What: SWIM is an all-ages Unitarian Universalist camp held near Miami,  Florida between Christmas and New Years Day.

Where: Camp Owaissa Bauer, 17001 SW 264 Street, Homestead, Florida 33031. Click here for directions.

When: December 26, 2009 through January 1, 2010.

Cost: Adults - $425, Teens - $298, Children - $194. Prices include lodging, meals and program fees.

Registration: Click here to register

Choose from a wide variety of workshops to relax, reflect and stimulate your mind. Outdoor adventures feature the unique beauty of the Florida Everglades and range from strenuous to relaxing. We provide special programs for children, teens and young adults. If you are a performer, show us your talent at the Coffeehouse. If you like dancing the night away, join us at Serendipity. Do you have something to buy or sell? Visit the SWIM Store.

Great news! The price of SWIM has dropped by $25 for adults from last year. And the price for children and teens is also lower. We were able to drop the price thanks to the great deal Camp Owaissa Bauer gave us and by using new technology to reduce the cost of organizing SWIM.  

Online registration is now available! Click this button to register at http://swimreg.org:

If you would prefer to register by mail, download the registration form: SWIM_2009_Registration_Form.pdf.

For more information about Unitarian Universalism, check out the website at http://uua.org/

Copyright © 2009 Unitarian Universalist Southeast Winter Institute in Miami ~ All rights reserved

The renovations at Camp Owaissa Bauer are finally complete! We’re so happy to be back at our traditional home. To see the improvements in the camp, click here.

Credits: Video Production-Vonnie Hicks, Music-Ray Ring, Photos-The SWIM Community

Bliss (blis) noun

1. 1. great joy or happiness
   

2. 2. spiritual joy; heavenly rapture
   

3. 3. any cause of bliss
   

At least, according to Webster's New World College Dictionary.

We have a sense of what bliss is, but how do we find it?

I believe we find our bliss by following our passions, by communing with like minds, by sharing our gifts, by being open to the gifts of others, or by striking out on one's own to try something new (& perhaps even a little scary).

I believe bliss is to be found in the comfort of a loved one's hand, in a satisfying meal with friends new and old, in a really good book, in the beauty of nature, and in the many small, unexpected, connections in the world that become apparent when we take the time to really be in the moment.

I believe all my notions of bliss, and maybe yours too, can be found in this community we call SWIM. I hope you'll join us this year as we gather to reshape our dynamic community. Each year is both different and the same as years before. Each is unique while a part of the greater whole, like each of it's participants.

Welcome to SWIM 2009, welcome to my bliss…

-Susie Enwright, Director, SWIM 2009

Welcome home SWIM!  After three years in the

wilderness, we are so pleased to announce that SWIM is returning to Camp Owaissa Bauer in Homestead, just south of Miami, Florida.  Not that we are averse to wilderness-our times at the Youth Conservation Camp in West Palm Beach, UU-in-the-Pines in Brooksville, and 4-H Camp Cloverleaf in Lake Placid were all happy times for the most part, although they called for heroic efforts on the part of our volunteer staff, board, and community. AND WE DID IT!  Although our numbers were reduced last year, we managed to break even and keep SWIM alive!

So now we return to a shiny new version of our home of nearly three decades, complete with weatherized cabins, attached bathrooms, refurbished and accessible bath house, plenty of camping, paved walkways, and major kitchen and dining hall improvements. Nearby are our favorite haunts:  The bakery of legendary sticky buns, the Coconut Grove silliness and sailboat harbor, an array of ethnic and picturesque restaurants, state parks, beaches, the everglades for (hiking, canoeing and airboat riding), and the keys for offshore and river canoeing and kayaking.  Unchanged, however, is that incredible loving and supportive SWIM Community!

Meanwhile, SWIM is stirred but not shaken.  The economic situation, cost of gasoline, and general craziness of our Odyssey has made it difficult for some of our family, both potential and established, to join us as easily as before.  We have managed to stay afloat, but we very much need you!  To help out, we not only offer the enticement of Greater Miami again, but we have sacrificed our face-to-face staff and board meetings in order to keep costs as low as possible.  Thanks to SKYPE and other internet technologies, as well as Camp Owaissa Bauer's help, we can now offer a REDUCTION in cost for SWIM 2009.  Our full adult costs are reduced by twenty-five dollars ($25), and other costs reduced accordingly.  This is probably not something we will be able to continue indefinitely, so NOW IS THE TIME TO COME ABOARD!  Where else can you have BLISS at such a bargain?

1. -Courage!
   

Vonnie Hicks, President, SWIM Board of Trustees