Organic Roots Summer 2020

EDITOR

Emilie Allen

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Shaun Kittle

LAYOUT & DESIGN

Kelly Hofschneider

MASTHEAD

Gail Brill Designs

COVER ILLUSTRATION

Nip Rogers

CONTRIBUTORS

Emilie Allen, Christie Borden, John Culpepper, Karen Culpepper, Katie Culpepper, Emily Eisman, Shaun Kittle, Susie Localio, Becca Miller, Todd Ormiston, Jim Pugh

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Emilie Allen, Nancie Battaglia, Shaun Kittle, Becca Miller, Barbara Morgan

RECIPE ILLUSTRATIONS

Gavi Mallory

EDITING

Lisa Bramen

contact: eallen@ncstreetops.org

www.northcountryschool.org

www.camptreetops.org

www.rock-e.org

LEADING THOUGHTS

ORGANIC ROOTS

SUMMER 2020

FEATURES

19 A Sense of Unity: The Teaching and Learning Kitchen and WallyPAC

Shaun Kittle

24 It Takes a Community: How Farm Life and Education Go Hand in Hoof

Shaun Kittle

30 A Legacy of Storytelling at Camp Treetops

Jim Pugh (CTT 62–64, staff 77)

32 The Legend of Bongo

Susie Localio (CTT 55–58, staff 65–80, 89–94, BRC)

ALUMNAE/I BULLETIN

36 Alumni Spotlights: Zina Asante (NCS 17), Lisa Beck (CTT 70–73, parent 03–16, staff 08–present, trustee 08–present), Peter (NCS 86) and Isaac (NCS 16) Newcomb

39 Balanced Rock Profile: Janet Wentworth (NCS 68, parent 96–97, BRC)

40 Annual Fund: Community Giving Week

A RENEWED SENSE OF

MEANING AND PURPOSE

Todd Ormiston Executive Director

“Fortunately, the sun has a wonderfully glorious habit of rising every morning. When the sky lightened, when the birds awoke, I knew I would never again see anything so splendid as the round red sun coming up over the earth.”

THE ABOVE QUOTE IS FROM my favorite book growing up. If you haven’t read it, it tells the story of a boy running away from New York City for adventure, independence, and a deeper relationship with nature. His honest feelings of fear, spirit of adventure, and curiosity to learn appealed to me. And the book was set in the Catskill Mountains, not far from where I grew up. I remember running through the woods behind my house pretending to be Sam Gribley—looking for the perfect hollowed out tree to call home, “hunting” for my next meal, and attempting to befriend the birds flying through the leaves above me.

This spring, I found myself seeking simplicity during an incredibly complex set of circumstances and

challenges. I don’t know how many times I read the book as a child, but our current situation led me back to it. It gave me comfort, but it also reminded me that Sam could be one of our campers or students. He is adventurous and vulnerable. Curious and kind.

The irony of Camp closing for the first time in 100 years when our children need it the most is not lost on us. Running barefoot on the Lake Hill, savoring juice ’n’ crackers, weaving a pocketknife lanyard, harvesting vegetables, or collecting fresh eggs at barn chores; these are some of the beautiful Camp experiences that would have provided a meaningful escape for our children this summer. For seven weeks a year, our campers can each find a little Sam

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

Gribley in themselves. While they aren’t physically here with us, we remain connected to campers, sending weekly journals with reminders of Treetops traditions and activities that can be shared with their families.

With Camp now a year away, we are focused on the opening of North Country School. We have learned an incredible amount about the conditions necessary to open a safe campus for our students and teachers. And while health and safety are always our first priority, we never lose sight of creating an authentic NCS experience. It has given us the chance to define what parts of our school community are unequivocal. Director of School, Matt Smith, and many members of the faculty and staff have been working hard to translate best practices for our model. We want to make sure to open a safe school—and a school where Sam Gribley would feel right at home.

Who we are as a community—as well as the shared ethos and values that form our foundation— remains our most vital advantage in facing adversity together. As I wrote in my Executive Director newsletter earlier this month, the state of the world and

our community has taken an incredible turn over the past few months. Our physical and mental health and wellness, the realities of racism in our society, and financial instability have all had enormous impacts on many lives. If you haven’t yet had the chance, please take the time to read our updates on the institution’s ongoing work to support antiracism, as well as our planning for a healthy return to School in the fall. We remain committed to working through these recent events, without losing the enduring impact of a summer on the Lake Hill and a school year living and learning here in the High Peaks. As always, please share School and Camp with your friends and family. We welcome applications for new students and campers.

Right now, our society is seeking communities like Camp Treetops and North Country School. We are thriving today as an organization unified in working toward the same goals. We will return to the School and Camp that the Haskells and Clarks cultivated and nurtured with a renewed sense of meaning and purpose. The splendid round red sun will rise over Cascade once again.

PODCAST: THE SELF-SUSTAINING CAMPUS OF THE FUTURE Featured on OverAbove’s Undeniable Podcast: Join us for a conversation with Todd Ormiston, Executive Director of North Country School, who discusses how a low-res, low-tech environment sets today’s students up for sustainable, self-sufficient success tomorrow.

A Time for Reflection and Growth

By Karen Culpepper Camp Director

THE PAST FEW MONTHS have shifted our lives in previously unimaginable ways, causing many of us to reexamine long-held assumptions. For me that has meant balancing my immense pride in this community with feelings of discomfort as I realize there is much work to be done here. In 1921, when most camps were segregated by race, gender, and religion, Treetops sought to build a community based on inclusion and progressive ideals. Nearly 100 years later, we are faced with a welcomed, though challenging, reminder that building community must be an ongoing and intentional process.

We are at a point of inflection, both globally and right here at Camp Treetops. The fact that these recent events—of uncertainty, of reflection, of potential—are happening now, during what would have been our 100th summer, feels like opportune timing. Gearing up for this summer, the focus was on celebration. While I believe we do have a tremendous amount to be proud of, this pause in our summers gives us the chance to dig even deeper. We are exploring the ways in which we can—and should—celebrate what we have built and all we have accomplished, while entering into our next 100 years with an even greater sense of openness and intention.

At Treetops, our history is highly valued, and change can be difficult. Throughout my time as Camp Director, I have often felt responsible for navigating the balance between our long-held traditions and progress. As conversations and actions have pushed us to confront some of that thinking, though, I have realized it’s not Camp’s traditions I am meant to maintain, but its ethos; those two things are not the same. It is not the activities and the routines, but instead the values, that must guide us. And at Treetops, that ethos centers around every child. Each summer, we endeavor to create a safe and supportive space for children and the time to make connections to one another and to the natural world, to foster creativity, to build resilience and cultivate confidence. Creating that space and time does not happen by accident or through blindly following tradition. To build a community that is more dynamic and compassionate, we must continue the work of recognizing the needs, rights, strengths and struggles of all.

I am inspired and energized by the commitment this community has demonstrated throughout the years, and even more so now, in working toward the

goal of increased inclusivity. Campers, families, and counselors from throughout Camp’s history have stepped forward with an echoing message of “How can I help?” I am grateful for those who have offered support, as well as those who have demanded that we take a hard look at our traditions, beliefs, and routines to ensure that they reflect the kind of community and environment we want to provide for our campers and counselors. In this unexpected centennial summer, this moment is one to celebrate.

Confronted with grief, loss, anxiety, and uncertainty on a global scale, our community has unified in its love of this place and in the confidence that we can do better.

It is in these conversations, this time of important reckoning, that I feel the absence of campers and counselors here the most. There is grounding in the sights and sounds of children playing and creative

energy in the collective ideas of counselors that I am missing. The leadership team is meeting remotely and I delight in receiving updates from campers and families from their homes, but these are not real substitutes for the joy of a community gathering in person. I look forward to being here with you all again, at Camp, at Friends’ Weekend, or somewhere in between, working together to build an increasingly open, responsive, and supportive environment for children and adults.

While I believe we do have a tremendous amount to be proud of, this pause in our summers gives us the chance to dig even deeper. We are exploring the ways in which we can—and should—celebrate what we have built and all we have accomplished.

READ KAREN’S 2020 CAMP JOURNALS

WELCOME MATT SMITH

Director of North Country School

NORTH COUNTRY SCHOOL IS pleased to welcome Matthew Smith, who started as our new Director of School on July 1. Matt’s outstanding record of impactful leadership with his students, colleagues, and the institutions he’s worked for distinguished him as the type of leader we were seeking. We are confident he will bring his energy and vision to our campus, and in doing so he will enhance our learning community to reach its fullest potential.

In his most recent position as Department Chair at Lawrence Academy, Matt led 12 English teachers and served 400 students. He was also the Program Director of the school’s boys’ lacrosse team, which he grew from 29 to 61 players in just two years.

Matt began his career in banking as a Senior Mutual Fund Analyst with Brown Brothers

Harriman & Co. after receiving his bachelor’s in government international relations from Wesleyan University in 2006. Upon realizing that education was his true passion, Matt returned to Wesleyan University in 2009 and received his master’s in English in 2011. He worked summers as a middle school English teacher at Choate Rosemary Hall from 2011–2013, and took a job teaching middle and high school English at Stratton Mountain School in the fall of 2011. Four years later he was appointed the Director of Residential Life at Stratton, and in 2016 he was appointed Dean of Students. In that role, Matt oversaw and managed student life for 125 students ages 11 to

19. In the fall of 2017, Matt took on his current position as an English teacher and English Department Chair at Lawrence Academy.

