm EDT
Facilitators: Mike Patterson, Jason Samatas
Invitation Email #1
Hey! I want to extend you a personal invitation to the MenLiving Eastern Advance, being held this year Callaway, Virginia starting on Thursday night, April 25th. If you’re not familiar with an “Advance”, the program is essentially a weekend retreat wherein we explore ourselves and discuss the various ways we can all “advance” our lives as men. It can be in a small way, or it can be a much deeper exploration of the man you are and potential areas where you’d like to explore more growth. The content of the weekend will include a balance of personal growth work and play. Given the time of year and the fact that we’re holding the Advance in beautiful Virginia, we expect there to be a number of outdoor activities to complement our planned agenda. It truly is a perfect balance of personal work AND some play/relaxation.
I have been a part of MenLiving for seven years, have been a long-time facilitator and have led weekend events before. I’m partnering with Mike Patterson, a long-time advocate for men who also runs a thriving coaching business working with various men and men’s groups throughout the world. Mike and I recently worked together last November at MenLiving’s Western Advance in Scottsdale, Arizona, and had a very powerful weekend.
**Facilitators:** Mike Patterson, Jason Samatas
**Cost:** $800 (includes three nights of lodging and meals Fri-Sun am – in other words, the only additional expenses you will have are travel to the site – it’s a great deal!!)
I really hope you’ll consider joining us. Slots are filling up so if you plan to join us, please get a deposit in to reserve your spot sooner than later. If you have ANY questions on anything related to the Advance or MenLiving’s various programs, please do not hesitate to contact me either via this email address or on my personal cell phone (**630-417-6536**).
Hope to see you soon!
Thanks,
Jason
Eastern Advance
Email #1
Official Welcome to MenLiving’s inaugural Eastern Advance. As one of the co-leaders, I am beyond excited for our upcoming weekend in only four short weeks. I’ll try to keep this short because, you know, who likes long emails?? That said, if there’s anything I can do or any if there are other questions I can answer, please do NOT hesitate to contact me. Please do me a favor and read this entire email because there is a lot of information I need to share.
If you haven’t made travel arrangements yet, the easiest places to fly into will be Roanoke, which is 45-60 minutes from the camp. If you can’t find flights into Roanoke, Greensboro and Charlottesville are other options. The least friendly options are Raleigh/Durham or Richmond. From a logistics standpoint, we’ll be arranging rides to/from Roanoke. If you HAVE to fly elsewhere, let us know and we’ll figure out a plan. (More instructions below regarding travel)
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industrys standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
PLACE: Crawford, Virginia (YMCA camp)
DATES: Thursday, April 25 (7 pm) through Sunday, April 28 (Noon)
AGENDA: We will share this with you once you arrive. Just know that these weekends blend personal work/growth with play. We intentionally keep the specific agenda and topics from participants because we want people to go in with an open mind and with as few preconceived notions as possible.
SUPPLIES NEEDED: We’ll let you know in the next email in a few weeks
Next Steps
1. Please respond to me only (do NOT “reply to all”) with the current status of your travel (flying or driving — if flying, when are you scheduled to arrive and depart – I’ll need carrier and Flight info/times)
2. Look out for another email about one week out from the weekend with more details on the weekend.
3. Start thinking now about what YOU want to get out of the weekend. I’ve participated in many weekends over the years, both as a leader and a participant, and the more you put into this, the more you’ll get out of it. If you can share with us what you want or what you’d like to accomplish, we can obviously help facilitate that process. 🙂
Finally, thank you for committing to attending. As one of the leaders, I can promise you that the weekend will keep you engaged, provide tons of opportunity for growth and introspection, and connect you with like-minded men who are also committed to their own personal growth. We are grateful for the trust you are putting in the leadership team and we promise to make this weekend more than worthwhile.
Again, you’ll hear more from us sometime around April 18th with more detail and at that time, we’ll do some virtual check-ins so we can start setting the stage for the weekend. Looking forward to spending time with all of you!
Thanks brothers,
Jason