Middle School Friends Gathering Reports
Middle
School Friends gathering goes really well! January
25-27, 2008, Not the catchiest title, I know, but it's the truth! It went really, really well. The Middle School Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting gathered from Friday, January 25th to Sunday, January 27th to discuss the topic of bullying, and to enjoy each other's fellowship and support in the process. We had an amazing 35 MSers, and a waiting list of 9! The 35 lucky folks who did get to come are from 19 different meetings stretching from as far away as Lancaster and Reading in PA, Quakertown NJ, Third Haven MD, and Wilmington DE. What a variety! We truly benefited from everyone's presence. Friday evening included our usual array of getting-to-know-you games, guidelines, and small group worship sharing. The small groups also tackled a tinker toy project: together as a group, they constructed a tinker toy piece without speaking. We had some very interesting "community art" return to the dining hall after small group time!! Saturday was all about the topic of bullying. We split into two groups - one was all boys, the other all girls. The boys spent the morning with Nate Terrell, from Organizational Growth, Inc, and they talked and role-played around useful strategies for dealing with bullies. The girls did small-group and large-group discussion about self-identity and bullying issues with Laura Taylor from Media-Providence Friends School. Both groups had valuable sessions, that helped them prepare their thoughts for the afternoon. In the afternoon (AFTER a roaring game of capture the flag down at the river, that is), we again split up into girls and boys groups. Each group rotated between Sarah Halley from Playback Theater for Change, and a "personal shield making" activity run by our very own MSF assistant, Gabe Hirsch. The personal shields activity led by Gabe was an artistic way of expressing the positive aspects of who each person is as an individual - this was helpful for boosting people's confidence. Strong self-confidence is a highly-recommended antidote to bullying. Sarah did improvisational theater workshops with each group around everyone's personal bullying stories and experiences. Each group split into small groups, and each of those produced a skit telling someone's true story about bullying. At the end of the afternoon, the boys and girls groups got back together as one whole community, and each small group performed their skit for everyone else. There were about 5 or 6 boys' stories, and 5 or 6 girls' stories. We learned a lot about each other through the sharing of these stories in the final hour. When we got to the evening, it was time to go ice skating!! Off we went, and had a great time. Our icy experience was complimented by soft pretzels (thank you Ventina!!!) and small hot chocolates. It was a really fun way to end what had been a fairly intense day. On Sunday morning, we had all the usual cleaning up to get through, and then it was time for the traditional MSF Meeting for Worship for Business. Our clerk, Stephen, guided us through reviewing the guidelines, choosing exciting games to add to our program supplies, choosing some folks to write a piece about MSF for Friends Journal (at FJ's invitation!), and finally, filling out a feedback form about the weekend, so that we know what was good, and where we need to do better. Phew! That was plenty of business for us, and so it was on to our final small group worship sharing time. The weekend finished up with games down at the river, and a final meeting for worship with parents and friends. It was a serious program topic this weekend that our younger Friends approached with due diligence and concern, but also it was a joyous community, who truly reveled and thrived in each other's company. Can't wait to see everyone at the next Middle School Friends gathering! It's going to be at Yearly Meeting's March Sessions at 4th & Arch Street meeting house in historic Old City, Philadelphia from Friday, March 28th - Sunday, March 30th! We'll be looking at the topic of "Activism: What is it and how do you do it?" Be sure to register by March 17th if you want to be sure of a spot. The flyer will be on the web soon at www.pym.org/youngfriends/middleschool . PEACE!! Elizabeth Walmsley The Middle School Friends' Christmas gathering at Newtown Meeting! December 7th - 9th, 2007 We had such a GREAT time at the 2007 Middle School Friends Christmas gathering, from December 7th - 9th at Newtown Monthly Meeting! There were 29 Middle School Friends, and an excellent and brave team of 8 FPs to help keep us safe and having fun. Friday night was the usual assortment of getting-to-know-you games and small group worship sharing about our testimonies: the SPICES. Saturday was when the action really started, and it was a jam-packed day!! We started our morning with a workshop from Viv Hawkins on leadings and callings from God. What does it feel like to receive a calling? How do you know whether or not it is God? Viv described her experience of going to India, showed us photos, led a group discussion, and took us on a blind walk to experience what it feels like to be led when we don't necessarily know where we're going. Her presentation showed that worship is central to everything else that we do or experience: and so