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Fall 2025 Inside Connections in Camphill Village
Makers: Processing our harvest


Camphill Movement: Kumar Mal’s vision for support in India

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Fall 2025 Inside Connections in Camphill Village
Makers: Processing our harvest


Camphill Movement: Kumar Mal’s vision for support in India


Our farmers are delighted, indeed, to welcome Anna (pronounced Ah-na) from Kinderhook to our crew. Her previous experience on the farm at Triform Camphill Communiy in Hudson has enabled Anna to jump in without missing a beat. Anna says she used to enjoy skiing, and still likes horseback riding. She says that when on the farm, she enjoys milking the dairy herd. Welcome, Anna!

Max joined us here in Camphill Village on September 19th, and hit the ground running with his parents at our 5K the very next day!
Max is originally from Chappaqua in Westchester County, and was previously a member of Triform Camphill Community before joining us here in Copake. He lives in Columbine, and he’s been busy on the Estate in the afternoons. He says he enjoys scooping cookie dough in the Bakery, which is where he works in the mornings. Welcome, Max!

Molly is originally from Irvington in Westchester County, and came to Copake after living at Triform. Molly has many interests. She says she’s very into anime, cool-looking skulls, the color pink, listening to music, dancing, and singing. She says she’s still settling in to Tamarack House, and she’s fond of Rose and Elizabeth. Welcome, Molly!

Since moving to Copake from southern Dutchess County in October, Morgan says she’s been enjoying living in Capella house, where she likes to exercise and spend time looking at her old school photo albums. “I like to do art and I like to relax at home and look at books,” she said. “They’re in my room in Emily’s house.” Morgan spends her mornings working in Juniper House and her afternoons in the Paper Crafts Studio, and says she’s already made friends with Cathy Fleming and Elisabeth Cooper. Welcome, Morgan!
Our community is so glad these new volunteers and students have joined us here in Copake. We look forward to living and working with all of you!
camphillvillage.org/ volunteer


Oladayo Ayorinde from United Kingdom
Lena Brehme from Germany
Saori Doi from Japan
Nina Ernst from Germany
Chi-Ling “Grace” Hsieh from Taiwan
Sylvan Kary from Germany
Lola Katz from Germany
Julia Keeler from United States
Hannah Kosi from Germany
Natalie Malczan from Germany
Aparajitha
Manivannan from India
Iker Merodio Gil from Mexico
Linda Otieno from United States
Patricia Pereira Machado from Brazil
Lucia Ritter from Germany
Greta Schmidt from Germany
Anna Sievers from Germany
Neele Smaniotto from Germany
Konstantin Taran from Germany
Frieda van der Stok from Germany
Mia Waehrisch from Germany
Anjelica Williams from United States

Our pigs have been putting on a very pretty show at dawn this season!
Ruby Mongil

Since joining our community in September 2024, Ruby has been very busy in our Healing Plant Garden, Candleshop, and contributing in Russet House, where she lives.
Ruby previously spent 10 years at Triform Camphill Community, where she was involved in the weavery, pottery studio, and garden.
“But she was only a day student there and she needed a more involved situation,” her mom, Barbara Clayton says. “Ruby has become much more independent in all aspects of her life since moving to Camphill Copake; my ‘momming’ has been curtailed.”
Ruby keeps conversation brief, but says she enjoys peeling vegetables in the house, and playing with little Arthur—one of the children she lives with. Zile, Ruby’s house leader, says it’s been a positive experience getting to know Ruby, and helping to guide her, adding, “Ruby has so much potential. She can do so much.”
Ruby’s mom, Barbara, said Ruby shares her enjoyment of her home and work life, and she can tell Ruby feels at home in Copake.
“She’s an important part of the whole community and feels that,” she said. “We are all so grateful.”


Tom Miano and Bill Spillman very happily sort the packaged meats we’ve received back from the butcher. They tend to our livestock for months before we have the shoulder roasts and bacon pictured here.