While it’s true that Matt’s most recent resume is impressive, it was his understanding of North Country School—its connection to nature; its dedication to community and hands-on education—that most stood out to us.

“My family and I visited NCS on a frigid day in February, and I knew NCS was the right place for us when my daughter woke up asking to do barn chores the next morning,” Matt said. “Seeing the school through her 2-year-old eyes let me experience the beauty of the campus and community in a new light.” I knew that I believed in the mission and loved the setting long before arriving at NCS, but watching her chase the sheep, skip around the dining hall, and bomb down the slides on campus made me realize what an extraordinary environment—physical and philosophical—NCS fosters.”

To Matt, education at North Country School doesn’t just happen in the classroom. He believes that the experiences of being part of our community—cleaning up the dining room and kitchen, hiking up winter 46ers, or mucking stalls before class— are integral to the education here. We couldn’t agree more. It’s also worth noting that Matt and his family already feel a connection to the Adirondacks. He and his wife, Reid, own a summer home in Keene Valley, and Matt said he wants his daughters to grow up exploring Johns Brook Valley, just as he has over the years.

The hiring process was spearheaded by a committee co-chaired by Courtney Allen and Caroline Hlavacek Perry and consisting of faculty, staff, and alumni. The committee devoted their time and gave this process insight and thoughtful consideration.

Please join us in welcoming Matt and his family!

Matt Smith and his wife, Reid, pictured with their daughter, Foster. In May 2020, the Smiths welcomed a second daughter, Hope, to their family.

Trustee Transitions

WE ARE PLEASED to welcome three new members to the Board of Trustees. Matt Salinger (NCS 74, CTT parent 04-08, trustee 99–present), chair of the Board Governance Committee, says, “We are always looking for interesting and passionately committed people to help make our board better, and we are absolutely thrilled to have these three exceptional people, with their wealth of diverse but complementary experience, joining the board at this critical time.”

ED BIDDLE (CTT parent 01–08, 10–12, trustee) first discovered Camp Treetops when his oldest daughter, at age 6, announced that she wanted to come here. So began his family’s gradual but ultimately complete immersion in the Treetops program, with daughters Pippa (CTT 01–08) and Abigail (03–08,10–12) attending Junior and Senior Camp, working in the kitchen and as counselors, and spouse of 34 years, Ridgely, working in Junior Camp. Ed’s professional career has included time at JP Morgan Chase and predecessor banks, serving as Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Group, and as a partner of JP Morgan Partners. He retired in 2015 to work as the CFO of The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, NY. Additionally, he has participated as a member of three NYSAIS accreditation visiting committees. Ed and his family live in Katonah, NY. Ed serves on the Board of the Katonah Historic District Advisory Commission and on the Board of The Andalusia Foundation.

DAVLYN MOSLEY (CTT 96–98, staff 04) lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Kyle. She is a Project Manager on YouTube’s Marketing team and has worked at Google, YouTube’s parent company, for nearly 8 years. Davlyn holds a BA from Tufts University and an MA from New York University. She began her career in advertising and worked at both J. Walter Thompson and Mother New York before starting at Google. She was a camper at Treetops for three summers and worked as a counselor for one summer in 2004. Davlyn’s mother, Dr. Lynn McKinley-Grant, is also a former camper and served on the board in the 1990s. Davlyn is excited to contribute to the success of the School and Camp as a Trustee.

DAVID STEWART (NCS 94, CTT 95–96) lives in Austin, TX, with his wife, Rene. He is a Venture Partner with Live-Oak Venture Partners, where he invests in and supports entrepreneurs and early-stage tech companies in Texas. Previously he worked in executive roles at several Silicon Valley companies, including Google, YouTube, Yammer, and Turo, and also built and sold a startup of his own. David holds a BA and MBA from Yale University; he was also a student at North Country School for three years and spent two summers with Treetops. David is excited to support the School and Camp as a Trustee, and also to (finally) become a 46er—after climbing 33 as a student and camper, he has just 13 to go!

A LESSON IN RESILIENCE: SPRING 2020 AT NORTH COUNTRY SCHOOL

By Shaun Kittle

EVERYTHING WAS MOVING ALONG at North Country School in early spring. There was still a month of good skiing left, a gentle plume of smoke reminded us that sap was being boiled in the sugar shack, and talk of planting in the greenhouses had begun. Intersession was over, and students were enjoying spring break adventures and preparing for the upcoming production of Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass in WallyPAC. Some of our students no doubt had their minds set on graduation, while others were focused on new discoveries in math, science, and English classes.

And then everything changed. When news of the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading across the

globe, we knew it was only a matter of time before it hit home. When it finally did, we were prepared to do what was necessary to keep our students, faculty, and staff healthy and safe, even if it meant saying good bye for some time. Many international parents had showed concern about their children traveling prior to spring break, so we offered to let those students continue living on campus—21 stayed behind while the rest headed home, and it was during the break that we made the decision to close campus for the remainder

NCS GRADUATION 2020

THIS YEAR, 15 OF OUR beloved students were celebrated in a virtual graduation ceremony before saying goodbye to our school and moving forward as brilliant young adults. This year’s graduation was done at a distance and therefore it was different than any other at NCS. Even though we would have preferred to be in the same space celebrating together, we know our graduates heard the messages of love and support that came pouring in from their families, friends, and teachers. The ceremony included “Dear Level One Me” videos from each graduate; poignant and often humorous lessons and memories from each student’s time with us. There were also send-offs and touching memories shared from the students’ teachers, and attendees were given space to leave comments and words of wisdom of their own, which were recorded on our Graduation 2020 page. We are proud of each and every one of our graduates, and even though their time at North Country School was short, they have made a big impact on us, and we believe they will make an even bigger impact as they venture out into the world.

NORTH COUNTRY SCHOOL CLASS OF 2020

Congratulations to the NCS class of 2020 as they move on to their next adventures:

Bladen: Gould Academy

Darren: ‘Iolani School

Fangzhou (David): Westtown School

Emily: The Lawrenceville School

Shangchun (Evan): Blair Academy

Francis (Hart): Champlain Valley Union High School

Xiaohe (Jessica): Holderness School

Jonah: Undecided

Julia: Northwood School

Xiaotian (Rebecca): Holderness School

Jialing (Sally): Saint Andrew’s School

Shengxia (Sam): The Putney School

Chuyu (Silvia): Tabor Academy

Haotian (Sky): Dublin School

Tianyu: The Williston Northampton School

of the school year. We feel fortunate that we were able to offer our international students refuge from the spreading virus, and since many of our faculty also live on campus, it was easy to quarantine together, keeping everyone safe and our program moving forward.

What was not so easy was figuring out the best way to give our students the education we had promised them. So much of what we do here is centered around community and using our place in nature as a teaching guide, meaning our teachers and students had to quickly adjust to a world in which things like science labs and theater productions take place online, in a virtual world that is far removed from our mountain campus.

Faculty quickly got to work re-thinking their lesson plans, and some collaborated with staff on Connecting With Our Community, a series of educational videos, recipes, and fun activities for students and their families to watch and participate in. Every day, Monday through Saturday, a new installment of the series was posted on the NCS Facebook page, and the series was highlighted in a weekly email and in our #ThisWeekAtNCS blog.

We believe that our community extends beyond the boundaries of our campus, so we encouraged our students and families to stay in touch, and the outpouring of photos we received are now part of the NCS at Home photo gallery.

Despite the unexpected circumstances, things on campus retained a semblance of normalcy, as the students living there kept things running while their peers were away. The animals in the barn were tended to, seeds were planted in the greenhouses, and some students even helped teacher Larry build an impressive sap-bucket golem out of reclaimed materials and 50 sap buckets. “Emet” now watches over the sugar shack from a nearby hill.

In the performing arts, students and theater teacher Courtney decided the show must go on, and they put together a fantastic virtual performance of Alice Through the Looking Glass: A Miniseries in Four Parts by Lindsay Price. To create the play, each performer made a video of his or her parts, and they were later edited together to form the complete play. Scenes were filmed both on-campus in WallyPAC (Walter Breeman Performing Arts Center) and in students’ homes around the world. Music for the production was done in a similar fashion, with students recording their individual parts separately so they could be mixed together by music teacher Joey to form the final ensemble. Leading up to graduation week, the play was release in four parts, and links to each video were posted to our Graduation 2020 page along with a virtual recital and an end-of-year slideshow.

#ThisWeekAtNCS Blog Highlights

Every week our staff writer, Becca Miller, keeps us up to date on the day-to-day lives of our students in the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog. This communication became more important than ever when we closed our campus in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more about how our students and teachers worked together to make the most of this unexpected situation, visit the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog.