we turned to the topic of gifts, and considered each other's gifts in small groups to finish off the morning. After lunch we were blessed by the talented leadership of Jeannine Vannais, who orchestrated the whole group to make small herbal dream sachets to induce sweet dreams. Each person made two: one to keep and one to give away, or perhaps two to give away, if they chose! Next it was on to free time - but this time with SO many options. Everyone chose from Christmas cookie baking, geocaching, walking down to the park, candle decorating, and four square. We produced some beautiful candles and some delicious cookies, and mostly (kind of) found the secret location of the geocache. (!!) We rounded out our day with a big group drumming session with Mauri Tyler from the Princeton Senior Resource Center - it was SO BOISTEROUS!!! We had big drums, little drums, cymbals, castanets (sp?), shakers, noisemakers,........the neighbors probably thought that new year's had come early!! We really did finish the day with a BANG, literally. We retreated from dinner into quiet small group time to start our evening. We began in the big group, and wrote down all of our questions about Quaker spirituality anonymously, and then read them all out. We chose three worship sharing questions out of what we had generated, together, as a big group: 1) A general question about how Quakers bring spirituality into their daily lives. 2) A general question about how it works when you have other beliefs but still identify as Quaker. 3) A general question about how you have a relationship with God. Each small group probably generated their own specific version of these questions, but those were the three themes that came up the most out of what everybody had written. We dove from our small groups into......the talent show!!! Yayyyyyyyy!!! We had some awesome talents from the likes of Katie, Susannah, Jeff, Emma, Brennan, Lexi, Greg, Nathan, Georgia, Savannah, Maddie and Josh. (If I forgot anyone, I am really sorry!) We heard and saw jokes, poems, songs, miming, pattern dancing, and rapping. What a collection. Our perfect finish to the day was ice cream sundaes and chocolate dipped pretzels made by the cookie group from that afternoon. Mmmmmmm. Sugar high, anyone? Sunday morning came around after we had all slept like the dead, and we got straight into cleaning up the whole building ASAP. As soon as that was over we had our final small group affirmation time, which was cut a little short due to the time - and then straight into Alan Jacobsen's presentation to the meeting about his work in Rwanda to build a memorial after the genocide that had taken place there. He explained to us that over time he has become much more involved with the little village whose memorial he had worked on, since then: now he is helping with a sunflower oil co-op business, women's support group, health program, and so many more things. It truly was a fascinating presentation, and the strength of the spirit of the Rwandan people is almost beyond comprehension. Our final stop was meeting for worship (after a brief romp at the playground). After such a busy weekend, it was the opportunity that we needed to reflect on everything that we had done, and what it all means. We all went home happy and tired. Thank you to all of my FPs and program leaders - you were amazing! Happy Holidays, and see you at the next Middle School Friends gathering: January 25th-27th at Burlington: Bullying: How to survive and stay peaceful! Information is now out on the website: www.pym.org/youngfriends/middleschool
In peace and faith, Elizabeth Walmsley
Middle School Friends Halloween Gathering 2007!! October 19-21, 2007 The Middle School Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting gathered together for the first time of the school year as a full-sized community this past weekend, October 19th-21st, at Burlington Conference Center in New Jersey. We had a REALLY REALLY good time!!! Friday evening was dedicated to the usual process of getting to know each other, explaining the community guidelines, and small group worship-sharing. On Saturday morning, everyone met in their small groups and completed the Quaker Quest!! This was a series of team building challenges that each small group had to successfully complete, and each time they did they would receive another piece of information about a famous person in Quaker history. All the teams made it all the way through! On Saturday afternoon we all went to Snipes Farm and gleaned for apples for a NJ Farmers' Hunger Project, did the corn maze, and drank cider slushies while walking the labrynth. There were also very cute animals to see including chickens, horses, and the hugest turkey vultures we have ever seen!!! And don't forget the hayrides, those were fun. On Saturday evening, we had some worship sharing and then got into our Halloween costumes. It was party time! First we played "Scary Movie Title Charades", and then we had a costume pageant run by our fabulous new MSF assistant, Gabe Hirsch. Questions posed to each contestant included: "What's your name?, What is your goal in life?, What do you do every day?", and then each contestant gave the audience a little spin to show off the costume. Our winner was Danny, dressed up with a cow mask and a dunce hat: his name was "Oxymoron" and he represented