Location

All Village Weekends are either held at one of our year-round Turtle River Lake sites, 12 miles/19 km northeast of Bemidji, Minnesota or at our new International Retreat Center just north of Stillwater, Minnesota. The sites feature indoor spaces for activities, crafts and meetings, as well as soccer fields, forest trails, and other outdoor recreation areas. Residential facilities are fully winterized.

Villagers stay in comfortable, winterized cabins, arranged by gender and age.  It is common for different school groups to share a cabin.  When possible, there is never one student from a school alone in a cabin.  Each cabin houses 10 to 14 villagers plus staff and other adults.

Teachers who feel strongly about their students’ cabin assignments may contact the dean at least 30 days before the program to inquire about the possibility of submitting housing requests for pairs of students..

Lead teachers and chaperones alike have a supervisory role during the weekend.  All chaperones will stay in cabins with students, unless moved to other housing by the dean.  The lead teacher will be housed with students as necessary and determined by the individual program dean.