EARTH SCIENCE GLACIER LESSON

Hands-on education is challenging when classes are online, but NCS students and teachers found creative ways to adapt. In Larry’s 8th-grade earth science class, Larry—with help from his daughter, NCS 8th-grader Ella—got outside to demonstrate a glacier lab to his class on Zoom. The students created mini-glaciers by freezing bags of sediment, ice cubes, and water, then they pushed their glacier

around in their yards to examine how the object’s movement affected the ground beneath it. Each student drew their observations, which included seeing grooves, striations, erratics, and broken chunks of ice destined to be kettle ponds.

JAPANESE NEW YEAR

In Meredith’s Japanese class, students participated in two traditional Japanese New Year’s activities. The first was Fukuwarai,

a game where players close their eyes and try to put the pieces of a traditional face in the correct places on a board. Students learned vocabulary for facial features as well as directions like up, down, left, and right. Kakizome is another traditional New Year’s practice of writing an intention or wish for the coming year using ink and a calligraphy brush. Students chose words to write, learned how to form the characters, and wrote the words and signed their names.

INTERSESSION

While our 9th-grade class was on its annual trip to Utah, where they visited protected spaces like Zion National Park and Valley of Fire State Park, the rest of our student body participated in Intersession, a series of fun and educational classes. Students signed up for morning and afternoon classes that covered topics including stop-motion animation, costume design, Flash Band, swimming, ice climbing, history through movies, and sewing. At the end of the week, the students presented their work to the entire student body during Intersession Showcases.

EARTH DAY TOWN MEETING

This year we celebrated Earth Day together with a morning Town Meeting event that brought faculty, staff, students, and families together on Zoom to talk about the significance of Earth Day and

the many ways we can care for the world around us. The gathering was attended by over 100 members of our extended community and featured talks and readings, including a history of NCS’s ex-

pansive sustainability efforts by art teacher Noni—the granddaughter of NCS founders Walter and Leonora Clark—and some helpful ideas on how to appreciate more and waste less by English teacher Melissa.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART WINNERS

(Left to right) Top row: 1. Lion, Cocona Yamamoto 2. Spring Cup, Silvia Chen 3. Lola, Eliza Williams Middle row: 1. Fire Ceramics, Summer Guo 2. Phoenix, Alex Dawson-Ellis 3. WallyPAC, Cocona Yamamoto Bottom row: 1. Still Life, Summer Guo 2. Fish City, Sally Mao 3. Potrait, Cecy Loher

IN APRIL, THE NCS COMMUNITY WAS EXCITED TO LEARN THAT TWO OF OUR 9TH-GRADE students were honored in the Lake Placid Institute’s photo competition “24 Hours: A Photographic Interpretation of Life in the Adirondacks.” Jessica’s darkroom photograph Liveliness was awarded 1st Place Overall in the competition, while her classmate Bladen’s School Landscape was honored as Lake Placid Institute Board Favorite. Many of our students also had photographs, sculptures, paintings, drawings, and ceramic pieces accepted into the Lake Placid Center for the Arts Annual High School Art Show.

(Left to right) Top row: 1. What Walks is Alive, Summer Guo 2. Green Light, Eliza Williams 3. Pink Bowl, Summer Guo Middle row: 1. Untitled, Tyler Joseph 2. Glass House, Silvia Chen 3. Hot Air Balloon, Cocona Yamamoto Bottom row: 1. Still Life, Summer Guo 2. Black-eyed Susan, Josh Lally 3. Southwest, David Ji

Top, left to right: 1. Untitled, Bladen Reese 2. Hannah, Piotr Moore

Bottom, left to right 1. Bicycle, Ella Robjent 2. Untitled, Jessica Qiao

A SENSE OF UNITY: THE TEACHING AND LEARNING KITCHEN AND WALLYPAC

OUR MOUNTAIN CAMPUS was fortunate to welcome two impactful new additions last year—the Teaching and Learning Kitchen and WallyPAC (Walter Breeman Performing Arts Center). These spaces immediately became vital to both the Farm and Garden and Arts programs at Camp and School, and they offer a bounty of opportunity for Rock-E House & Basecamp for future collaborations with educational institutions and like-minded organizations, as well as community events open to the public.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Camp and School were selected to host a conference for The Edible Schoolyard Project in late summer 2020. The large-scale event would have utilized Rock-E House, WallyPAC, and the TLK as places for participants to stay, speak, and prepare food.

Teaching, learning, growing

Our gardens and greenhouses have always been an enduring feature of life on our 220-acre campus. Those rows of lettuce, kale, onions, herbs, and other plants sustain us every day, and they also bring us together as we plant seeds, tend gardens, and harvest produce as a community.

Preparing fresh food, whether in the Camper Kitchen or in Clark House, has also brought our campers and students together, but the TLK offers more. Within its rustic exterior there are three fully equipped cooking stations with ovens, two-burner cooktops, prep counters, storage, and lesson tables.

This past school year, Putney School stayed at Rock-E, toured our farm and gardens, and utilized the TLK. In the fall, two local elementary schools visited the TLK for some for some hands-on cooking lessons that included roasted root veggies and dips made with herbs plucked from our Children’s Garden. The new, year-round facility truly links Camp, School, Rock-E, and the surrounding communities.

“Over the years, campers interested in creating farm-to-table meals have used our Camper Kitchen, our outdoor grills, and our wood-fired pizza and bread ovens,” said Camp Treetops Director Karen Culpepper.

“As this activity of harvesting produce from our gardens and preparing a meal together has become even more popular, Camp is thrilled with the addition of our Teaching Learning Kitchen. With its proximity to the Children’s Garden and space for up to three cooking groups, we have greatly expanded our ability to meet the ever-increasing interests and learning opportunities for farm-to-table cooking.”

In the summer, the outdoor pizza oven and Camper Kitchen are still part of Camp life, but the TLK gives campers another option. Garden Manager Tess Faller said during its first summer, the building was full of campers cooking every day of the week.

“On any given day, there would be four different garden-based recipes being cooked in the TLK throughout the summer,” Tess said. “It changed my production scale. I specifically grew more this year in anticipation of Camp using it because that facility used so much produce last year. It was wildly popular.”

Edible Schoolyard Teacher Elie Rabinowitz said there is a natural, meditative calm to cooking food together. People share stories as they measure, shred, and mix ingredients. It’s as healthy as the fresh-picked herbs in their hands—he loves seeing the children let their guard down to laugh, exchange ideas, and reveal a little bit about who they are.

“The opportunity for kids to be engaged, hands-on, and self-directed is great in that space,” Elie said. “To me, cooking leads to self-confidence in a way that is somewhat unique but just as important as all of the other areas. When you’re getting that hands-on time, you as a student are doing the work and seeing the result.”

Stage call at WallyPAC

WallyPAC, our performing arts center, was named after Walter Breeman (NCS 10). The facility opened in October 2019, and it’s been a busy first year.

WallyPAC’s kickoff show was a fun and somewhat hectic “Play in a Day,” a collaborative student and alumni play that was planned, rehearsed, and performed—all in 24 hours. More than 120 former and current campers, students, and faculty came together for the event.

Fortunately, WallyPAC is well-equipped to handle such a project. The 10,000-square-foot building contains an impressive theater with a sound booth and lighting, a workshop for building stage sets, a costume closet, several rooms for music lessons and rehearsal, and gallery space to show off student artwork. Theater Tech Teacher Larry Robjent spends a lot of time in the space, working with students to bring all manner of creative set design to life. He fondly remembers the October “Play in a Day” as a true community event that connected Camp and School’s present to its past.

“The show brought back so many of my students from a time that, upon reflection, was a foundational piece for NCS theater tech,” Larry said. “Those kids really helped set a standard for the creativeness and larger-than-life feel that we still hold today as fundamental pieces of stage tech.”

Anthony Fernandez (NCS 10, CTT 05–10, CTT staff 14–15) and his brother, Marcos (NCS 12, CTT 05–08, CTT staff 15, 17), have deep connections to Camp and School. Anthony said the alumni show also

(Continued on page 41)

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING AT WALLYPAC?

Good Queen Bess alumni “Play in a Day”

Alumni panel discussion

A day of workshops and performances with poet and storyteller D. Colin

Family Weekend: Showcase of Greek Olympiaganza; the student-written, -directed, and -performed Impact! play; and the student recital

Open-to-the-community concert: Larry Stone Band and Big Slyde

Seedfolks rehearsal with students from Northwood School

Intersession classes and final showcase in WallyPAC including Percy Jackson roleplay, Retina Burn stage lighting, Flash Band, Stagecraft set design, and Costuming for Alice in Wonderland

Students made Emet, a sap bucket golem, out of repurposed sap collection buckets

Wilderness Active Role Play (WARP) costumes were created for fall

During the spring semester, badminton, a crate challenge, and dry tool ice climbing

Friday Night Movies

Rotating student art exhibits

A June term Design and Build class

Sparking a Composting Revolution: AdkAction and Compost for Good

By John Culpepper Director of Facilities and Sustainability

IS IT POSSIBLE TO COMPOST everything that comes out of commercial and residential kitchens? Absolutely. Some of you have been doing this successfully for decades. However, incorporating meat and dairy into compost systems can be tricky.

When composting happens in large rotating drums, temperatures remain high enough to rapidly break down food waste so that odors, flies, and rodents are not an issue. These units have been on the market for many years, but they tend to be expensive, and can be complicated to operate. Until recently.