After roasting tomatoes with garlic and spices in the Café, David Wallace transfers them from their roasting pan to a big pot, where they’ll continue to cook down and be blended before canning.
In between the gardens and pastures in Camphill Village and our full tables, there are quite a few steps we take to process our ingredients before we can use them. While we do enjoy eating fresh tomatoes in our houses and Café salads, our gardeners make it a point to grow lots of tomatoes that are ideal for saucing, so we have plenty through the colder months. Likewise, they grow beds of Chinese napa cabbage so we can prepare lots of prebiotic-rich kimchi. We’re fortunate in the northeast to have different cycles of harvest seasons, including fresh greens and beets in spring and summer, followed by delicious late summer and early fall crops, like eggplant, tomatoes, and frost-kissed brassicas.


Smith preserves
The finished jars of sauce will store well, and the Café crew will use them for dishes like lasagna and pizza.


Elisabeth Cooper sorts through the saucing tomatoes she and her fellow gardeners harvested. They’ll be kept just outside our cold storage room for community members to take as they need them.
Liliana Canton uses the last of her frozen garlic scapes in a flavorful pesto in Hickory House. Our vegetable gardeners chop and freeze the scapes for our households every year.



uses a creative method to harvest scapes in the upper vegetable garden.

Processing ingredients is a fun, social activity for the residents of Undina, one of three care houses in the Village. Mike Davis is preparing beans on the porch on a beautiful late-summer afternoon.
Susie Taube chats and peels cloves of garlic while Laurie Benton cuts potatoes.


Both Susie and Andrea Cornelius work in Undina House. Andrea is a Direct Support Professional (DSP), who so enjoys spending time with the wonderful residents of Undina.

Alexandria Laskaris chips in to peel garlic. Our gardeners grow, harvest , and cure thousands of bulbs every year!

For the first time since 2019, our community converged upon Bowlero Lanes in Chicopee, MA for an awesome afternoon of bowling, raffles, auctions, and more—thanks to the dedication of Joseph Freedman Co. and their network of generous sponsors and friends from throughout the Springfield area.
Our event raised $87,803—more than any other singular year we’ve held this event. We are endlessly grateful to John Freedman, Pat Bernier, the hardworking employees of Bowlero, our sponsors, and the awesome members of our Bowl-a-Thon Committee— without which this major fundraiser would not have been possible for Camphill Village.




The Bowl-a-Thon has always been a great November event for little ones.



We were so glad to welcome back Dazzle Day Face Painters.

Many thanks to all of our registrants who kept our lanes full and enthusiasm high!

Two of our raffle winners show off their basket of Camphill Village goodies.

Sean Hogan of Hogan Technology, Inc., has sponsored our Bowl-a-Thon and registered his employees for years!

Many of our readers are familiar with the concept of “six degrees of separation,” where any two people in the world can be connected within a series of six friend-of-a-friend relationships. As curious people on this planet, we enjoy that exercise for the same reason we say, “wow, small world!” when we meet someone with a common acquaintance. The reminder that we share connections with people we’ve never met isn’t just fun; there’s comfort in unexpectedly sharing a person in common. There are unexplored opportunities for unity there—through shared experience and shared humanity. We feel optimistic and, strangely, understood.
What, then, is the impact of sharing a thousand such connections through one’s lifetime? We’re all in a community here in Camphill Village, and we’re certainly not all friends. But we’re gladdened by our shared experiences and relationships. This is possibly most evident when Village Archivist Marty Hunt presents one of her famous slideshows during farewell celebrations and milestone birthdays in the Café.
Imagine a crowded room, our necks stretched toward a projector screen, learning the history of Alan Rosenzweig on his 80th birthday, and in so doing learning the history of Camphill Village as Alan experienced it.
Marty might turn to a photo from the 1970s and ask, “does anyone recognize that person to the right?” And those who knew that younger version of Danny Morse or Helen Wolf are delighted to speak up. We’re proud of our longevity here, and of our relationships, no matter how few degrees of separation there are between us.
During our Giving Tuesday campaign this year, Camphill Village will again highlight just a few of the countless connections that we nurture in Camphill Village. We hope our readers will visit the link below to view the videos and stories we’ve prepared to raise money for Camphill Village’s community members.
camphillvillage.org/givingtuesday

Peter Richards and Ricky Hauptman have a uniquely close relationship. While exchanging very few words, they prefer to be in one another’s company—at home in Deerfield House and out in the community.
Lindsay Mead is a true-blue friend who looks out for the people in her circle, including her friend Oliver. She’s kept friendships for many years, and makes an effort to stay in touch and be supportive.


