Lake Erie Yearly Meeting 2005 Youth Epistles

June 19, 2005
From the Early Elementary Group

• We read Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and then made a pine forest with crows.


• We made a leaf collection and pinecones, berries, dandelions, and rocks.


• We made a craft holder from a can.


• We made gifts for Easter Bunny and Santa from old cans, paper, and tape.


• We found dandelions and discovered that the name comes from the French "dent de lion," meaning lion’s tooth, because of the leaves.


• Swimming was fun –– there were fish –– we tried to catch them –– we did not get any!


• We went on a scavenger hunt.

At the market we bought homemade cookies and local strawberries.
I love the sprinklers ... the good chocolate ... the double bass.

Signed: Olwen Pritchard and Tim Damon (teachers),
Eric Dierauer, Ali Fisher, Nora Armijo, Serenity Crowley, Evan Heritage, Dyani Armijo (and decorated with leaves; paper flowers, birds, and fruit; and other tenderly assembled illustrative materials).

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From the Upper Elementary Group

"The Ground of Our Being" means "where we came from" and "where we are." We listened to the Earth in many ways during our time together this week.

We visited a farm that helps give us food. We helped the farm and our Friends community. At the farm we pulled weeds and picked onions. The onions were used to make soup to share with our community. The Earth told us that nature is beautiful and that we can help keep nature beautiful. We walked in the woods and stopped to enjoy the lake. We were amazed by the beauty of a great blue heron. We were sad to find garbage left at the lake. We are proud that we helped the Earth by taking away the garbage we found.

We heard the simple and delicious sounds of the farmers’ market in town. Our group shared fresh
strawberries grown by local farmers. We heard the Earth as we lived and played here on campus. We had fun times playing games like "Capture the Flag" and "Hospital Tag." We learned about solving problems and cooperation. We made new friends and spent time with old buddies.

We went swimming, built a sand castle, and created stories at the lake.

Yearly Meeting is special to each one of us. Just being here is special.

Signed: Peter Crowley and Angela Suarez (teachers), Nicholas Suarez, Louis Suarez, Spencer Keashly- Warters, Andrew Riley, Amani Crowley, Serenity Crowley, Sam Spry.

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From the Middle School Group

Nothing happened Thursday. Friday most of us experienced worship sharing for the first time. Some of us are proud to say we spoke during that time. In class we met some new people and got reacquainted with old friends. We read some Maori, Chinese, and of course the Biblical creation story. With lots of laughter and joy we wrote our own creation story. A chilly 20 minutes in a freezing cold fish-infested lake was quite enough.

Later we joined the adults in the plenary session, which we also discussed in our class group. We all agreed that the quote from Gandhi, about riding on a train, was the best part. More friends joined us Saturday. We had a track meet at the vacant Bluffton football field. We played on the high jump, the long jump, the football post, the track, and the bleachers.

We watched "The Medicine Man," which some of us enjoyed and others didn’t (Tori, for instance). The ice cream social was cool. We thought the performers did a great job during the musical part.

Signed: Vanessa Fuson and Joe Mills (teachers), Max Fisher, Will Smith, Jody Pratt-Harrington, Meaghan Diffenderfer, Shannon Pratt-Harrington, Brittany Crowley, Tori Pearson, Jessie Cooper, Bradie Connor.

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From the High School Group

Dear Friends Everywhere,

This year at LEYM we came with many questions and found some answers. We had in-depth discussions about food, learning about different ways food is produced, processed, consumed and marketed. We noticed the lack of quality in our cafeteria food, so we ventured out to search for fruits and grains in the wilderness of Bluffton.

We explored the inner spirituality of communism by pooling all of our money to purchase a communallyeaten bucket of strawberries, organic bread, jam, and pizza.

Speaking of food, we experienced déjà-vu when we found ourselves again under overcast skies at Twin Lakes. We learned that water is warmer on the top than on the bottom during our discussions about global warming and experienced it at the lake. Later we refined our knowledge of nouns and adjectives by playing "Apples to Apples" and we finally opened the expansion crate.

During our simple-living activities, we discovered how Quaker teens are more distant from cultural norms than other teens, which explains everything. And now the year is –– sniff, sniff, sniff –– gone forever. And we can all say we’ve played inside a sewer pipe.

Signed: Clémence Ravaçon-Mershon and Paul Burkholder (teachers), Zack Ford, Micah Sommer, Erin Diffenderfer, Angel Riley, Abbey Pratt- Harrington, Christa Pratt-Harrington, Laurel Fuson, Psyche Castro.