June News and Announcements
We have lots to share in our June newsletter! Planning for summer day camp programs for youth and teens is in full swing. Continuum Culture and Arts has kicked off a concert series to bring world class and international artists to our rural community! The Community Resiliency Project is tending the gardens and dreaming of future possibilities. The Preschool Parent Cooperative has completed their first year and is looking for teachers for next year. And we will look back at February and April Vacation Camps.
We have kicked off a Center Renovation Fund campaign to give some love to our beautiful building and grounds. We appreciate your donation in any amount to support our renovations!
Summer Day Camps start June 26!
Teen Programs
This is our second year of offering camp weeks for teens. Our three teachers, Sammy Burhoe, Meg Lyczak, and Chloe Engel create magic for this age group and really allow for connection and creativity to emerge from the group dynamics they create.
A note from Sammy: “This summer, we hope to provide a safe and exploratory place for teens to land. Our camp is a context in which young folk begin to lead, play and innovate with support and skills from kind and cool adults. We dream of once again co-creating an experience that will energize, inspire and provide rest to our genius teens.
A special addition to our programming this year is a weekend long immersion in the Community Village Ceremonial Fire led by indigenous elders, Finding Your Center, August 3 - 7. The teens will be held by Meg, Sammy, and Andrea. There is also still room in Connect and Create, July 4 - 8.
If your 11 - 14 year old loves to be creative with clothing, sign up for Refashioning and Upcycling Art Studio, July 10 - 14, led by Petra and Andrea. We will create an art studio atmosphere and a supportive creative community to explore our personal aesthetic as designers, dressers, and creative visionaries!
We have a long time Counselor in Training program led by Eleanor as well. Please reach out to her if your teen is interested in this option.
Summer Day Camps for 5 - 12 yrs
We are planning a fun and diverse summer for your elementary and middle school aged kids.
Meg Lyzack will join core staff once again for the summer. Meg is central to bringing the spirit of connecting, healing, friendship, and being the change we wish to be for our world.
Our friend Elizabeth Figueroa and her children Natalia and Victor will be spending a week with us to submerge into the cultural richness of Puerto Rico bringing the art, music, and cuisine of Boriken culture. Spanish language will be woven into all the week.
If you 11 - 14 year old loves to be creative with clothing, sign up for Refashioning and Upcycling Art Studio, July 10 - 14 for 11 - 14 year olds, led by Petra and Andrea. We will create an art studio atmosphere and a supportive creative community to explore our personal aesthetic as designers, dressers, and creative visionaries!
The talented and beloved Yumiko will be hosting her Connected By Art week again!
Our beloved Amy Simone will be back with the Forest Explorers and Adventurers, searching and exploring the wilds and farm of Orchard Hill with eyes wide like the owl, ears open like the deer.
Our camps are accessible to a diverse community of learners, their families, and their cultures. Thanks to the generous support of Monadnock Developmental Services we joyfully welcome children of all abilities. Thanks to Cheshire County Conservation District for supporting campers to be here with the Jeffrey Smith Scholarship Fund and to ReKINDling Curiosity, making it possible for families to send their children to camp!
We hope your child can come be with us this summer! Click here to register.
Continuum Culture and Arts
Continuum Culture and Arts has kicked off a concert series to bring world class and international artists to our rural community!
Terry Jenoure (violin/voice) and Angelica Sanchez (piano) are awesome musicians who are on a duo tour together. They are also dear friends of the Continuum/Orchard Hill partnership and we are super excited and fortunate to have them perform at the Center! Sign up for pizza night and then come hear the concert—it will be an amazing night.
Enjoying Soup and Sound with Continuum Arts and Culture
TERRY JENOURE/ANGELICA SANCHEZ
June 27th at 7:30 The Center at Orchard Hill
My musical voice is influenced by 1960s folk music that I sang, post modern jazz and, as well as a love affair with story-telling. I need to have transcendent experiences…ones where I forget I have a body. --Terry Jenoure
Terry Jenoure is a violinist/vocalist/composer, writer, visual artist, and educator born and raised in the Bronx into a Puerto Rican and Jamaican family. Classically trained and a protégé of the Free Jazz Movement (she worked John Carter, Archie Shepp, and Leroy Jenkins to name a few), she is also a self-taught doll maker with two doll sculptures featured at the Smithsonian Institute (in the National Museum of African-American History and Culture). She holds Doctorate and Masters degrees in Education, taught for 18 years in the graduate program at Lesley University, and ran the Augusta Savage Gallery at U. Mass Amherst for 30 years. She has published widely in academic publications and recently completed a novel and one-woman theater performance.
Angelica Sanchez is a pianist/composer/educator. She plays frequently across Europe and North America at major festivals and venues including Carnegie Hall. Sanchez moved to New York from Arizona in 1994 and has collaborated with such notable artists as Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Motian, Richard Davis, Jamaladeen Tacuma, Nicole Mitchell, and Tim Berne, amongst others. Sanchez leads numerous groups, the most recent being her Trio which features Michael Formanek and Billy Hart. She is on the faculty at Bard College.