Amanda Balducci and Remy Boulogne have lived and worked together in different capacities for a long time. She is the clown to his Beetlejuice! (Hunter Avis and Hedwig Schuldt also pictured). Photo courtesy of Remy.


camphillvillage.org/givingtuesday

Rose Aring and Tony Bacon have lived together and vacationed together for many years. Tony’s sister Isabel considers Rose a member of the family.

Alex Laskaris brings sincerity, kindness, and humor into every space she’s in, including the Future Seeds, where she’s pictured here with Danny Miller.

Our 5K gets better and better every year! It’s such a great way for us to make new relationships and welcome the public to experience our beautiful grounds and meet our awesome community members. We’re grateful to the sponsors who made this day possible, and to the local businesses who provided gift certificates and other items for us to raffle off!
Proceeds from events like these go to Camphill Village’s annual fund, which we rely on to operate our community. Less than half of Camphill Village’s funding comes from our contract with New York State, so sponsorships and donations make a world of difference for us.
Visit camphillvillage.org/donate to learn more.

Marian Scharr spent the better part of the morning helping runners at the refreshment table.


We had several water stations throughout to rehydrate our parched runners! Thank you, Ted!
Tammy Berman and Remy Boulogne sell raffle tickets to Kim Warga’s brother, Chris. We received some terrific raffle contributions from local businesses!


It was a perfect September day to run through the woodlands and pastures surrounding Camphill Village.

Board member Helen Serebin (left) and Brian Huntington’s sister, Sarah, were two of around 65 runners who signed up from outside of our community. A great turnout!
Brian Wilson and others had a great time blowing festive bubbles all morning.

Our Michaelmas altar was as beautiful and vibrant as ever, adorned with fresh flowers and vegetables, a fearsome dragon made of bread, and our portrait of Saint


We focused on the wellbeing of our neighbors on Michaelmas Day, by sprucing up each other’s lawns and households. At Rock Maple House, we cleared a new walking path to Hickory, where we had a delicious tea break with fresh pumpkin muffins. Later in the day, we enjoyed a picnic by the Hall Pond, complete with delicious soups and seasonal pies made in our households. Rukin Shivdasani played the brave Archangel Michael, and led us on a walk through the woods while some of us focused on creating a floating wall of light across the Hall Pond. A lovely celebration!


Michaelmas is our celebratory fall/harvest festival, but it’s also when we consider ways to find our inner courage and tame our troublesome dragons, as Saint Michael has done in many depictions of his victory of good over evil.




We were delighted to celebrate the love and future of Kizuna Shintani (now Kizuna Swiatek) and Peter Swiatek, who runs our vegetable garden crew. Our Estate Crew handled all of the chairs, hay bales, and set up for our wedding guests. Lia Babitch made the most incredible altar using birch branches from our property, which created a dreamy scene at the base of Eagle Field in the Village. Seeya Zheng led a sushi-making evening with the help of some amazing young

coworkers. Former coworkers Natalia Posso and Rob Moss returned to hang lanterns by the Hall Pond. Irena baked delicious strawberry and matcha cakes, which Zile Sahta and Lyra Blachere decorated together. This is just a small list of those who made this special day possible for our dear friends Peter and Kizuna, who are also now taking on positions as houseleaders in Juniper. Congratulations, Peter and Kizuna!



Roy Tau offers a tray of sushi to Adam Smith. There was plenty to go around, thanks to the dedicated coworkers who prepared it.



for the reception.


Our Family Day gathering in October was a lovely time to catch up and show our loved ones the many different things we’ve been up to in Camphill Village. Our morning began with a most interesting presentation about the history and construction of our beloved Fountain Hall, delivered by Richard Neal.
We were delighted to celebrate the milestone anniversaries of David Wadsworth and Abby Esty, both of whom have lived here in Camphill Village for 50 years. We also enjoyed presentations by our Bell Ensemble musicians, as well as our dedicated vegetable gardeners
and the chefs in the Village who preserve our fresh tomatoes for winter use. After lunch, we toured the Healing Plant Garden, where Marc and Andreas described our important work, and showed us construction progress on our new Healing Plant Garden studio.
We capped our special day with a terrific performance of Academy Award-winning songs through the years. Our visiting musicians said they love playing in Camphill Village, and they look forward to returning!