Thanks to an initial 2016 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority utilized to design and build a composter at Camp and School, the institution was able to secure a second grant to build three community-scale composters, designed by John Culpepper and a local contractor, Greg LeClair, for local organizations. The composter at Camp and School has already diverted more than 120,000 lbs. of food waste from landfills. The plans for this composter, along with an operating manual and other support materials, are also free and available to anyone who is interested.

John, his daughter Katie Culpepper (CTT 92–99, CTT staff 02-09, 11–14, NCS staff 08–10, 11–17), and another Adirondack local, Jennifer Perry, have launched an initiative to broaden the number of communities that can accomplish composting on a community scale. The project is called “Compost for Good” and was started in partnership with an Adirondack-based not-for-profit, AdkAction.

Why compost?

➼ More and more states will require composting

➼ Composting takes a “waste” and turns it into a soil-building material that increases the productivity of soils to produce food

➼ Composting food waste takes the pressure off of landfills, requiring fewer to be built

➼ Composting keeps money in the local economy, and generates new business opportunities

➼ Keeping food wastes out of landfills reduces the production of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas

Opportunities for composting include organizations that may want to compost on site, individuals who want to collect, process and sell compost to consumers, and towns and villages that want to bring composting to their solid-waste receiving stations. These rotating drum composters can be housed in relatively small sheds or 40-foot shipping containers.

This is an incredible time for composting. With this initiative, we are determined to spark a wide-ranging composting revolution. For how to build, purchase, and operate these composters, see our evolving project page on the AdkAction website.

It takes a community

HOW FARM LIFE AND EDUCATION GO HAND IN HOOF AT NORTH COUNTRY SCHOOL AND CAMP TREETOP S

BY SHAUN KITTLE

ANYONE DRIVING ONTO NORTH Country School and Camp Treetops’ 220-acre campus is greeted by an idyllic scene. Cascade and Pitchoff mountains dominate the horizon, rising tall over the meadows, pastures, and barn that comprise the school’s working farm and gardens. After winter finally subsides, animals can be seen free-ranging it up in any one of the campus’s pas-

tures. Eventually horses, pigs, chickens, sheep, goats, and turkeys will all share this space, which is buttressed by forests and meadows. Songbirds and other forest creatures are regular visitors. They serve as a reminder that just beyond the mowed grass there’s a vast wilderness waiting to challenge, invigorate, and educate students and campers from around the globe.

That wilderness, the six-million-acre Adirondack Park, offers challenges as well as beautiful scenery. It

takes a community to nurture plants and animals here, and that is exactly what happens. In the two greenhouses, Garden Manager Tess Faller weaves disciplines like biology and math into what would otherwise be garden chores, while over in the barnyard, Barn Manager Erica Burns takes a similar approach to tending the animals. The students and campers who live here get down in the dirt, but it isn’t busywork. They’re making important associations that draw upon the Ed-

ible Schoolyard philosophy, linking the cycle of life to the food they eat and the lessons they learn, all while participating in their community.

The North Country School and Camp Treetops campus is home to five acres of growing space that includes two greenhouses, Dexter Field, and several smaller gardens. Next to the Teaching and Learning Kitchen is the Children’s Garden, where things like shrubs, herbs, and plants that are used for various dyes are grown. In the Forest Garden there are plum, apple, and peach trees, native plants, and more experimental plants like artichokes and herbs that are new to the campus.

Keeping the gardens and greenhouses producing food is a lot of work, especially considering the mountainous region. Thanks to the long, cold winters, seeds are started early in the greenhouses and many perennial herbs have to be planted yearly.

“We have a really short growing season—last year we had two months without frost—so we need to make sure everything we’re growing will get used, and that it’s grown in the quantity that’s needed,” Tess said. That’s where the students and campers come in. One of the challenges Tess faces as an educator is keeping kids interested in tasks like planting, weeding, and harvesting. But she believes there’s something genuinely intriguing in experiencing firsthand the seed-to-plant-to-kitchen-to-compost process. To help draw her students’ attention to learning about that natural life cycle, Tess tries to grow things the kids

will find interesting, like towering sunflowers, wildly patterned tomatoes, and green bean varieties with names like “dragon tongue.”

“It’s really about streamlining the production to see how much we can produce for our community to eat, and then to find all of the avenues that are interesting and can hook a kid,” Tess said. “Anything that’s engaging, exciting, fun, and different.”

With all of that in mind, every crop becomes an eclectic potpourri of utilitarian and fun. Large, plump beefsteak tomatoes are grown for their versatility, while cherry tomatoes—which campers love to snack on—are thrown into the mix. Everyday items like salad greens and cucumbers, which grow pretty fast, are planted and harvested regularly, while thousands of pounds of potatoes and squash are grown en masse because they can be stored through winter. It all makes its way to the kitchen, where Head of Kitchen Paulette Peduzzi transforms the harvests into a variety of meals for students, faculty, and staff. Students also use the fresh produce for cooking lessons in the Teaching and Learning Kitchen.

Tess explained that gardening can elicit a real wow-factor in many kids. Since planting occurs in the spring, the students who help with that aren’t on campus during summer, when most of the growing takes place. That’s where the camp community comes in—campers maintain the fields and harvest what’s needed in July and August. When students return in fall, they get to see the fruits of their labor—beautiful rows of kale, glossy peppers, and stunning flower beds have appeared where tiny sprouts once stood. It’s one thing to pick a fat, juicy piece of fruit off of a tree, but it’s something else entirely to dig into the ground and pull out a dense, heavy potato. It’s like opening a treasure chest and being able to feed your community with the contents.

“What we do here is older than old-fashioned,” Tess said. “We’re not just growing to be self-sustaining, but the fact that our growing and harvesting and food preparation are so community oriented, it feels very timely. This is something we rely on, being able to come together and produce this food and enjoy it.”

As the snow and ice yield to warmer days, the

campus’s rolling fields become populated with grazing horses, pecking chickens, grunting pigs, and a sheep flock that moves as one unit like a wooly, many-legged cloud. The camp and school barnyard is a special place, accented by ancient glacial erratics and stately metal sculptures created by the community. Visitors usually pause to admire the view but the animals don’t seem to notice any of it—their interests lie in foraging and frolicking.

The horses, chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, and turkeys that live here provide food, materials, and education to the campus community. Students and campers take an active role in caring for the animals by doing daily barn chores—collecting eggs, watching lambs being born, cleaning the stalls, grooming horses, and feeding and watering the animals.

Every creature on campus is important, but many children gravitate toward the horses. Erica explained that each has its own personality, and for that reason different people tend to bond better with particular horses.

“Where the sheep are raised as a flock, the horses are cared for as individuals,” Erica said. “They get individual meal plans, certain horses only get ridden in certain programs, and some horses have specific health needs.”

Erica begins the riding season gently, working with the horses to reinforce cues and making sure they are ready for summer. Before camp begins, she also rents five or six horses to meet the demands of the regular riding lessons, bringing the barnyard’s total up to about 15. Horses are large, and vetting them before a student or camper gets into the saddle is essential. They’re allowed to have their own personality, but each needs to be kind, gentle, and tolerant of beginner riders.

Campers ride four periods a day, six days a week, which keeps the horses working hard. Days off are more of a mental break than a physical break—the campers are learning to ride, which can become confusing to the animals.

“If a kid is riding them and using the wrong cues, the horse can get to the point where it begins to second guess itself,” Erica said. “That can lead to bad habits, and we want the horses to listen to commands. Giving them a half day where they’re ridden by an adult reinforces those cues so the horse always knows what it’s supposed to do.”

Every student learns how to tell when a horse has had enough, so no horse is never pushed beyond its limitations. Since every horse is different, getting to know each one’s personality becomes especially

important. For example, Tucker is a steady horse in his 20s, and he tolerates everything.

“If I could clone him 100 times over, I would,” Erica said. “You could compare him to the person who you can ask for a favor and they always say yes.”

Beau is a 1,200-pound tank, a confident and strong animal that doesn’t spook easily. Beau teaches confidence in the rider—he will do whatever he wants until he’s sure the rider is completely in charge, but then he’s steady and reliable.

Twinkie is also a confidence builder. Even though she’s stubborn, she’s solid in the stall and will stand like a statue for grooming. Good stall manners aside, Twinkie is also opinionated and will sometimes disagree with the rider.

toward the horses. Erica explained

“Matching the right horse to the right kid is important, since some horses aren’t suited for inexperienced kids or kids who are skittish around horses,” Erica said. “Some of the relationship building takes time. Banker can be tough to get to know, but by the end of the 2019 schoolyear, a couple of students were writing him love notes.”

Erica added that animals can teach students and campers a lot about themselves and about how to treat others. Learning to care for and communicate with horses can build confidence and instill patience, persistence, compassion, and understanding.

“They all have something to teach you, but you have to be willing to listen and learn,” Erica said.

Every creature on campus is important, but many children gravitate

that each has its own personality, and for that reason different people tend to bond better with particular horses.