the US government. Moving on from there we danced the cha cha electric slide, or at least we tried to (Elizabeth needs to get her CD burner fixed). Finally, we broke into groups and carved pumpkins, bobbed for apples, and listened to ghost stories. It was a great day on Saturday! Finally, we woke up on Sunday morning and went through the usual routine: pack all of our stuff, clean the whole building, have Meeting for Worship for Business, and our final small group time where we do small group affirmations. When all of this was done, the whole group headed down to the river side for big outside running-around games: very necessary when we are about to sit in Meeting for Worship! Our final time together was worshipful. We prayed though the "Five Fingers of Prayer" (from Opening Doors to Quaker Worship) and finished with a guided meditation. Finally, we sang our favorite song: Ohhhhhhhhhhhh wasn't it a bit of luck That I was born a baby duck! With yellow socks and yellow shoes, That I may go wherever I choose! Quack quack, quack quack quack! Quack quack, quack quack quack!! Middle School Friends Workcamp at Friends Neighborhood Guild September 14th-16th, 2007 On Friday, September 14th, 2007, five middle schoolers from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) gathered together with five middle schoolers from the Friends Neighborhood Guild (FNG), and spent a fascinating weekend learning about each other, and the city around them. The program was led by Elizabeth Walker of the FNG, along with three other adult helpers (including Elizabeth Walmsley of PYM). We started off Friday evening with some "ice-breaking" games to get to know each other, including a "group name juggle", building balloon towers, and mingling with each other while answering questions that were posed to the group. It was especially interesting to find out how people react under pressure, when they are racing to build the highest balloon tower: people really get to know each other when they are stressed!! We finished off the evening by designing our own stencils based on words and symbols that are meaningful to us, like "love", "difference", and "unique". Saturday started with a trip to the Fishtown Recreation Center, where we worked with Kristen Groenveld of ArtSphere to paint our home-made stencils on to the hockey rink there. We also re-painted some benches and picked up some trash. After lunch, we drove to a few places on an art tour: first the "Magic Garden" on South Street that was created by the artist Isaiah, then the "Village of Arts and Humanities" in North Philly, and finally an exhibit from the Fringe Festival called "The Grove". At each of these places everyone wrote a few Haiku poems that were inspired by what they saw, and found out at least three pieces of information about the art. Everything done from Friday evening throughout the rest of the weekend was done with our buddies; each FNG person was assigned with a PYM person, and each time people gravitated back to their old friends, they lost points! On Saturday night we went to Chinatown for dinner (still with our buddies), and when we came back there was a very meaningful group discussion, all together, about what we had seen and experienced, and about the differences between each other. We discussed the differences in the schools we each attend, and we discussed the way that media shapes the stereotypes and misconceptions that we have in our head about different races of people, and what it's like to live in the city. All of this intense discussion was balanced out by watching a movie about dancing, doing the "cha cha electric slide" together, making paper, and finally the girls painting their nails very late at night (under the enthusiastic guidance of an FNG FP!). On Sunday morning, we simply continued the group discussion that had been started the night before. We talked about racism and the media, we discussed whether we thought that J.K. Rowling would have sold so many copies of Harry Potter if Harry had been black, we heard from two of our group members about what it's like to be from a racially mixed family, and we finally each shared what we had taken from this weekend, and what we would do next in the world. Overall, it was quite an extraordinary weekend that was vastly different from the average MSF gathering: and given that it was so different, it was wildly successful! The aim of the workcamp weekend is, and has always been, to take people out of their comfortable boxes of perception, and challenge them within the context of a completely different environment. Under the amazingly talented and insightful leadership of Elizabeth Walker, that was truly achieved. I would offer Elizabeth Walker the rhyme that we learnt from the FNG people: "Good job, good job (clap clap)
