At our spring planting weekend, volunteers with the direction of the Indian Brook Reunion committee helped plant a garden with a memorial bench in honor of Susan Webb. We plan on doing an official dedication of this garden at the Indian Brook Reunion which will be rescheduled (due to Tropical Storm Irene) for spring of 2012.

In addition to our normal daily activities, campers and staff were busy preparing for our annual Fair Day. All members of the F&W community – including all summer campers, staff, visitors, parents, friends, and neighbors – work together to create an incredible celebration of our summer, which takes place on the final day of the camp season. At Fair, each camp offers goods and services to each other and to our visitors. The profits from the event all go towards our Campership fund, which allows future campers to enjoy all of F&W’s summer programs regardless of their financial status. Indian Brook sold treats including camper-dipped chocolate covered strawberries, homemade ginger beer, our highly beloved connegburts (hollowed-out egg shells filled with confetti for mischief making) and 50 delicious pies cooked in our very own kitchen! I enjoyed meeting some of our camper’s parents face-to-face and watching people roam around to enjoy the home-made rides, concessions and time with dear friends.

After Saturday’s festivities, our campers returned to IB and spent their last night together in a moon and candle-lit silent meeting. Everyone shared memories with their friends, talked about how much they learned at camp, and verbally appreciated one another. It was amazing to hear everything that our campers will take with them from their experience this summer, and how valuable this place and these people are to them.
On Sunday, we marked the end of a tremendous summer here at Indian Brook. Sounds of guitars, ukuleles and voices filled the air as campers packed their belongings, gave final hugs to their friends, showed parents around their summertime home and, eventually, left F&W property.
We are thrilled and proud as we look back on two months filled with fun, learning, growth, and laughter. We’re incredibly thankful of all who made this experience what it was. I’ve learned so much this summer; and I’m already looking forward to next June!

On Friday, I took part in the Indian Brook harvest. Twice a week, our campers pick whatever our garden has to offer. This week our group picked beans, summer squash, sunflowers, cucumbers, beets and cabbage. As the group I was working with was harvesting the summer squash, we found male and female flowers and talked about how the bees we were watching helped produce the fruit we were harvesting. Meanwhile, another group of harvesters were pulling beets while playing an elaborate guessing game. After all our food had been loaded into our truck, we brought the produce to Tamarack Farm where we washed, weighed and logged it.

The Farm & Wilderness camps take turns receiving the weeks’ produce. This week happened to be our turn. On Friday night, our cooks prepared a beautiful meal with farm-fresh veggies. As I was enjoying my dinner of curried vegetables over rice, with yogurt cucumber salad and cabbage salad, I remembered one of the campers in the garden that morning saying, “I love harvest day!”.
“Me too!!” I said to myself with a (huge) smile.

Every Sunday our entire Indian Brook community comes together to appreciate what can happen on an empty/open stage. Each week our “Cocoa House” is a little different. Our oldest campers are the MC’s and our whole community can sign up to share their talents and ideas.

The performances range from silly skits written and acted out by First Lodgers to serious solos and poetry readings. This past week we had a camper go on stage and read an essay she had written after camp last year about how important IB had been in her life. The IB stage is a place where our campers and staff can share themselves, take risks, and celebrate each other.

I absolutely love it!<-->

We emptied ourselves and packs out of the canoes on the far side of the reservoir and sat in the shade for a water and GORP break. After our rest, we hiked the short distance to our campsite to begin making dinner. A few campers took on the task of planning and making dinner (including learning how to operate our stoves). A couple of campers came with me to hang the rope for the bear bag. We attached a small rock to the P-cord we were using to hang our food. Taking turns trying to launch the cord over a tree’s branches, we finally succeeded and everyone gave a loud cheer. My bear-bag helpers were strong, determined and cheerful. We came back to camp to find the rest of the campers involved in making a fairy house in the woods. After dinner, we were all tired. Sarah, one the counselors, read us off to our dreams.

On Friday morning, we woke up (some of us earlier than others), had breakfast, packed up our packs, cleaned up the campsite and hit the trail. I couldn’t believe how strong these 9- and 10 year-olds were. We hiked up some steep hills to reach our beautiful ridge line where we stopped for a lunch of hummus, cheese and pita bread. For some campers, this was probably one of their first experiences of pushing through an uncomfortable situation. Even so, the group remained so positive and cheerful. We finished our ridge hike after many “are we there yet” and “how much further” questions. We set up our sleeping areas in the new shelter and had a little rest hour (most campers chatted and played games–I actually fell asleep). Then, the evening rituals began under the pitter patter of rain.
As I hiked back down to camp after spending two days with the Crickets, I was so thankful to be at a place that offers these experiences to young people. These campers might not know this today; but they will realize when they face their next hard obstacle in life that they CAN. Our ridge trail hike is a difficult one, especially when you’re carrying packs (some with two stuffed animals inside).

Through my years of studying education and designing experiential education programs, I truly believe that people (adults and young people) grow/authentically learn/change their opinions when they are in situations of discomfort. The discomfort could be social (realizing, while living in a small community, who you really would like to become), or maybe the discomfort is physical (pushing yourself to stay with your group on a difficult hike), or maybe the discomfort could be purely cerebral (if there’s a gap between what you’d like to know and what you currently know).

Discomfort forces us to become stronger, smarter, kinder; it forces us to form our own ideas about who we are and what we want to know to navigate through this world. It was beautiful to see the Crickets chirp their way through this trip.

I’ll always remember it, and I hope they will too.