RECIPE FROM THE

CHILDREN’S GARDEN

Campfire Stick Biscuits with Raspberry Jam

BECCA MILLER

SUMMER ON OUR MOUNTAIN campus is a time for long days playing outside, paddling on Round Lake, and working together to care for our farm animals and gardens. At the end of those sun-filled days campers often gather around a campfire with sticks and dough to whip up one of Camp Treetops’ longtime favorite snacks—stick biscuits.

Crispy and golden brown, warm and buttery, stick biscuits are a crowd pleaser that fills the air with the scent of fresh-baked bread. Stick biscuits can be eaten on their own, as a savory treat filled with cheese or a hotdog, or paired with jam made with berries harvested from the field.

The stick biscuit recipe below has been enjoyed by CTT campers and counselors on warm summer evenings for more than 50 years. Pair the warm biscuits with the raspberry jam below, or use the same recipe basics to make your own mixed-berry jam that can include strawberries, blueberries, currants, or whatever fruit is available in your garden.

Campfire Stick Biscuit Recipe

*Recipe adapted and scaled down from Camp Treetops’ Bob Bliss’s Canoe Trip Cookery Book

Bob Bliss joined the CTT community as a camper in the 1920s and continued working summers as camp staff until the early 1990s. As the Head of the Waterfront, Bob led countless canoe trips and prepared tasty campfire recipes for generations of happy CTT campers.

Makes approximately 8 stick biscuits

Ingredients

½ cup dried milk

4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1¾ tbsp baking powder

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup neutral cooking oil (canola or sunflower) OR melted butter, plus a little extra for coating the stick

Water

Mix together dry ingredients. In a large bowl, alternately add dry-ingredient mixture by the half-cup and water by the ¼-cup, adjusting as you go to maintain a firm but sticky consistency.

Make sure to reserve a bit of dry mixture until the end in case your dough is too wet.

While the dough is being prepared, have campers find a large stick (preferably green as opposed to dry wood) and shave the end so that it is roughly the thickness of an adult thumb or slightly larger. The thicker the stick, the faster the cooking time and the more butter, honey, cream cheese, jam, etc. can be packed into the vacant hole after the dough becomes “breadstuff.” If you would like to use your stick biscuit to make “pigs in blankets,” choose a cooking stick that leaves a gap the size of a cooked hot dog.

Coat the cooking end of the stick with a little bit of oil and wrap a handful of dough around that end of the stick. Cook over the campfire by turning your stick slowly as dough begins to brown. This will ensure an even bake. A fire of coals is much better than a flaming fire for slow cooking. Your biscuit is done when you get a hollow sound when you tap it with your fingers. Your finished biscuit should be about the consistency of a bagel.

Remove the biscuit from the stick and serve with your prefered filling.

Raspberry Jam Recipe

Ingredients

3 cups raspberries

2 cups sugar

Combine sugar and raspberries in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Mash the berries with the back of a spoon as they soften, leaving some larger pieces intact. Lower heat slightly but keep the berries at a medium boil, stirring frequently. Continue cooking until the jam forms a sheet of gel on a cool spoon or plate. (If you swipe your finger through the gelled jam the line’s edges should remain intact.) Once the gel has set, remove from heat.

Allow the jam to cool slightly. Serve the warm jam as a dip or filling for your stick biscuits, or ladle the jam into a sterilized pint jar and store in the refrigerator for later use.

A Legacy OF Storytelling at Camp Treetops

BY JIM PUGH (CTT 62–64, STAFF 77)

AS CAMP TREETOPS CELEBRATES the 100th year of its founding, memories and stories about the major facets of the CTT experience will be shared among us: Cliffords, council, dining room, garden, tripping, waterfront, and the like.

I would like to reminisce about one of the understated, yet valuable, things that Treetops has always done right. This is the bedtime storytelling and reading to tent groups by the counselors on duty.

Practically speaking, storytelling is an effective transition from raucous evening activities to slumber land. On a deeper level, it enables us to boost our imaginations and connect with our truest selves. It helps everyone, particularly children, to make meaning of themselves and the world around them. And it is a nice communal activity.

As an 11-year old in the Pine Bunk, I remember Dick Wilde’s stories. He would skim a short story during some free minutes in the afternoon, and tell the story that evening to the campers. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” was an especially memorable tale—though I am not sure we terrified campers got to sleep right away.

As a counselor I had a group of favorite stories to

read or tell—sometimes on short notice. One I could pull from my memory bank was the plot of Giacomo Puccini’s raucous comic opera Gianni Schicchi. This tells the story of fractious relatives trying to thwart the will of their recently deceased family scion, Buoso Donati, who left his entire fortune to the local monastery. The relatives appear to succeed in overturning the will, and then in turn are swindled by the clever outsider, Gianni Schicchi.

If I was filling in for another counselor and the Hanging House was in the middle of Watership Down or The Hobbit, I went with the flow and read the next chapter. Sometimes it was the norm for campers to do the reading.

One of my favorite sources of reading to campers was the collection of animal stories in Ernest Thompson Seton’s Wild Animals I Have Known. The stories “Lobo the King of Currumpaw” and “Raggylug, the Story of a Cottontail Rabbit” are particularly good. The latter never fails to bring me to tears, and likely affected some of the campers as well.

For a two-night reading session, my favorite was Stephen Vincent Benet’s short story “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” The writing is so rich, and the voice of

Daniel Webster so booming, that reading from the text is just as effective as telling the story.

For reading an entire book to my tent group, my preference was J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. This familiar story is written at an incredibly literate adult level. The vocabulary is wonderful. Each chapter is about 10 pages long, perfect for one night’s reading session.

One summer a 12-year old gave me a hard time when I tried to introduce Peter Pan: “Aw, that’s a baby story.” I was not prepared for this, but realized I had a useful tool at my disposal. I replied to the camper and his bunkmates: “You are right, this is a children’s story. If I show you something that shows that someone really important approves of this book, will you let me read it?”

“Well, let’s see,” the camper said.

“Look at the inside cover of this book.” I handed him the book. He looked at the scrawled signature. Suddenly he recognized whose it was, and blurted out: “LET HIM READ IT!” Then he passed the book around to the other campers. It was the autograph of Muhammad Ali, obtained at the Pennsylvania Railway Station in Philadelphia when I had nothing else on my person for the great boxer to sign. The boys proceeded to enjoy the wonderful language of J.M. Barrie over many evenings.

There are so many ways in which the “little things” make Treetops such a rich experience for children. Storytelling and reading at bedtime is one of them.

The Legend of Bongo

BY SUSIE LOCALIO (CTT 55–58, STAFF 65–80, 89–94, BRC)

COUCHSACHRAGA IS REMOTE, 17 miles round-trip, has only a herd path, and there is no view from the top. It is not hiked often but is a necessary peak if one is to become a 46er. Being shy, Bongo lives there in his cave, which is very tidy and has a special place for the bags of oatmeal he gets each week from Camp during rest hour when all the children are in their tents. Bea, the Junior Camp cook, meets him behind the kitchen and carefully ties the bags onto his feet. Bongo is the color of clouds, which is convenient because he blends in. It has not always been thus. When he was a bad dragon, terrorizing the fisherman on the Hudson River and swooping down to steal their fish, he was the color of a bruised eggplant. But one day he flew too close to a cliff, hit his funny bone and crashed into the river. He would have drowned but was saved by Lena the Good Wolf, who was sitting on the bank watching my father and brothers and me fish and protecting us from Bongo and Nip Whip and Serpie, whose cave was in a cliff above the river. Lena thought for a moment that she might let Bongo drown but decided that would not be noble so she swam out, took ahold of one wing in her mouth and dragged him to shore. She then gave him artificial respiration and he revived, somewhat subdued and very grateful. His fire had been put out and, though still very bright, gave out no heat (which is why Lena didn’t burn her mouth when she brought him back to life). After that Bongo vowed to reform and with each good deed, he became less purple and more cloud-colored. When

my brothers and I came to Treetops in 1955, Bongo came too.

Nip Whip and Serpie followed. Their Prison Cave is on the East Peak of McComb. It is not tidy and the shelves are stocked with jars of pickled ear nips, which they spread on Ritz Crackers. Nip Whip is a snake who nips with his mouth and whips with his tail. Serpie is a sea serpent with suction cup toes, which come in very handy when scaling cliffs or climbing trees.

Around these characters spun from my father’s “Lena the Good Wolf” stories, and some characters gathered elsewhere, I wove stories for many summers of Treetops children. We had six-year-olds back then and with them I left out the pickled ear nips. Even with older Junior campers, I had to reassure them that if your ears were nipped at night, you woke up thinking you had been bitten by a mosquito. No blood, no pain. The ear nips were just background. Most of the plots involved Nip Whip and Serpie trying to steal the summer’s supply of Van Hooten bars, which were kept in the candy cupboard in the back pantry of the Junior Camp kitchen, the key to which was taped to Bea’s belly button. Or Nip Whip and Serpie would convince the Witch of Whiteface, who was good but very gullible, to give them the magic powder to, for instance, change the children on garden harvest into strawberries. In this story, the children were saved from being squished into the topping for strawberry shortcake by Jeff Jonathan’s dog, Nikka, who, being a great glutton, was lurking around the kitchen and knew from sniffing that these were not strawberries but children. Just

in time Bongo is summoned and with his very bright but not hot flame, breathes on the strawberries and returns the children to their human form. There were, of course, endless variations. Sometimes Lulu Walsh was involved. She would be stolen by Nip Whip and Serpie to be their Prison Cave cleanup slave but she would outfox them or drive them crazy and they would let her go. I often included the parents of campers whom I had known as campers or counselors. Beatrice was kind enough to assure campers who asked that indeed the key was safely taped to her belly button. Other counselors, when quizzed, knew enough to tell campers that yes, it had happened just that way.

