Meet The Team
Team Neringa
Neringa is composed of a supportive and caring group of individuals that pride themselves in the vision, operations, and day to day goals to keep the camp the best it can be. Camp Neringa is more than just a destination, it is an experience where campers and staff are brought together to create lifelong friendships and memories, while deepening their relationship with God.
Neringa team
President
Darius Razgaitis
Vice President
Jessica Simone
Treasurer
Darius Jagminas
Secretary
Ray Stemplys
Members
Emilija Bušinskas-Boyer
Dana Grajauskas
Sr. Laimutė Kabišaitytė
Sr. Ignė Marijošiūtė
Stefa Normantas
Leonard Linas Orentas
Rimas Puškorius
Vaiva Razgaitis
Rūta Strazdis
General Manager
Vydas Marijošius
Email: vydas@neringa.org
Community Engagement
Manager
Jonas Jankauskas
Tel.: 718-640-7417
Email: jonas@neringa.org
Summer Camp Director
Dana Vainauskienė
Tel.: 978-489-4719
Email: dana@neringa.org
Business Manager
Viktorija Galkutė
Tel.: 978-582-5592
Email: viktorija@neringa.org
Meet the year round team
Jonas Jankauskas
Community Engagement
Manager
Jonas Jankauskas joins the team as our Community Engagement Manager and is responsible for maintaining relationships with the broader Neringa family, through on and off-season programming, communications, marketing and fundraising. Jonas is also from New York, and his ties to Neringa go back to his močiute, Eleonora, who frequently worked in the kitchen when he and his four sisters were campers. Having graduated as a camper from one of the last all-boys camp sessions, he believed his Neringa “career” to be complete. However, a chance meeting with Aldona Lingertaitienė at a Lithuanian scout outing in Michigan changed all, when she urged him to return as a counselor that summer for the Lithuanian-speaking session. That first 2-week experience blossomed into a nearly decade-long run as a counselor, working all of the summer sessions during his last several years, one of which even included the first-ever Heritage family camp.
Leveraging his experience and knowledge gained by his duties as president of the New York Lithuanian Athletic Club, and participating on the boards for the New York City and New York State chapters of the Lithuanian-American Community, once again Jonas is excited to be contributing to Neringa’s continued growth and development as a physical and spiritual oasis in the hills of Vermont by encompassing Neringa’s expanded family in the United States, Canada, and the rest of the world.
Vydas Marijosius
General Manager
Vydas Marijošius joins the team as our General Manager and is responsible for the overall management of CNI to assure that the Mission is integrated into the programs, services and operations. In other words, Vydas will be the first "point person" when you reach out to Neringa. Vydas is from New York, and has been a camper, counselor, family camp camper, and program coordinator at Neringa. Since the 1980s, started camping at age six, was a camper at the last of the Lithuanian boys’ camps and the first co-ed session. Throughout that time, he somehow managed to never win Sports Day (and as such is still looking forward to his first sweet taste of victory watermelon). Having graduated from camp, he spent the entire next two summers as a counselor at all of the camps, which was an eye-opening experience that showed the breadth of Neringa's offerings and the size and strength of its community.
In 2010, Vydas came to Lithuanian speaking family camp - first with just his oldest son but eventually with the “whole circus”, family of three. And after spending the first five years happily camping as a family, Vydas moved into a co-program coordinator role and happily spent the next five years coordinating the program. When his children aged comfortably into the Heritage English camp, Vydas looked forward to his “Neringa” time at Iškyla and other opportunities to be with the Neringa staff and community. Vydas looks forward to helping Neringa grow and prosper in the future.
Dana Vainauskiene
Summer Camp Director
Darius has been a Camp Neringa Inc. Board Director since 2019 and President since 2021. With more than 15 years working in marketing and communications, Darius has a background in marketing strategy, branding, storytelling, design and data analytics. He got his start in communications working with nonprofits, including several NGOs in Lithuania, where he has worked in politics, human rights and was even a summer camp counselor in Vilnius. As a long-time Neringa camper, counselor, coordinator and parent to two campers, Darius has a keen interest in Neringa's mission of nurturing Lithuanian culture, Catholic values and providing opportunities for personal growth.
He is committed to ensuring that the mission continues to resonate with the next generation of campers, their parents and the evolving North American-Lithuanian community.
Viktorija Galkute
Business Manager
Darius has been a Camp Neringa Inc. Board Director since 2019 and President since 2021. With more than 15 years working in marketing and communications, Darius has a background in marketing strategy, branding, storytelling, design and data analytics. He got his start in communications working with nonprofits, including several NGOs in Lithuania, where he has worked in politics, human rights and was even a summer camp counselor in Vilnius. As a long-time Neringa camper, counselor, coordinator and parent to two campers, Darius has a keen interest in Neringa's mission of nurturing Lithuanian culture, Catholic values and providing opportunities for personal growth.
He is committed to ensuring that the mission continues to resonate with the next generation of campers, their parents and the evolving North American-Lithuanian community.
Staff and counselors
Staff and Counselors are the very heart of Neringa, since they put Neringa’s mission into action. Please read below how counselors nurture and uphold Neringa’s mission. Contact the Summer Camp Director Dana Vainauskienė at dana@neringa.org if you have any questions regarding employment at Neringa.
Lithuanian Culture
Neringa is a Lithuanian cultural immersion camp. We strive to create a Lithuanian ethnic atmosphere, to teach our campers as much as we can about our common heritage, and to instill pride and love for the Lithuanian culture.
Faith and Spirituality
We entrust all of our camp activities, every camper, counselor, and person at Neringa to Our Lord. We constantly turn to God in praise and thanksgiving, commending to God our needs and intentions. Faith is an ongoing inner journey. While at Neringa, staff and counselors are asked to take advantage of the various opportunities to nurture their own faith in the Roman Catholic tradition. In sharing our faith experience and being open to growth, we ourselves help create God’s kingdom in our midst.
Tradition has evolved that Thursday night the staff and counselors gather in the chapel for Mass or prayer. We take this time to pray and to reflect on our own mission at camp in God’s presence. Many former counselors remember this Thursday night prayer tradition and join us in spirit and prayer.
Cooperative and Community Living
To work cooperatively and to support one another is the ‘golden rule’ of Neringa. The uniqueness of Neringa is that we do not limit ourselves to our own designated and primary tasks. Each one looks for ways to help with another’s responsibilities. By working together we enable each other and balance out our own weaknesses. Thus, counselors come to demonstrate initiative, an awareness of each other’s needs, assistance, encouragement, educational challenges, and constructive feedback. It is precisely this kind of cooperation and working in a community that makes Neringa so rewarding for its staff and counselors.