In October, we gathered in the Hall for a beautiful Diwali celebration. Roswitha presented the Ramayana, the thrilling Hindu epic of the triumph of good over evil. Aparajitha, Alex, Jessica, Flavia, and Lauri spent two days folding a gorgeous display of lotus votives, which were set before a backdrop of the Ramayana’s three main protagonists—Rama, Sita, and Hanuman—painted by Aparajitha. We thank our friends in Undina for preparing this special evening, and for the delicious homemade pakora!

Roswitha Imegwu retells the Ramayana, a Hindu epic about the triumph of good over evil, or light over darkness—the essential theme of Diwali.
Jesse Meril extinguishes a tea light candle before we depart the Hall.


Aparajitha Manivannan sings a song written by her father. Translation as follows: The Earth is the dwelling place for the body; the body is the dwelling place for the soul; What is the soul a dwelling place for? For the transcendent, formless Supreme being.
Prince Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, must rescue his wife, Sita, from the demon king Ravana. Aparajitha Manivannan in Undina House painted each of the three protagonists for this beautiful set design.


Susie Taube and others devoted their full attention to Roswitha’s riveting tale.
Halloween is also Tijen Wilson’s birthday! Taylor Jones, Joan Hill, and Eileen Tau led a group birthday song before the night was over.

Our Halloween celebration was entirely spooky! Our neighborhoods prepared beautifully creepy little scenes for our haunted walk: a ghostly bell ringer and her very green associate invited us to sample snacks, a giant illuminated snake slithered through the Hall Pond, and we will never trust another beekeeper for as long as we live!

This very scary witch didn’t break character all night!
Inside the Hall, we warmed up with a bottomless cauldron of steamy herbal tea, had our fortunes told and Tarot read, and danced the night away to Meg’s perfect playlist. Many thanks to our young coworkers who organized such energy and decorated our Hall to the nines! So much dedication to an awesome evening for all.

Jessica Duarte Sousa announces the winners of our costume contest— terrible surgeons Anna Sievers and Konstantin Taran!


Linda Gradman and Tony Bacon were Tweedledee and Tweedledum, as part of Tamarack House’s Alice in Wonderland theme.


Hot dogs Ciro Greco and Willy Donahue cooked well done by grill master Harper Louden.

David Wallace has been reading Tarot for years!

Step right up! Lindsay

Pineapple Scott Ballinger and dalmatian Patricia Cinorre had a great time!

Alex Franzak samples some questionable treats offered by bell ringer Julie Boothroyd and mischievous leprechaun Magdalena Szewczykowska.


Selma Moehler samples one of Emily Gerhard’s tasty lemon bars with creepy beekeeper Roman Gerhard at the ready.
A ghostly figure drags a snake of LED lights across the Hall Pond.



Our community was fortunate to know Kumar Mal in quite a few different ways. He lived here with his life partner, Roswitha Imegwu, and worked in many Village workplaces, giving where he was needed. He and Roswitha ran Kaspar—a carehouse—for three years, with all that entailed. He served on our board of directors for many years. But Kumar was also a man of the Camphill Movement, and we would like to share some of that story.
Kumar was brilliant, and worked in metallurgy in New Jersey after earning his master’s and doctorate in Saarbrücken, Germany, where he met his wife, Ute. The pair lived for a time in New Jersey while Kumar worked in the metals industry. He and Ute moved to Bombay (now Mumbai), so that Ute could get to know India. Ute and Kumar eventually returned to the States, where Kumar worked for Chrome Alloy out of Spring Valley, and Ute became a Waldorf teacher at the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Spring Valley. Later, when the couple moved to Columbia County, Ute taught at Hawthorne Valley School, and became friendly with Roswitha because their sons—Niku and Ikenna—were friends.
Ute passed away in 1983, and Kumar began spending more and more time in Camphill Village, assisting Roswitha in the household and with house vacations. They took their first trip to India together in 1986. A few years later, three Camphill couples—Kumar and Roswitha, Stephan and Julia Rasch, and Penny
and Tom Roberts—decided to form the India Support Group.
In 1989, Kumar created the East-West Fund with a generous donation under the auspices of the Camphill Foundation of North America and in honor of Ute, specifically meant to support therapeutic work in India. As the circle of support grew through a series of festive “India Days” that Kumar and Roswitha hosted in Camphill Village, so did the East-West Fund. Soon after the creation of the fund, Kumar and Roswitha hosted an Indian professor of English— Vasant Deshpande —whose daughter had suffered severe brain damage, but was without suitable care in India. The India Support Group was soon in India, meeting with disabled school children. During that trip, they attended a conference prepared by a group that had learned about Anthroposophy. The hosts had organized for families with disabled children within a 100 km radius to attend the gathering and meet our friends, whose reputations had grown far and wide until they were known (incorrectly) as doctors by the time the conference opened. Families from all over came with their children, hoping for treatment and even cures. The attendance for this event alone spoke to the urgent need for Camphill communities to be established in India.