Elizabeth Walmsley, Middle School Friends, PYM Camp Swatara was really fun!! May 4-6, 2007 It was a lovely weekend out at Camp Swatara in Bethel, PA. Many Friends from the surrounding area joined us for the Caln Quarter's family weekend, including many Middle School Friends - 28 of them to be exact, from 13 different meetings all around PYM! We gathered from May 4-6, 2007 and spent our time enjoying beautiful weather, hiking, doing a challenge course, square dancing, singing at a camp fire, playing games, and worship sharing. What a great time!! We started off Friday evening by introducing ourselves and playing some big group games - the parachute was especially fun. We went over the community guidelines, and then it was so late that we went straight to bed! (Everyone had arrived a bit late, since Camp Swatara is farther away from most people than our other gatherings.) Saturday was spent in two groups: half of us hiked up to the Rockpile and along the Appalachian Trail in the morning, and the other half did the challenge course with the amazing Brisa Saks from Camp Swatara staff. This was a course focused on team building, where there would be a common goal and everyone's help would be required to achieve it. In the afternoon we switched, so that everyone got to experience everything! We also had an excellent opportunity to learn about how much land would be available to each person if we were living responsibly on our planet: this was a quick workshop lead by Hollister Knowlton of Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting, in which people spread out pieces of paper to represent how much land each individual actually has available to them at the moment, in many different countries around the world. Some "gobsmacking" differences were noted between how much land each person gets in the USA, compared to how much is available to each person in a place like India, for instance. (!!) Saturday evening provided us with small group worship sharing, a talent show, (with star performances from many middle schoolers!!), a square dance, and a campfire. We sang, we danced, we applauded, it was great! Finally, Sunday morning started with packing our stuff and cleaning up. We moved on to Business Meeting, where we worked together as a community to deal with some tough issues - this was very well clerked and recorded by our brand-new clerking team, Stephen Worrall, Clerk, and Anthony DiGiovanni, Recording Clerk! What a superb job!! We finished up the morning with some small group time and Meeting for Worship with the whole Caln Quarter community, before heading in to our last lovely lunch. Overall, we had a smooth and successful weekend, none of which would have been possible without our OUTSTANDING Friendly Presences who make these gatherings safe and fun for all of us. Thanks to everyone for making the weekend so enjoyable!
We played. We painted. We discussed. We danced. We observed. We worship shared. We became experts at packing our stuff and loading ourselves on and off of buses. And we had a great time!!! The amazing community of Middle School Friends did all of this during our gathering for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's annual sessions from March 23rd-25th, 2007. Over the course of the weekend we had 25 middle schoolers from 17 different meetings including Wellsboro, PA, Quakertown, NJ, Camden, DE, and Reading, PA. We were an exceptional group of young people who were extremely well behaved, thoughtful, courteous, and hard working. We also demonstrated that we know how to play hard, to make up for all of that work!! We first gathered on Friday night at Arch Street meeting house, but quickly left on a bus for the Friends Neighborhood Guild(FNG), located at 8th & Fairmount in North Philly. FNG has recently taken a re-incarnated version of the PYM Workcamps program under its wing, and we were one of the first programs to have the pleasure of participating in a Workcamp there. When we arrived on Friday evening we played some games, did our introductions and guidelines, heard a little bit of history about the guild (formed by Quakers in North Philly in 1879!), and did small group worship sharing. We went to bed early so as to make sure that we would be bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning. Saturday is always a big day at a Middle School gathering!! Needless to say, this one was no exception. After packing our stuff and our own lunches, it was on to the bus and off to the Fishtown Recreation Center, on Montgomery Ave in Fishtown. We had a really fun work project there with a program called "Artsphere", run by a lady named Kristin Groenveld. She met us and explained a little about the area and the project - she has been making community art happen, specifically in Fishtown, for a long time. She briefly explained the community's difficulties to us: they suffer from a very high crime rate, drug abuse, and poverty, among other things (just like so many other communities we know). The recreation center appears to be a very alive "hub" of the neighborhood, however, with lots of folks out playing basketball, well supervised after-school programs, a center director, and mothers and children out on the play equipment. Our work project for the day was to re-paint all of the play equipment so that it was graffiti-free, and attractive as well! We did that, and we also repainted an entire wall that was peeling (GO JULIA!!), repainted a Fishtown Rec Center sign and a memorial to the recently dead (all of whom had been young), and painted stencils onto their hockey rink. When people wanted a break from painting, our indoor projects were folding origami fish for classroom decorations, and creating greeting cards for the center to send out to local residents. Everyone did a TREMENDOUS job. On our way home from the work project, FNG Workcamp coordinator Emma Chubb (who organized our visit to