Who We Are
CFC Board of Directors 2024-2025
Allen Yang
Secretary, Website, Senior Camper
What Do You Do for the Board?
• Secretary: Save all written documentation about CFC (board
meetings, legal filings, letters, photos/videos)
• Information Technology: Website content updates, evaluate various cool technologies for Camp use – Zoom, Yogile, etc.
• Senior Camper: Keep the Camp spirit in mind when the board discusses issues and ideas, try not to take things too seriously
What Do You Do for the Board?
I was the founding board president when CFC was reformed as a 501c3 non-profit org back in 2007 (with a major assist from Tina Tchen and some pro-bono legal work from her staff), and have served on the board since then. I stepped down as president in 2014 and am now the Board secretary and webmaster. Hey, let me know if you’re interested in working on the website – I could use some help!
Caryn (Kai Yin) Caffarelli
Music Director
What Do You Do for the Board?
Why Are You On the Board?
What have you learned about CFC during your involvement?
What's Next for You at Camp?
Helen Nai-Yee Chang
Food Manager
What Do You Do for the Board?
I help with the planning of camp each year, particularly food and evening snacks!
Why Are You On the Board?
joined the board because I have a deep love for camp and it is important to keep it going. I have been coming to camp since I’ve been 6 years old and camp has helped me to raise my children.
What have you learned about CFC during your involvement?
I have learned that Chinese Family Camp – spirit of love, cultural enrichment and understanding and good food – is a constant in camp no matter the location!!!!
I also have learned that camp organizing and implementation of camp is intentional and our parents put an amazing amount of thought and effort into making CFC what it is today. As a kid I just came to play and eat.
What's Next for You at Camp?
I have reinstated an old role. Food Manager: I will be coordinating morning and evening snacks. If you have a request for a snack let me know.
Elysa Chao
What Do You Do for the Board?
Why Are You On the Board?
What have you learned about CFC during your involvement?
What's Next for You at Camp?
Jenille Boston
What Do You Do for the Board?
Why Are You On the Board?
What have you learned about CFC during your involvement?
What's Next for You at Camp?
Lawrence Wang
Camp Director
What Do You Do for the Board?
Camp Director (for over 10 years!)
Why Are You On the Board?
CFC is very special to me and I will do whatever it takes to help CFC remain an annual thriving event 🙂
What have you learned about CFC during your involvement?
Wherever the camp is at, it is still our beloved CFC because of the campers/activities!
What's Next for You at Camp?
Continue to do whatever I can to help it reach 100+ consecutive years!! (I’ll only be 97 in 2058…….)
Frank Chao
What Do You Do for the Board?
Treasurer
Why Are You On the Board?
What have you learned about CFC during your involvement?
What's Next for You at Camp?
Karen Ward
What Do You Do for the Board?
I am a director-at-large and also manage the CFC T-shirt mega-enterprise. This year (2024) we offered over a dozen styles in multiple colors in all sizes.
Why Are You On the Board?
In 2005 our family started attending. Our children were adopted from China and I had been searching for camps to enrich their knowledge of Chinese culture. It was during those early years I realized the importance of preserving heritage and passing it on to the next generation.
What have you learned about CFC during your involvement?
CFC is a group of caring people who have formed a bond over the years. They extend that bond to new families. While we focus on the Chinese culture, we are a group of people who come from different background within America. There is an attitude of blending and complementing our differences.
What's Next for You at Camp?
I hope to always be able help where the need is.
Heritage is always an interest for me.
As a mother who has experienced helping a child with learning difficulties, my hope is to help parents with similar situations in their journeys.
Emma Trone
What Do You Do for the Board?
I’m a director-at-large, but have spent time working on the nomination committee, the web committee, and the virtual museum project.
Why Are You On the Board?
I’ve been attending camp (on and off) for over a decade, and my senior year of college I decided to study camp for my senior American Studies thesis. That process was a meaningful way for me to begin thinking about camp in a more macro-sense, and also oriented me toward honoring and sharing the memories of all of those who have attended and loved camp for decades. Through that process, I was able to reconnect with Camp in a more active way – and that led me to the Board. One thing I discovered in my research is that Camp has had a long history of involving junior campers in leadership roles, so it’s really an honor to continue in that tradition on the Board!
What have you learned about CFC during your involvement?
Camp is a truly exceptional place – there really is nothing like it, as hard as I searched for equivalents during my research. It’s a model for how Chinese Americanness is not, and has never been, just one thing – there are so many different experiences across time periods, geography, family structure and ability. CFC is the place where I learned that it was ok to be “bad at being Chinese,” in the conventional sense of “being Chinese” – and that welcoming, non-judgmental environment is something that campers throughout the ages have actively worked to create.
What's Next for You at Camp?
I’m excited to work with the Board to continue supporting Camp’s welcoming environment, as well as developing new ways for the teens to engage with Camp history, Chinese history, and their own experiences.