Following the trip, the group and their many associates in India would continue to communicate and travel back and forth between India and the States. In 1991, Roswitha took a five-month sabbatical from her life in Camphill Village to stay in India to research her final Camphill Training project. She visited a number of places to study the feasibility of Camphill in India and also to identify funding sources and potential property.
In 1994, Sadhana Village was founded about 25 miles outside of Pune by Vasant Deshpande—the professor who had visited Roswitha and Kumar in Copake—and Medha Tengshe. Over time, Vasant organized the construction of three dams along the Kolvan River near Sadhana Village; the installation of toilets with government support in households; increasing the number of water buffalo for milk to sell; and many other projects.
In 1999, Penny traveled with Roswitha to attend the grand opening of the Friends of Camphill India Community, a center for social therapy in Bangalore. Now with two residences, the community comprised two dozen people with special needs, as well as coworker volunteers. There were gardens and fruit trees to provide meaningful work.
A third program, Atmavishwas, was founded in Goa to support Savio de Gama, who had grown up with special needs alongside his sister Liane. The family lived in Bombay in 1990 when the inspirations for Sadhana Village and the Friends of Camphill India were put into motion. The de Gama family had an ancestral house in Goa and began renovations around the same time they heard about Camphill. Liane completed her special education training in Mumbai, and in 2004, began 14 months here in Camphill Village before returning home to establish Atmavishwas in the family home in Goa, where she continues to run the vocational center of around 15 students.
For years, Penny, Roswitha, and coworkers from Great Britain—continued to visit between communities, sharing experiences and knowledge. Sadhana has grown to 20 people with developmental differences in three households, and several of our coworkers met in Camphill India. In 2009, Ernesto Martinez, Brooke Hogan, Peter Richards, and Vera Blanchfield visited the three places with Roswitha, Kumar, Mali Bjorgan and 15-year-old Rosa de Jong.
Then, in 2016, Ricky Hauptman, Bill Spillman, and Mishka Zuckerman visited our friends in India with Kumar, Roswitha, and Richard and Elvira Neal.
The East-West Fund’s reach through the Camphill Foundation has expanded to different part of Asia, and has funded projects in Sri Lanka and Vietnam’s Peaceful Bamboo Family.
Sadhana Village in Pune: sadhana-village.org; Friends of Camphill India: friendsofcamphillindia.in; Atmavishwas: atmavishwas.org



Richard & Elvira Neal, Mishka Zuckerman, Bill Spillman, Ricky Hauptman, and Roswitha & Kumar visiting Atmavishwas in Goa in 2016. Founder Liane is sitting in front on the far right. Her brother Savio is sitting to the right of Bill Spillman, and their mother, Sybil da Gama, appears in yellow next to Kumar.
While keeping close connection with those in India and the friends who made the work possible, Kumar worked in our Healing Plant Garden, and even helped in our finance department for a time. As his health declined for several years, Kumar continued to take peaceful walks around Camphill Village with Roswitha and with the couple’s bichon, Bailey, and help in the Healing Plant Garden.
*The above is a very abridged version of a storied history prepared by Village Archivist Marty Hunt, with sections written by Marty, Penny Baring, Wanda Root, and Richard Neal.

Camphill Village Copake 84 Camp Hill Road
Copake, NY 12516

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