Work, Play, Learn, and Live Together - Farm & Wilderness

The second session at Red Spruce Grove is officially underway, as we prepare for our departure from Indian Brook tomorrow! The first three days of camp for Red Spruce Grove takes place at Indian Brook, where we have been working together to get ready to leave for our wilderness site. Campers have done swim tests, learned how to use their knives, practiced purifying water, studied the map of our route, and mixed up PLENTY of trail mix!

We have also spent time talking about how we want our community to be as we work, play, learn, and live together. Something I love about Red Spruce Grove is that because of our small group size, we get to design our own camp and decide how we want to be together. Campers have a degree of participation and responsibility at Red Spruce Grove, that can be a rare experience in the world outside of camp. Our whole group comes together to create a values contract for each session. We talked about respecting each others’ boundaries, what it means to appreciate someone and active listening. We also discussed the value of asking consent, what rights and responsibilities we have with each other, and the idea of our comfort zones, challenge zones, and panic zones (and how to tell when we are in each one). Full session campers led an activity where we explored our different “zones” and saw how different community members felt more or less comfortable with different activities we do at Red Spruce Grove.

I enjoy seeing campers learn skills of self-awareness, resilience, and kindness through their time at Red Spruce Grove. This begins with all of the intentional community creation we do starting on day one. This continues once we get to the Grove, with an opening ceremony, a day of skills orientation, tent-group values contracts, and evening programming around identity and belonging. By Friday, we’ll have settled into the groove of camp after a week of getting to know each other and the land we live on.

Tomorrow morning, the group will face their first shared challenge on our hike. We’ll say goodbye to our flashlights, watches, cabins, and bunk beds and leave for a six-mile hike that will take us to the Grove. There is both excitement and nervousness within the group. I’m looking forward to arriving at Red Spruce Grove with everyone and watching them take in the mountain air, the wind rustling the ferns, the big sky, and the peacefulness of the meadow. Campers and staff alike can’t wait to get “home!”