the Rec Center) gave us an excellent tour of the murals in North Philly, especially on Broad Street. She was joined by our talented bus driver, who also turned out to have an excellent knowledge of the local murals. We stopped and walked through the Village of Arts and Humanities when we were half way home. We admired the incredible mosaic art, and the truly divine angels. The second half of the afternoon was spent having a bit of free time and a few rousing games of soccer and four-square. We ate pizza for dinner (YUM), and then did our cleaning and bus loading (by now down to a fine art). And then it was off to 4th & Arch for a game show and square dance! The game show was a hilarious Quaker question game, led by our very own star MSF assistant, Josh Kaplan!! Later on, we had a few wonderful middle schoolers who really enjoyed the square dancing - but there were a fair few shyer souls who had a better time simply watching. We all slept over at 4th & Arch on Saturday night. Sunday morning was spent doing really fun and interesting committee work that was led by our elementary-aged friends (and facilitated by the amazing Christie Duncan-Tessmer and her devoted volunteers!!). The whole community at 4th & Arch broke up into groups according to their interests, and joined projects with the "be nice" committee, the "worship with an intention for peace" committee, the "write a script to raise money" committee, the "picking up litter" committee, the " raising money for the homeless" committee, the "drawing images of peace and violence" committee, the "letter writing to politicians" committee, the "making peace signs and standing on the corner with them" committee, and the "singing peace songs" committee. It was a REALLY successful and fun time for everyone. We wrapped up our jam packed weekend with MSF Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business, and our final small group time for affirmation circles. Of note in the Business Meeting was our approval of Stephen Worrall as our in-coming clerk!! Also, we sadly farewelled one of our out-going clerks Alyssa Young, who will be moving on to the Young Friends program at the next gathering she attends. We took some time in our Business Meeting to tell about our fond memories and stories of her, and later everyone signed her jeans. Our final activity was closing Meeting for Worship along with everyone else at Annual Sessions. We snuck in towards the end, but still had the opportunity to hear some very powerful messages before it was over. Altogether it was a fun weekend, and a very achieving one. [Photos coming to website next week.] We are already looking forward to some fun in the sun at the next gathering: CAMP SWATARA, May 4th-6th! For more information visit the MSF website at www.pym.org or call me at 215-241-7171. NB: Swatara deadline is April 10th, and they do not accept late registrations or walk-ins, so get on your goat, get going, and see you there!! Wishing peace to you in the happy spring days ahead, Elizabeth Walmsley Middle School
Friends Winter Gathering The Middle School Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting got together from February 9th-11th to share their spirit with each other, serve the wider community who hosted us for the weekend, and get to know some new folks! Friday night included all of the usual games, introductions, and guidelines, plus worship sharing in small groups. On Saturday, we met Green Street meeting member and Greene Street Friends School (GSFS) teacher Andy Jickling, who had helped to plan the program for the day. He brought 9 students from GSFS with him, and they all spent the day with us. This helped in part to bridge the gap that Green Street meeting has been feeling between their meeting community and their school community, many of whom have no connection with the other, and know very little about what the other does. We did some "getting to know you" activities with the newly-arrived students, and then we all trooped out to the Tree Lab, which is a garden/orchard that Andy started on the school's campus in 1995. Our service project was......well, a really really really LARGE pile of manure compost! The mountain sat there and steamed while we all took shovels and dug in, taking it in turns to dig, transport, and distribute the compost from the parking lot where it had installed itself, to the trees that needed it. The two small fish ponds in the Tree Lab were completely frozen, and as the morning drew to a close, we had more and more dancing "ice princesses", both girls and boys, showing off their best princess dance moves! After lunch, we climbed on a bus and headed to Johnson House. Located right in Germantown, not far from Green Street meeting, Johnson House was originally owned by the Jansens, who were a Dutch Quaker family. They later changed their name to Johnson, and became well known abolitionists who operated their house as a station on the Underground Railroad. We toured the house and heard lots of interesting information about the lives and times of escaping slaves - a very fitting activity for Black History Month. Finally, we rode the bus over to Fairmount Park, and hiked along the Wissahickon creek, through the beautiful woods and under an amazing bridge! We returned to the meeting house ready for a break and some free time. Much four-square was