And so together we wove stories. Not scary ones. We wanted the children to sleep. But ones exciting enough to keep their interest and get them looking at the clouds. Bongo became part of Junior Camp. One winter he got a valentine from Lucy Childress. The envelope is addressed to Bongo c/o Camp Treetops, P.O. Box 187, Lake Placid, NY. The postmark is February 12, 1992. The fact that the post office delivered it and that someone at school knew enough to save it for me warms my heart.

And Bongo did inspection reports. In 1979 he did them often because the previous summer, the traditional method of inspection—a boys’ tent inspects the girls’ tents and vice-versa—had been rather rancorous and we decided a change was in order. Some days when Bongo was not available, Jono Daunt would read Hog Nose’s reports (also done in poetry), which praised the messy tents and scolded the ones that were tidy.

In July of 1979 Bongo praised Karen Culpepper’s girls:

Karen’s 4 Colts have outdone the rest. Their beds are superb; they are better and best. Their floor is so clean I’d use it for a plate. Hip, hip and hurrah! This tent is first rate.

Sometimes criticism was in order: But Helge whose voice is a sweet as the sun

Has four boys whose cleanup is just not yet done. And Nils, why do you rest still on your bed? Do you have an ache or a pain in your head? Remember that you need to all help each other Or Bongo will cry and he’s not got a mother.

In later years Bongo inspected only the first few days of camp, enough time to set the guidelines for future inspectors and name who would begin the cycle. Here are 1990’s results:

That’s it dearest campers I’ve finished you all So next week’s inspectors I’ll give them a call To Larry’s four boys and Kirsty’s three girls They’re the next inspectors, my innocent pearls. Now do this inspection with tact and with grace

Do not be insulting or through the tents race. Use positive comments whenever you can And criticize nicely. Do you understand?

Although I have kept a few Bongo inspection books, I never wrote the stories down. These were told stories, involving people the children knew, places they had been. The stories were never the same and I usually made them up as I went along. Sometimes when I got into a plot jam, I would say, “And then what do you suppose happened?” and invariably a child would come out with the perfect solution to my predicament. And I would say, “Exactly!” and breathe an inner sigh of relief and silent thanks to the creativity of children.

In Summer’s Children there is a picture of Doug Haskell telling Monkey-Man stories to a group of little boys. The children are rapt. Doug clutches his stomach to show how the Ox-Demon’s wife groaned while Monkey-Man, transformed into a fly, pinched her stomach. Counselors still read to children every night or tell stories that they knew from their childhood or make them up as they go along as I did. We do this because we have time set aside for this ritual. Every night a story ends a busy day. It brings the group into a shared oneness. It is the way we say goodnight.

And so together we wove stories. Not scary ones. We wanted the children to sleep. But ones exciting enough to keep their interest and get them looking at the clouds

Alumni Spotlights

BY SHAUN KITTLE

Embracing who you are

Zina Asante (NCS 17)

WHEN ZINA CAME TO North Country School in 2014, she was used to moving around, but she always believed that home is where your family is. Zina is from Ghana, Africa, a country colonized by Britain, and the schools she attended there were the epitome of proper—people were called mister and missus, students had to dress a certain way, and there was a gulf between adults and kids. She quickly learned that’s not the case at NCS, where students and teachers are on a first-name basis and everyone is encouraged to wear comfortable clothes, especially during activities like barn chores or gardening.

“Everyone is so friendly, there are hugs, and it feels like a close-knit community,” Zina said. “It’s pretty impossible to go to NCS and be a loner. It was very welcoming, especially since I was so far from home.”

It wasn’t long before Zina started calling NCS her home, too. It was a smaller school than she was used to, but the emphasis on community and taking care of each other encouraged a closeness among Zina and her peers. Zina said that through simple tasks like doing laundry or harvesting vegetables from the garden, she learned to take care of herself and the people around her. She also learned some new things, like taekwondo, cooking, and knitting.

“You lean on someone and they lean on someone else and they lean on someone else—it became like a circle, and it was all balanced in the end,” Zina said. “I learned a lot about taking care of myself. It was still a community in which I was taught to do things on my own, but it wasn’t like I was pushed out into the desert and left by myself.”

There is one particular memory that cemented the feeling of home in Zina’s mind. Her grandfather, whom she hadn’t seen in four or five years, had traveled all the way from Ghana to see her. He was exhausted from the long flight and the drive from the airport, and as a result he fell into a deep sleep, missing the play Zina was performing in. She was crushed.

“He traveled and came to NCS, and he was so tired,” Zina said. “It was the night of the play and I found out he hadn’t seen it, and one of the teachers came over and she gave me a hug and comforted me. The fact that she was there and she embraced me got me through.”

Today, Zina is majoring in neuroscience at Emmanuel College in Boston. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has also been helping to take care of her family in Connecticut. Zina has been on a long journey, and perhaps one of the most important takeaways from that journey is that she has learned to embrace who she is. Being an American student from Ghana has in the past made her feel neither here nor there, but that’s changed. She now proudly identifies as both, and calls herself a Ghanaian-American.

“Once I got used to being away from my family, it’s like I had a new family,” Zina said. “I had a sense of belonging, and I was going through a crisis of being from Ghana and America. That journey started at North Country, so it’s definitely a pillar for me. It’s something I battled with for a long time, and I’ve learned to be fully comfortable learning to balance both things. I know who I am.”

A Legacy of Camp Treetops

Lisa Beck (CTT 70-73, parent 03-16, staff 08-present, trustee 08-present)

SPENDING SUMMERS In the mountains wasn’t necessarily something Lisa Beck planned on falling in love with. Coming from bustling Manhattan, Lisa could not imagine replacing her city bus trip to school with an early morning walk on a dirt road to the barn. She would be trading the gleaming chrome and glass of automats for wooden benches in the dining hall and freshly collected eggs.

As garden beds replaced the concrete sidewalk beneath her feet, Lisa struggled to find her footing. Tending animals, sleeping in a canvas tent, and sharing her living space with three other girls was foreign to her, as it is to many first-time campers at Treetops. She was immediately homesick.

“I cried for the first week, but the counselors helped me through it. Camp became my new home for the summer, and what I learned that summer and the three following it about myself, other people, animals, and the natural world has enriched my life ever since,” Lisa said.

“As a camper, I had adventures and experiences wholly different from those of my daily city life. The mastery of new challenges gave me—and other campers—a wonderful sense of competence and confidence.”

Lisa tried a lot of new things her first summer at camp, and she didn’t like all of them. Hiking was a no-go and so was climbing, but riding, canoeing, and the craft shops were all a joy. So were her new friends who hailed from around the world and from all walks of life. She has since realized that Treetops imparted values that she and her fellow campers were blissfully unaware of at the time: they were all on equal footing and no one’s backgrounds mattered.“ There was no difference; we didn’t bring the outside world in,” Lisa said. “We didn’t have any of the material signifiers of wealth or lack thereof. We were just there with our six pairs of blue jeans, our flashlights, and whatever else was on the packing list.”

Reflecting back on her time as a camper, Lisa doesn’t recall specific memories so much as the seemingly ordinary (for Treetops) daily activities she cherished. There were foraging trips that ended in blueberry-based desserts from the kitchen. There was everybody working together to stack logs or weed the garden. There was “Fund Lunch”—eating a simple meal every Monday— so the money saved could go toward a charitable cause at the end of the summer. And then there were the horses. Lisa began a lifelong love of horses and horseback riding at Camp, which she has passed on to her daughter.

“In 2008, I returned to Camp as a riding counselor. My daughter, Pippi, very young at the time, came with me as a day camper,” Lisa said. “Her early exposure sparked her passion for horses and riding, and she went on to become a nationally ranked hunt seat rider. Treetops gave me the opportunity to work with horses and that joy has continued to the next generation.”

Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has inspired Lisa to work toward setting up a non-profit in her community to feed people in need and keep struggling restaurants in business. The model, which was introduced to her by Portland-based former camper and board member Brian Eng, is a multifaceted approach which feeds the hungry and bolsters the battered restaurant industry. Anticipating the long-term prospect of food-insecurity, Lisa is seeking the support of (Continued on page 41)

Community and Collaboration

Peter (NCS 86) and Isaac (NCS 16) Newcomb

PETER NEWCOMB LEARNED a lot during his first year at NCS, but the most surprising thing, for him, was discovering a love of nature. Peter spent a good portion of his childhood in Tallahassee, Florida, being homeschooled and staying indoors. A self-professed computer geek, he was prone to heat exhaustion, and team sports—popular entertainment in the region— didn’t click with him. His parents were looking for a summer camp when they saw Camp Treetops in a magazine, and through that they discovered North Country School and the region’s dramatic mountains, cool evenings, and four distinct seasons. All it took was one visit and Peter and his sister, Victoria Newcomb Podmajersky (NCS 84–87), were hooked. They begged their parents to send them.

