Flose Boursiquot found herself a Saltash Mountain Camp counselor for one transformative summer. “Everybody is so unique. SAM camp is small but also vast. The campers look forward to SAM camp all year. They were appreciative, and they asked really deep questions.” What was supposed to just be a summer turned into 6 months as Flose extended her time at F&W by joining the retreat crew.
Six months at Farm & Wilderness became a launching pad.
Flose describes, “It was a turning point. I spent a lot of time in the diversity group at SAM camp. I struggled a lot in those conversations. F&W introduced me to white people feeling guilty and crying. It was powerful to have conversations with people who are in positions of privilege, but those individuals are not responsible for that position. It challenged us all to experience empathy. I became super aware of myself as a woman of color. I realized I wanted to do something meaningful, having those conversations and making change in people’s lives. So, I became a community organizer. Not just for a season but making it a lifestyle.”
SAM camp was the disruption that Flose needed after college. “After being at college, I was scared and by the time I got to SAM, I was a confused 21-year-old, thinking ‘how am I going to do good?’ It got me out of that systemic way of viewing life. I was disconnected from college, electronics, and forced into the now.”
As the leaves started to fall in Vermont, Flose headed to Florida. She started out in Miami as a freelance organizer around affordable housing and then as a political organizer for the Clinton campaign and a local city. After the 2016 elections, she became a teacher at a Social Homeschool for 30 students, ages 2-12. “I teach literature and history to future leaders,” says Flose.
Flose was able to take parts of F&W with her. “I took the pieces of SAM with me, the values and ideals. It’s given me a new understanding of myself and it’s magical,” says Flose. The biggest challenge since Flose’s summer here “is telling the world there is a different way of doing things.”
You can learn more about Flose at her website letitflose.com and by checking out her best-selling book Loudmouth.
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