Little Utopia.

Each year there would be a theme: “gardens”, or “songs” or something to unite all the classes into a comprehensive idea for the summer. In 2009, we chose the idea of “utopia” and asked the children to draw their idea of paradise on earth. Astonishingly enough, over half of them drew a treehouse: that Robinson Crusoe dream of living off the land, isolated, protected, and independent. The self-sustaining underpinnings of these 6-12 year-olds, was not lost on the teachers and ‘adults’. We set to work the next day to build a tree house, from a re-cycled caravan donated to the mill. Our industrious mill hand Tonda Melka, welded some sturdy legs on the little beast, painted it red, and we dropped it “in” the walnut tree at the back of the mill. The kids were then tasked with decorating the interior, with visiting designer Jackie Gross from New York City, leading the class. It was a dream come true for many of us, old and young, that year. And perhaps no surprise that the antithesis of that paradise also created a slew of pirate ships and other creative rebellions at camp!