PEOPLE
Volunteer Leaders
Biel Family
The Biels (Stacia and Wyatt) met through the AMC in 2000. We have traveled will all the families on this trip multiple times, except one new family, so it almost feels like full circle for us. This will be our 9th AMC family adventure travel trip. Stacia is the full-time owner of Active Waggers, a dog-hiking and boarding company she started in 2017 while working professionally in college study abroad. Wyatt is a family nurse practitioner and has his own mobile urgent care practice. Noah (14) is in the 8th grade, and Soraya (11) is in 6th grade. We try to spend as much time outdoors as we can, and Stacia still leads AMC trips locally with the Boston Family Outings group. Wyatt loves to bake bread and garden in his spare time, while Noah plays baseball and Soraya enjoys playing the piano, singing and dabbles in art.
Fernandez Family
Peter Fernandez, Eliza Grinnell, and Lyra Fernandez (14) live in Lexington, MA. They have been hiking and backpacking the US national parks since Lyra was 7 years old. Lyra enjoys attending dance class, playing volleyball, snuggling with her cats, and playing Roblox. Eliza works in Communications, feeds wild birds, and loves to be active outside in any number of ways (hiking, biking, running, rock climbing, kayaking, and more). Eliza has been involved with the AMC since 2002. Peter works in technology and spends his free time on his many musical and screenwriting projects. He is also teaching himself digital animation.
Trip Participants
DiPierro Family
Stella and I are very excited to join everyone this summer. We just got our first puppy in December, Princess. Stella started High School this Fall and I started a new job after teaching in the same school for twenty years. This year feels full of hope and positivity. Can’t wait to meet all of you!
Gwee/Yeo Family
We're Shwen, Emmeline and Euan Gwee and we live in Winchester, MA. Shwen’s a digital and innovation consultant as well as a startup investor and advisor; Emmeline’s a 5th grade teacher's aid as well as a dyslexia tutor and Euan's in 8th grade. We enjoy the outdoors, often hiking in the summer and skiing/snowboarding in the winter, so we jumped at the chance to join Stacia and Wyatt again on another trip, as this will be our second AMC trip with them. We’re excited to see familiar faces, meet new ones, and hike the Alps together!
Jork Family
Markus, Kelly, and Fiona (14) live in Andover, MA and enjoy hiking in the White Mountains. As a family we have completed 19 of the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire. Hopefully that will prepare us for the Alps! For fun Markus brings his camera everywhere, taking pictures in many amazing places including our most recent trips to Tanzania and Canadian Rockies. Fiona enjoys dancing (ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical), shopping, and baking. Kelly loves spending her time in the garden, reading, and playing games. We look forward to getting to know everyone on this trip and exploring some beautiful mountains!
Kendrick Family
Don and Maggie Kendrick live in Weatogue, Connecticut. This will be our 5th trip with the
Biels– the previous 4 trips were to Nova Scotia, Tanzania and 2 to the Canadian Rockies.
Maggie and Don enjoy traveling, camping and hiking. Maggie is an actuary for Aetna/CVS.
She enjoys paddle boarding and yoga. Don works for the Town of Glastonbury, CT in the
health department as a sanitarian. He is involved in Scouting (Simsbury Scout Troop 174) and
likes backpacking.
Krishna Family
Murali, Martha, Anjali (13) and Ravi ( 9) live in Central Florida near Orlando. As a family, we love to travel, explore national parks, and play tennis. Anjali enjoys Cross country and drawing. Ravi loves Legos and reading. Fun fact: Martha and Murali met on a White mountain hut-to-hut hike.
Le/Zhao Family
We have 3 family members going to this AMC 2024 hiking trip: Van Le, Zoe Le and Shan Zhao. We all love outdoor and travel, which are most of our vacations spent. Hiking is a new family activity since we joined AMC in their 2022 Canadian Rockies hiking trip. It was such a fun group and exciting experience that we are very much looking forward to our coming AMC-TMB again.
Van is an automation engineer and system integrator, who loves ocean, beach, soccer and skiing. Zoe is a high schooler who just finished all her university applications and has been "patiently" waiting for their admission news. She has been a competitive swimmer since 10 years old and is currently swimming for both Nadadores and her high school team. Zoe loves ocean, photography, music, reading, skiing with Dad and of course, hanging out with her friends. Shan works part time in an accounting firm and she enjoys movie, jogging and traveling to different places in the world
Motyka Family
Perennial members of the AMC Family Adventure group, Joe, Steve, and Stephen will be rejoining the group and are extremely excited about the opportunity to hike in the Alps! The three originate from the Eastern Pennsylvania town of Kulpmont, where Steve and Stephen reside; Joe makes his home in the Northern California city of Menlo Park.
Stephen is completing his junior year of high school and enjoys studying and volunteering for the greater good. (At least that is what he tells his dad — in reality he enjoys ignoring his dad’s text messages, staying up too late, sleeping in, and lifting weights.) He plans to join the peace corps or army after graduation, whichever lets him sleep in the longest.
Steve is a union carpenter who manages large scale projects (hospitals, stadiums, and the like). When not planning for his next big adventure, he enjoys working for the betterment of his community. On that front, he is on his town’s council and was recently nominated as one who “Made a Difference in the Valley in 2023” for his work in restoring local waterways from coal mine damage. He is also onto his son’s assertions about his love of studying.
Joe is an engineer developing disruptive inertial navigation technology and enjoys being physically active, reading, overspending on boutique coffee, and convincing himself he likes working long hours.
In September of 2023, Joe and Steve completed an eight day hike along the Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier in (mostly) nice weather; Stephen opted out of the trip in order to “study”.
Wilkinson Family
Able, Alison, Seth, and Nyssa at Camden Hills Me last fall.
Hi, Wilkinsons here! We are from Cape Cod, but have spent the last four winter seasons staying in various locations along the coast of Maine. Currently we are residing in South Portland.
Able, 12 soon to be 13 loves sports, especially baseball, freestyle ski and reading.
Nyssa, 16, is an avid birdwatcher, Nordic ski racer, and avid swimmer. She teaches 3 year olds to downhill ski on her weekends.
For the last 20 years Alison and Seth have owned and operated an environmental restoration company on cape cod. Additionally, Alison has spent too much of her spare time caretaking for their small family homestead. We are fortunate to have lived in some awesome areas which have allowed our family to go on various biking, hiking and skiing adventures.
