WE CHOOSE COMMUNITY
You can view our program themes, maybe you’ve heard about camp from others, but you might not know about the subtle values flowing through our hearts, creating big hopes for a lasting summer camp experience.
It’s 2016. This is my second year in an administrative position for Zestful Gardens Farm Camp. The first year it was a bit of a fluke! It happened organically. First off I’ll say Holly Foster, Executive Director of Farm Camp, and co-owner and farmer of Zestful Gardens, really holds this amazing vision for an imaginative, inspiring, educational, and above all else, FUN, summer camp experience for kids ages 4-10. When I heard of Farm Camp I immediately wanted my kids to go... AND I wanted to be involved somehow. I had made a conscious choice to approach “work” in a non-traditional way. Instead of scrambling to make money and accept whatever job I could find, I decided to manifest meaningful work for myself (a luxury a lot of people don’t have, I know, so, if I had that luxury I might as well us it to my advantage!). I set the intention to open my awareness to the universe and see what work possibilities might show up. Not long after, I heard about Zestful Gardens Farm Camp. I was stoked. Nature based education is where its at! If you’re reading this then I probably don’t have to explain why.
Love and belonging, community, nature, food awareness, play, and mind/body/spirit growth are the goal posts of happiness and fulfillment defined by our family. If my kids can grow in a community that models these values I will consider my parenting a success. And that’s the key, I can’t be the parent I want to be without support, our little love-filled family can’t accomplish our vision for a fulfilling life in isolation; we need the vision to be modeled in community. If we want to raise our kids with these values, it has to start in the home AND be shared by community. Farm Camp seemed like an awesome combination of play, building a sense of love and belonging through friendship, food origins education, cultivating a relationship with nature, and supporting local community businesses that reflect our values! I really wanted to find a way to be involved for my daughters and myself!
I had no idea if there was an actual job opportunity, but I had previous experience coordinating a summer camp for teenagers, and so one spring day I bumped into Holly at the Farmers market and I causally offered my administrative services. I was pleasantly surprised and overjoyed when Holly actually took me up on the offer! We had been previously acquainted... but I was mostly a stranger, and from a business perspective I think that could have been a risky choice to accept the help of a stranger (granted I did have solid experience to back me up)! But Holly was brave enough to accept help! Something I admire, because I think too often we take on life’s challenges alone, only imagining the hassle, or for some people, actual physical discomfort in accepting support.
And so, through acts of bravery and risk, we started a working relationship, slowly collaborating on handbooks and registration forms. Throughout the pre-season more and more work presented itself, until I was officially offered a position as Farm Camp Director. Life could have unfolded in many different ways. I could have settled on work. Holly could have decided it was just too much work to run a day camp on top of a productive working farm. Instead we both chose to pursue meaningful work and create possibilities. We continue to choose Farm Camp because we CHOOSE COMMUNITY. We are creating a space for kids to thrive by offering them connection: connection with the nature, connection with food and its origins in the dirt, love and belonging with caring adults and playful children, and a safe place for kids to explore, grow, and learn through play. While I truly believe this is a great service to the community... don’t get me wrong... we came to these decisions for selfish reasons too! Our ultimate hope is that children who come play on the farm will develop an intrinsic love for nature, animals, fresh food from the earth, and will make decisions about their lives and future environmental policies from a place of love, sustainability, and community. Plus, we need a way to entertain our kids for the summer! I don’t have the stamina to entertain them in a nourishing and valuable way by myself all summer! I want a trusted community who will co-create my children’s future by modeling healthy relationships with, food, play and work, and “mama-nature” as my kids like to call her. What do you envision for your child’s summer?
