About FC

Flying Cloud is not an easy experience to describe. I often find that my descriptions could run on endlessly as it always feels there is one more amazing piece I need to share with whomever I am conversing with. I’ll do my best to summarize the experience found in our very special clearing.

In an attempt to present this in a organized yet organic way I am going to divide up what we do at Flying Cloud into four sections. The foundation of our summer is our connection to nature. Built on, and using this concept, we also focus on wilderness and primitive skills, community building, and rights of passage and coming of age.

Connection to Nature

The first moments you spend at Flying Cloud will be a 3/4 mile hike into the beautiful, rich, and welcoming forests of Vermont. Arriving in the clearing, you see many structures, only a handful of which are permanent and made with relatively modern technologies. Even these structures are rustic in comparison to the homes where we spend the rest of our year. The whole camp has a very natural feel. Tipis, Wigwams, and Yomes are scattered throughout the central clearing and tucked into the forest. Complete with a small pond for swimming, Flying Cloud is a journey into a world both fantastical and real. Songbirds fill the air with an orchestra of different voices, leaves and needles rustle in the wind, and the stream rushes in the background. Immersion in nature, with the guidance of our experienced staff, helps to bring all of our campers to a closer relationship with the earth where they stand. We encourage all of our campers to explore their own personal connection to the land.

Wilderness and Primitive Skills

The core of programming at Flying Cloud is based on skills that involve the environment around us. These range from the more knowledge focused naturalist skills of flora and fauna identification to the more active skills of “friction fire” (a fire starting technique) and the art of silent movement. A camper at Flying Cloud can choose to spend his time learning all the basics of the skills we offer or choose to pursue one in more depth. All of our staff have experience in all of our program areas but often specialize in their favorite, providing the opportunity for campers to hone the skills they love.

Community Building

At Flying Cloud we work to create a positive, caring, and compassionate community. Many pieces of the community will form organically as the group of young men and boys evolves throughout the summer. Based on Quaker principles, we strive to create a community where everyone feels not only welcomed but valued for the person that they are and the light that shines from within them. At the beginning of each session, we come together as a group to create lists of what we want in our community and what we don’t want to be present. This “In-and-Out List” gives us a foundation upon which to build a healthy community. By the end of the summer, living at Flying Cloud feels more like being part of a small village in the woods than it does a summer camp.

Rights of Passage and Coming of Age

We strive to bring meaningful transition from childhood to adulthood with various ceremonies throughout the summer. In a world slowly losing powerful recognition of our life journeys, Flying Cloud is providing a rare experience.

In a Flying Clouder’s first summer they will receive their Flying Cloud name. A Flying Cloud name is based on a person’s greatest qualities represented with various pieces of the natural world. From that day forward, among their brothers and Flying Cloud and the rest of the Farm and Wilderness community they will be known by their Flying Cloud name.

When leaving Flying Cloud a camper will also spend a whole night tending a fire on their own. At FC, our hope is that the experience has helped with the transition from being a boy into being a young man. Our goal is not to teach or show these young boys one definition of manhood, but rather to help them discover there are many different ways to be a man.

What truly sets Flying Cloud apart from other summer camps?

Flying Cloud is a camp that gains its power from its philosophy and its community. Through our core values (simplicity and isolation, respect and community, common gender, honoring the land, and honoring the spirit) we create an experience that will change every community members life in powerful and lasting ways.