Greetings from Indian Brook!

The past week has been a whirlwind filled with packing and unpacking, moving in and moving out, bittersweet farewells, and exuberant reunions. Last Friday, we were sad to say goodbye to our fabulous first half campers but we forged on, charging ahead to the work projects and beloved traditions of “Changeover Weekend.”

After Thursday’s celebratory banquet dinner and Friday’s first half send-offs, our staff and 28 full-summer campers spent Saturday shopping for costumes at the Bridgewater Thrift Store, playing games in a beautiful park, and listening to banjos and fiddles at a local bluegrass festival. That night, we had our annual Rock Dance, when we enjoyed recorded music – otherwise prohibited at F&W – and danced the night away in silly costumes.

On Sunday, we welcomed new campers as they arrived with the voices of girls and women in song, enthusiastic hugs and instructional kybo lessons. Since then, our morning rotations for Barns & Gardens, Work Projects, and Outdoor Living Skills for First and Big Lodgers have resumed, and Senior Lodgers have started fresh in new apprenticeships.

Just over halfway through our summer, the days following Changeover provide beautiful opportunities to watch returning campers teach new IBers about the systems that keep camp life running smoothly. Cohesion between campers and staff of all ages and in all positions is growing by the hour as we practice skills, learn songs and do chores side-by-side each day.

Yesterday, we arranged a country fair day with a square dance in the morning; corndogs, smoothies, curly fries, and funnel cake for lunch; and various afternoon events like sack races, eating doughnuts from strings, and showing our animals.

Every morning, IB campers participate in one of three activity areas: Barns and Gardens (B &G), Work Projects, or Outdoor Living Skills. At B & G, First Lodgers have recently harvested vegetables, berries, and flowers from the garden, as well as made animal journals and recorded their observations of the goats and cows. Big Lodgers have collected soil samples, learned about compost, and learned to spin and card wool. An always-favorite activity is petting and talking to the animals. The Senior Lodge Homesteading apprentices have learned to make butter, cheese, and candles, and they, too, have been learning a lot about gardening.

Our First Lodgers who are doing Work Projects have been learning to measure, mark, cut and hammer as they’ve repaired birdhouses and built a new bench for Silent Meeting. Big Lodgers have honed their layout and carpentry skills by constructing a chicken coop. “Hammering and sawing are my favorite parts,” said a camper. They’ve already placed the floorboards and assembled three walls — they hope to raise it by the end of First Session. WP apprentices have installed posts for a swinging bridge, mastered tricky angle cuts while making sawhorses, and learned drilling and jigsawing while creating beautiful new cabin signs. They’re also excited about designing a swinging bench!

At Outdoor Living Skills, campers have been identifying plants and trees, building debris shelters, and making fires. They loved combining their fire skills and plant identification skills by making a fire to fry up some wild edibles! OLS apprentices recently completed their “Get Lost Hike,” an activity where they were blindfolded and driven a few miles away. They all worked together, using their triangulation and orienteering skills skills, to navigate the group back to camp (with huge smiles–I loved to see their proud faces!).

Three senior lodgers have chosen to spend their mornings in the kitchen. They’ve helped our cooks prepare everything from a lime-ginger drink to kale crisps to birthday cupcakes for every camper.  The Creative Arts apprentices have been making their own zines as well as other creative projects (today I walked in to see a few of them making a three-dimension map of Indian Brook). Our Canoe Apprentices are learning all the “Basic” canoe skills:

• Introduction to basic equipment

• Launching and landing

• Introduction to how body, boat and blade work together

• Basic body mechanics and efficiency of stroke

• Paddling from both the stern and the bow

• Forward and reverse paddling

• Sweep strokes

• Draw strokes

• Turning on the move

• Communication with partner

In addition to spending time on our reservoir working on their strokes, our Canoeing Apprentices will be taking part in building a canoe (yes, you read it right…building their own boat).

Each project in a given activity lasts two or three days, so First Lodge and Big Lodge campers have a chance to experience them all. The apprentices stay with the same project all session, giving them a chance to truly develop their skills in a specific area.

This year we’ve also worked swimming lessons into each morning rotation for first and big lodge campers. Senior Lodgers enjoy their lessons in the afternoon on a rotating basis.

Our campers are fun and creative; I love spending time with them.

Yesterday, the Indian Brook lawn sparkled with energy and excitement as campers and staff completed last-minute preparations for the Interdependence Day celebration. Every year, IB performs a song for all the other F&W camps. So, after lunch we formed groups on the lawn to practice the melody, harmony, and sign language parts for this year’s musical selection, “Ella’s Song.”

We chose this song because it was written for Ella Baker, a heroic woman who struggled to end racist and sexist oppression during the Civil Rights movement. The lyrics represent IB’s core values of equality, freedom and justice.

After song practice, campers streamed into the Creative Arts Lodge to create banners, noisemakers and costumes while face painting and decorating took place outside. Saltash Mountain campers (some of them former IBers!) hiked down the mountain to have dinner with us. Then  we all paraded down Farm & Wilderness Road, with the other camps joining us along the way, until all of F&W had gathered on a big grassy hillside. Each camp delighted the group with a skit or a song, and then homemade ice cream sandwiches were shared and enjoyed by all.

Music, dancing, and laughter filled the Fairground field, and the night ended with a blazing fire set up by our own IB Pioneer apprentices. As we walked back to camp, arms around each and headlamps shining into the night, we gave thanks for our community - and the chance to trust ourselves and depend on one another.