Pow Wow June 10th and 11th on The Millot Green in Alstead!
The Pow Wow will be hosted by the Koasek Traditional Band of the Soverign Abenaki Nation and is open to all to attend. Eleanor’s Counselor in Training group will be attending the Pow Wow to volunteer and experience the cultural exchange. The Center will have a booth to serve soup and bread. Reach out to Chief Paul to learn more, or visit the tribe’s website.
On Going Programs
Yoga Saturdays 9:00 - 10:15 am
Quaker Meeting Sundays 9:30 - 10:30 am
Shapenote Sing 2nd and 4th Wednesdays 6:30 pm
Orisha Dance Thrusdays 6:30 pm
The Community Resiliency Project
The Community Garden project was born last Spring. The group and ideas are growing to include more ways to connect. We will be growing storage crops again this year to share with each other and to donate. We are inspired to start a seed saving and herb garden on the grounds around The Center. We are also dreaming of other ways to share food and be together, possibly a food order and a seed order club. We would love for you to be involved! Email Andrea if you are interested in becoming a part of this group.
Looking Forward:
Pizza Night to Benefit The Center:
Tuesday July 25, 2023
Thank you so much to Orchard Hill Breadworks for their amazing support of local non-profit organizations and for creating the hub of community that is Pizza Night! Don’t forget to register early for your pizza!
Community Village: The Power of Ceremony, August 3 - 7, 2023
Community Village will be back in August to host the sacred fire event, held and guided by indigenous elders. They are in the planning stages for this event. Visit their website to learn more and to reach out to them if you are interested in participating.
The Center will be hosting youth programming during the event for the children of participants.
A special addition to our teen programming this year is a weekend long immersion for 13 - 17 year olds in the Community Village Ceremonial Fire, Finding Your Center, August 3 - 7.
Preschool Cooperative seeks teachers for 2023/2024 school year
Hello! We are a small parent coop based at the Center at Orchard Hill. We are seeking two teachers for a group of 7-10 three to five year olds for three mornings a week. This is a unique opportunity to work in a strong community at a place with a long history in early childhood education and a deep connection to the land. Ideal candidates have experience with this age group and developmentally appropriate activities, are collaborative and interested in nature based, and/or waldorf education and excited to lead an easy going program for local kids. Interested persons should email or call Laurel Iselin at mtinlaurel@gmail.com 603 313 4218 for more information
February and April Vacation Camp
Eleanor’s April Vacation Camp Report:
Spring at Orchard Hill was quite chilly but that didn’t stop us from outdoor trekking to Stick Village, engage in Tree talk and gleefully watch the rushing stream as Spring burst forth. Older Campers walked to the Mill for the first opening session with Bob Brown. With song and drum, our campfires warmed us and the s’mores were delish :). As always the Art work was astonishing and the wisdom of the children inspired lively conversation and trust abounded. Big thankfuls to counselor assistants Lukas, Cyrus, and Deeana! See you all this summer!
Eleanor’s February Vacation Camp Report:
Crazy amazing what happened here this February winter camp! It was about language, different voices, the language of friendship. Everyone was EN - Couraged. We sang and spoke Spanish, ASL, Some English, and wrote Letters. Call them love letters. Why not?
The maker space energerized each day as potato print T-shirts , beautiful clay works, drawing and beads.
We made campfires and sledded the long hill
We did circus arts!
Thank you guest teachers Melody Russell, Barb Davis, Caroline Putnam, Elizabeth Figueroa, Russell and Hannah!
Thanks to counselor assistants Asher, Aster, and Victor.
And thanks kids! Your ways of making art, music, and adventure makes love grow. Your true Colors shine through And will save us all!! You show us love rules!
A Special Thank You
This is a huge shout out of thanks to the Nichol Beaudin family. Since 2005 the Nichol Beaudin family has been a vital part of the School, Daycamps, and The Center. Madi, now 22, and soon after her brother Sebastian enrolled with our preschool. A few years later Deeanna and then Cyrus joined. They all four became “lifers”, attending preschool and then summer camps all of their grade school years .
As a gift donation to make our school and center go the family has gifted work and goods the entire 16 years. Pauline mowed all summer for 6 or 7 years. For all of that time Linda has plowed every snow storm arriving at 7am to clear all driveways and parking areas so school or winter camps could open.
Linda also brought and continues to bring huge amounts of snacks, fruits, and various baked deliciousness for school, summer camp, and vacation camps.
“What do you need ?” Linda will say. And what ever I say It will appear. When I said “lawnmower” a month ago I was amazed to see a red beauty appear on our porch just last week before the May Festival!
Linda and Pauline, We are forever thankful to you in kinship and community!
Gracias, Arigato, Merci,
13 Thank you’s and Honey in the heart,
Keep Healthy, Keep Hopeful until we meet again,