After a couple days of orientation, our farmers have settled into their weekly routines. Our Saturdays are a time for our whole community to come together to work on a big project together; usually Saturday evening turns into some sort of community celebration. This Saturday, the whole camp was engaged with taking down a cabin to begin the process of building a new one. We spent the morning clearing the debris after we pulled the cabin to the ground. Later, some campers helped collect hay from a local field and stack it in the barn, while others built a bonfire or prepared for a beautiful outdoor meal.
At TF, we want our campers to have ownership of their time and this space. As the staff, we facilitate safe boundaries (both emotionally and physically), and mostly we strive to build relationships centered on mutual trust. We began this process Saturday evening by having the campers come up with a “full value contract” which is basically a list of things they would like to commit to for the summer here at TF. It was amazing to see what these young people came up with. We ended the day with strawberry shortcake (made with strawberries harvested from our garden) and dancing by a bonfire under beautiful Vermont stars.
We trust our campers with a lot of the work for our community’s needs. Each day, campers milk two cows, and also feed and water our bunnies, chickens and pig. Each morning every farmer is engaged with a work project (they sign up for one each week). Campers are working on the flooring for our new cabin, building new benches around campus, cooking meals, volunteering as counselors at the day camp, harvesting and cultivating vegetables, canning veggies, sowing cover crops, moving fencing for animals and much more.
When working with teens, we have to be ready with the “why”. Why do we do work at camp? I believe meaningful work is one of the greatest gifts you can give a young person (or any person for that matter). We’re learning and growing together, we’re learning how to trust and be trusted, we’re discovering the impact we can have…Powerful stuff!