“NCS opened up a whole new world for me, it introduced me to hiking and the Adirondacks,” Peter said. “It was a revelation that I could spend time outside and be happy.”

The nonathletic boy from Tallahassee quickly fell in love with hiking and skiing. He also learned about community, about the noncompetitive nature of

collaboration, and about the importance of fostering creativity. It made perfect sense that Peter and his wife, Chris, would one day settle down in Lake Placid and send their son, Isaac, to the same school that shaped Peter.

The Newcomb family was living in San Francisco when Isaac first attended North Country School. Like his father, Isaac fell in love with the Adirondacks’ natural beauty—and the hiking and skiing that goes along with it. Isaac was also able to sharpen his building skills, and he fondly remembers making kinetic sculptures with Larry. He even returned after graduation to help make the frog sculpture near Rock-E House & Basecamp.

“I’ve always been a builder,” Isaac said. “Prior to going to NCS I was homeschooled, which basically meant playing with Legos all the time.”

Isaac attended nearby Northwood School after graduating from NCS, and he just finished his freshman year at Cornell University. He isn’t making sculptures anymore, but the love of building has persevered—Isaac has yet to declare a major, but he is following the mechanical engineering track at Cornell.

As was the case for many students, the COVID-19 pandemic hit around the time of Isaac’s spring break. After Isaac was approached by the Innovation Hub at Northwood School, Isaac and his father collaborated on a project to make 3D face masks for local healthcare providers. Isaac did the design and got production going, and when school started back up Peter kept production going and made repairs to the printer as needed.

“Part of the North Country School experience is really about respect. Respect for the members of the community, respect for who people really are, and I think that’s particularly apropos now,” Peter said. “In a way, COVID has been a leveler. Around the world, people are in the same boat. It’s a unifying force and we all need to have respect for one another, our first responders, caregivers, and so on.”

Leave Your Legacy Balanced Rocks Circle

Janet Wentworth NCS 68

LEO AND WALTER CLARK visited Janet Dunn in her home in Riverdale, NY, in the early 1960s to talk about Janet joining them at North Country School. Janet’s grandparents had heard about the School from neighbors and in the fall of 1964 Janet arrived at NCS as a fifth grader in Level I. She spent as much time in the barn as possible, skied on the Lake Hill, as there was not enough snow for the ski hill that first winter, and played the viola in the school orchestra.

Janet still rides horses whenever she can and is often found on the ski slopes. She is very conscious of recycling and composting. All of these things she learned at NCS. She maintains a firm sense of environmental responsibility and continues to enjoy her home garden.

Janet has many fond memories of trips with Harry Eldridge. The Class of 1968 had many remarkable students including Tony Corwin (CTT 64, NCS 68, parent 91-02), Terren Baker (NCS 68) Peter Willcox (NCS 68), Wendy Pomeroy (CTT 64-68, NCS 68), Cami Parker Buster (NCS 68, parent 05-07) and Wolcott Blair (NCS 68).

A frequent attendee to Alta Friends’, Friends’ Weekend, and various other events, Janet began to think about ways in which she could help the School she is so fond of.

She spoke to Hock on a few occasions about how best to support NCS given her physical distance and financial situation. Between career uncertainty and raising a family, she was unable to make a substantial contribution to School earlier in her life. Now retired and with a clearer sense of stability, putting NCS in her trust was something she knew felt right. A year or two ago she started to establish her estate plans and decided to include NCS in her revocable trust. Thus, Janet joined the Balanced Rocks Circle, the legacy society created for planned gifts. All bequests, regard-

less of size, perpetuate the continued existence of the wonderful place that is Camp and School.

Planned gifts are strategic ways to provide for School and Camp that reflect your values. These gifts can expand your capacity to give and can significantly reduce your tax obligations. If you have any questions or want more information about making a planned gift, please contact Christie Borden, Interim Director of Advancement, at (518) 837-5402 or email her at cborden@ncstreetops.org.

Friends Weekend work job.

Mark your calendar!

COMMUNITY GIVING WEEK JULY 27 THROUGH JULY 31

Community Giving Week is the perfect time to come together for Camp and School. Make a gift, share a story or some artwork, connect with friends.

If 200 donors make a gift during the week, Camp and School will receive a $50,000 challenge gift. Gifts of any size make a difference and demonstrate the power of community giving and engagement.

Give online today at Camp Treetops or North Country School.

For more information on becoming a matching donor or social media ambassador, please contact Emily Eisman at eeisman@ncstreetops.org or 518-387-5450.

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a Fiscal Sponsor to provide greater fundraising and management capacity.

As Camp shutters for the summer due to the pandemic, Lisa also said she is grateful her four children, Will Seider (CTT 03-08, Counselor 14-16), Charlie Seider (CTT 05-10, Counselor 15-16), John Seider (CTT 08-14), and Pippi Seider (CTT 08-16), have all had the opportunity to experience Camp and be part of its enduring culture.

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stands out as a favorite WallyPAC memory.

“One of my favorite moments was, just before the show started, poking my head up into the catwalk and seeing all these friends that haven’t been in the same room since our graduation,” Anthony said. “It was amazing!”

As the fall semester continued, WallyPAC was host to a variety of events. Students put on two shows for Family Weekend in November—the Greek Olympiaganza and the student-written, -directed, and -performed Impact! play—and then families were treated to a student music recital.

“I especially enjoyed the Impact! performance because it was the first time I was able to see the lighting, sound, stage, and tech theater aspects come together,” said Director of Teaching and Learning Dave Steckler. “It was a very cool intro to the endless possibilities that the theater space provides for the community.”

using the workshop as dappled sunlight dances along the floor. It’s a place filled with energy, a place that reinforces the connection and community of Camp and School as it celebrates the arts.

“What I have considered the core of my NCS/CTT experience are the possibilities afforded by it,” Anthony said. “Moment to moment, students and campers are presented with options and are given the agency to decide what to do with those opportunities. The WallyPAC elevates those possibilities. WallyPAC opens up a whole new range of actions teachers and counselors can take to push that door of possibility open wider.”

“It has made my life fulfilling and more rewarding, and it has provided us with a different perspective than we would have had” Lisa said. “I know everyone is loyal to their particular summer camp, but I think what one learns from summers at Treetops is more than simply how to climb a mountain, ride a horse, or weed a vegetable garden. It is a way of viewing the world, our place in it, and our responsibility to its inhabitants. Those who have experienced Treetops share a bond always.”

Lisa is looking forward to returning to Treetops next summer.

For Theater Teacher Courtney Allen, having access to a space dedicated to the performing arts has made a significant impact on her students. It emphasizes the value in what they’re doing and makes it a priority.

“WallyPAC is a dedicated space that shows what we, as a community, deem as important,” Courtney said. “Kids come in feeling like what they’re doing has a level of importance for them.”

Campers will have to wait until next summer to experience everything the space has to offer—and it has a lot to offer. The natural light that streams in through the large windows bring nature inside. It’s easy to picture campers enjoying a musical, making costumes, or

Karen said the Treetops community was looking forward to its first summer in WallyPAC. Senior Camp Theater Director Harley Winzenreid was making plans for a CTT Centennial Production to be written, rehearsed, and performed in the space, and there were discussions about having the production be about 100 years of Treetops. Original camper music was also slated to be part of the production.

“After so many summers of talent shows, plays, and evening performances in the Quonset, we were very excited about finally having such a beautiful space with great acoustics and actual seating,” Karen said. “The individual music rooms will provide quiet spaces for campers to practice their instruments and explore their musical talents and passions. Also, having the heart space will certainly give us space for rainy day councils and a wonderful indoor space for games and other activities, including theater games. I’m sure that as we start using the space, we’ll discover even more amazing possibilities for programming!”

Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has inspired Lisa to work toward setting up a non-profit in her community to feed people in need and keep struggling restaurants in business.

IN MEMORIAM / NEWS & NOTES

IN MEMORIAM Alan Davis Grant (NCS 56)

Alan Davis Grant passed away on October 31, 2019. After North Country School, he enrolled in Colgate University and earned his B.A. in economics there. After graduation he joined The Equitable Life Assurance Society, and during a 33-year career he held several positions at the vice-president level. Alan was instrumental in developing and introducing the first variable life insurance policy to the sales force. In 1987 Alan served as the president and CEO of a marketing subsidiary of AXA/Equitable Life, and after his retirement he worked at VEMEX, an upstart computer company in Yonkers, until 2003. Alan adored his wife, Michelle, his children, Jennifer and Gregory, and his granddaughters, Karina and Annika. Alan and his wife were avid travelers, and he enjoyed tennis, golf, and skiing.

Gregory Rowland Farrell (Trustee 90–96)

Gregory Rowland Farrell passed away on March 29, 2020. He grew up in both Chicago, Illinois, and Columbia, Missouri, and attended Princeton University from 1953 to 1957. Gregory led an anti-poverty agency in Trenton, New Jersey, which is where he hired and eventually married Cathy Otis. Gregory felt a strong connection to the Adirondacks—his second date with Cathy was a hike up Mount Marcy. Gregory went on the become executive director of the Fund for the City of New

York, a foundation that worked to improve the functioning of city government and the quality of life in New York City. Before retiring in 2008, Gregory served as president and CEO of EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning), which he founded in 1992. The goal of the organization was to transform public schools into something more like an Outward Bound course—the approach now thrives in hundreds of schools and serves more than 500,000 students across the country. Gregory also served on several community boards, including the High Peaks Education Foundation, the Keene Valley Country Club, the Keene Valley Library, North Country School, and Camp Dudley.

Jane Crowell Rieffel (CTT 34–46)

Jane Crowell Rieffel passed away on January 30, 2020. After graduating from Columbia University, School of Nursing, she and her first husband, Thomas W. Francis, spent many years in New York City consulting with designers to improve access for differently abled people to things like buildings and trains. She also took art classes at the Museum of Modern Art, beginning a life-long career and love of painting and collage. After Thomas passed away, Jane married Marc Aurele Rieffel of Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1966. Together they built a home in the French West Indies and traveled frequently until Marc’s death in 1994. Throughout her life, Jane maintained an interest in the

medical concerns of families and was an active supporter of Planned Parenthood and Visiting Nurse Services and Hospice of Santa Barbara. She supported numerous local organizations in Santa Barbara including the Music Academy of the West, the Santa Barbara Symphony, UCSB, and the Encore Theatre.

FRIENDS’ WEEKEND ANNOUNCEMENT

It is with deep disappointment that we share the news that we have made the difficult decision to cancel Friends’ Weekend 2020. After careful consideration and research, it became clear that we cannot hold an event of this size with the proper safety and health protocols recommended by New York State and the CDC. We are, first and foremost, committed to the safety and well-being of our community. While we are saddened by this decision, we look forward to celebrating Camp Treetops’ Centennial with you August 18-22, 2021.

NCS ALUMNI/AE 1962

Wende Melissa Richter

“Still loving running my PYO apple orchard in NH—for 33 years! Family comes first. Loving life.”

1965

Peter Anthony Thacher

(Also, CTT 61)

After 42 years in the Kingdom, we retired from Saudi Aramco and are settling into The Woodlands, Texas, for the winter months. We are continuing to restore a house on North Haven, a small island off the coast of Maine. We look forward to reconnecting.

1991

Sara Hudson

“My husband, Tom, got a job as a critical care paramedic flying fixed-wing medevac missions all over the state of Alaska, and after a year of commuting back and forth we decided to move up. It took us nine days to drive from Richmond, Virginia, to Fairbanks, Alaska, and the trip navigated us through some of the most outrageously beautiful vistas I’ve ever seen. We drove

through the interior and upper Midwest of the United States before crossing the border into Canada, where we eventually picked up the Alcan Highway, which brought us through the Yukon and, eventually, Alaska. We have settled in Fairbanks and are now in the midst of our first subarctic winter, which includes only about four hours of sunlight each day and temperatures of negative-40 without wind-chill. I am considering applying to be a 911 dispatcher, because after 22 years of being in EMS I think it would be an interesting next step to make. I would be dispatching police, fire, and EMS, multiple agencies in different parts of the state, places you can only reach by air. Fun fact: dispatchers here work eight-hour shifts in the winter and 12-hour shifts in the summer; this allows them to hunt and fish to fill up freezers

and take full advantage of the “Midnight Sun.” Isn’t that wild? And I will make it back for another Intersession! A part of my heart will always be in that little valley under the Balanced Rocks. Perhaps next year my husband and I could both come teach an EMT-lite type of course for those interested.”

2012

John Canning

“I am currently a second-year law student at Villanova University School of Law. This summer, I will be interning at the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.”

2020 Bladen Reese

Bladen visited Dylan Roussey (NCS 19) in Venice Beach over spring break in 2020.

(Continued on page 44)

Left: Sara Hudson Middle: John Canning Right: Bladen Reese, left, and Dylan Roussey

NCS STAFF

Peter Helmetag (NCS staff 78–80, parent 88–93)

I continue to run my sheep farm in Vermont and climb, this winter in Morocco. The big trip this November will be Lima to Cape Horn vintage endurance car rally with my brother.

CTT FRIENDS

Michael Churchill (CTT 48–52)

“Still working full time as a public interest lawyer in Philadelphia. Growing organic food and thinking of NCS/CTT often as I watch my grandchildren learn about the world.”

Penelope Corbett (CTT 48–52)

“When I studied at North Country School my name was Penelope Corbett. My husband and I run a craft business from our home, Penny Arts Studios— painting, printmaking, pottery and Artee is a blacksmith, master

craftsman, woodworking, etc. And, our three cats. Would love to hear from old friends.”

Keith Spence (CTT 63–65)

After spending 35 years in education (10 years in private high schools teaching math and computer science classes, 24 years in public elementary guidance, and one crazy final year teaching 6th-grade math), I decided to retire. I have lived in Jacksonville, FL since 1982, and married my present wife, Bonnie, in 1992. I have sung in the 40-voice St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral choir for over 30 years. Have raised two stepsons and a handful of animals (I have told Bonnie that the present cat will be the last!). I was very saddened to learn that one of my first childhood friends David Chandler (CTT 63–66) died in October/November 2018, following a freak accident in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

Emma Dryden (CTT 74–77, Staff 82)

Emma and her partner of 35 years are currently living in Bristol, Rhode Island, where Anne is upgrading and repairing racing sailboats in Newport and environs. Emma’s children’s editorial and publishing consultancy firm, drydenbks LLC, celebrated its tenth year in business in March, and she’s loving it.

Margaret Sloane (CTT 81–85, staff 87–94)

With great joy and gratitude, I would like to introduce my son Nathaniel James Brownell Sloane. I gave birth on Tuesday, March 31, 2020, at 8:27 a.m. at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC, under the excellent care and attention of Dr. James E. Benson. Nathaniel was born weighing 7 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 19.5 inches long. We are home with big brother Nicholas, now five years old, and all are doing well, adjusting happily to our new life as a family of three. Sending good wishes to you and your families for health and happiness in these strange and difficult times.”

Abigail Pines (CTT 99–03)

“Happy 100th summer CTT!!

I’ve started a new job as an associate veterinarian at Hope Animal Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. We have remained open and are doing drop-off appointments due to COVID. It has had its challenges, but the community is so grateful that we are still open for their pets. Sending love to everyone at CTT and hoping we can all be reunited at Friends’ soon!”

Nicholas, right, with his new little brother Nathaniel James Brownell Sloane.

BOARD LEADERSHIP

Barkley Stuart, Chair

CTT 69–72, parent 03-07, NCS parent 09–11

Pamela Rosenthal, Vice-Chair

NCS parent 07–09

Matthew Tuck, Treasurer NCS 75–78

Laura Harris, Secretary NCS parent 91–95, CTT parent 93–9

TRUSTEES

Lisa Beck

CTT 70–73, parent 05–16, staff 08–present

Ed Biddle

CTT parent 01–08, 10–12

Barry Breeman

NCS parent 07–10, CTT parent 10–13

Peter Brest

CTT 56–62, parent 93–06

Guillaume de Ramel

NCS 86–89, CTT 85–86, parent 15–17

Nick Hewitt NCS 65–70, CTT 64

Carla von Trapp Hunter NCS 95–96

Caroline Kenney CTT 82–83

Roger Loud

CTT 42–48, parent 71–95, staff 54–63, 70–80 NCS parent 70–96, faculty 70–92

Greg Marchildon

NCS 75–80, CTT 74–79, parent 12–13, CTT parent 08–12, 14–15, NCS and CTT staff

Jennifer H. Maslow

NCS faculty 82–85, CTT staff 82–85, parent 10

Davlyn Mosley

CTT 96–98, staff 04

Stefan Nowicki

CTT 87–91, 93; staff 97–03, 06, 11

Robert Parker

CTT parent 92–04

Pat Kramon Pincus

CTT 58–62, parent 90–98

Matt Salinger

NCS 72–74, CTT parent 04–08

David Stewart

NCS 94, CTT 95–96

Mara Frankel Wallace

CTT 77–80, parent 14–15

Emanuel Weintraub

CTT 73–81, staff 85–87, parent 11–present

HONORARY TRUSTEES

Joan Davidson

CTT 38, staff 46, parent 62–72, grandparent 98–04, NCS staff 51–52

Colin Tait

CTT staff 54, 57, 67–82, CTT parent 67–78

Richard Wilde

CTT staff 60–82

TRUSTEES EMERITI

J. Matthew Davidson

CTT 62–67, parent 96–06

David Kenney

NCS parent 83–84, CTT parent 81–97

Rose Kean Lansbury

CTT parent 73–78, grandparent 99–01, 05–07, 10–present , NCS parent 73–82

Sandra Gray Nowicki

NCS 52–57, parent 83–84, CTT parent 79–93, NCS staff 67–12, CTT staff 96–14

Sumner Parker

NCS 40–41, parent 77–82 CTT 37–40, parent 73–79, grandparent