played, many rows of knitting were knitted, and much relaxation was had. Saturday evening was quiet, with some worship sharing followed by Meeting for Business, in which the group nominated their clerks team and Nurturing Committee for next year. We finished off the evening with a rousing group sing-along! By the time we had done all of this, we were well and truly ready for bed......it had been a pretty physically demanding day!! Sunday morning dawned fresh and cold, and the middle schoolers of PYM packed, ate, cleaned, worship shared, played outside, and then were treated to an AMAZING First Day School with the one and only Michael Van Hoy. We broke into small groups, each of whom had to act out their version of the Easter story, using a random bag of props. Easter has never been portrayed so....... "interestingly" shall we say! Many eggs and rabbits somehow found their way into the same scenes as Jesus; in fact, there may have even been a few rabbits who carried the cross up the hill themselves! Thankfully, Michael Van Hoy knows the real Easter story. So once we had all acted out what we thought had happened, he told us all about the real thing. We quietly crept in for the last ten minutes of meeting for worship with Green Street Friends, each introducing ourselves individually at the end and thanking the meeting for having us. It was an awesome weekend with a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. Middle School Friends Rock
the House at Christmas Gathering The Middle School Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting gathered from the 8th-10th of December at Fallsington Monthly Meeting in Fallsington, PA for our annual December gathering. The theme this year was “Finding Light in the Dark”, and our worship sharing questions embodied this best when they inquired about how we cope with our friends’ hard times, how we cope with our own hard times, and how we stand up for our Quaker testimonies of environment and peace in these adverse times. We were blessed to have the one and only George Price with us on Saturday morning, leading a “spiritual purification” workshop that helped us to strengthen our personal relationships with the environment that we want to preserve. We came away from the morning with a very concrete toolbox of ways to calm and purify ourselves in preparation for, or during, meeting for worship: deep breathing, looking deeply into the eyes of another, choosing something from nature that speaks to us and gives us a sense of peace, and giving away our difficult feelings by assigning them to leaves of white sage that we then ceremoniously burnt in the graveyard out back. Saturday afternoon included a rousing game of “Kaplan ball” led by the one and only Josh Kaplan!! Then we did our workshops: lasagne making with Jim, apple pie making with Lisa, and candle decorating with Charlotte and Yu-Li. Everyone had a fabulous time, and our workshop leaders were THE BEST!! The lasagne fed lots of happy middle schoolers and FPs that night, the candles went home with their proud owners, and the apple pies found their way to the bellies of happy Fallsington Monthly Meeting members and attenders the next day – as our way of saying “thank you” for letting us stay. Saturday afternoon ended with a lovely tour, led by Sam (MSF and local resident), of the town of Historic Fallsington. We heard many dates and explanations of thins, and looked at many old houses and their new (by comparison) extensions. It was good to get an idea of the larger area in which we were staying for the weekend! Saturday night, after worship sharing, we had a talent show and big group games. Our talent show was short but excellent: we had two guitarist "extraordinaires" - Jeff and Evan. Our Quaker hats stay firmly planted on our heads for you two, but our respect for your talent is firmly present. We also had the amazing Chelsea on the violin, a very original rendition of a section of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", and an interesting skit about the most unfortunate "Macy" who will be very cold this winter! Sunday rounded out our weekend: small group affirmations, Meeting for Business, Meeting for Worship, and a very good First Day School led by Mzzzzzzz Melanie Douty! We circulated to three different stations during FDS, and had a taste of three different types of spiritual practice: looking at nature, singing hymns, and meditating on a single word like "God", or "Mercy" for instance. We came away feeling that our toolbox for Meeting for Worship was now well and truly stocked!! Everyone ate pie and went home. We can't wait
for the next one, WHICH IS:
CAMP SWATARA was a BLAST!! The Middle School Friends gathered at Camp Swatara, in Bethel PA, from May 5th-7th 2006 along with the Caln Quarter community. Friday night was short and sweet while we got to know each other, went over guidelines, and did some worship sharing in our small groups. Saturday was a BIG day!! We spent the morning doing adventure games in two groups, run by the excellent staff of Camp Swatara. This involved learning how to cooperate and build community by having to solve problems creatively, and as a group (using obstacles and equipment in the woods). After lunch, the 8th graders hiked up to the Rockpile, while the rest of the group joined in the workshop on pulling Garlic Mustard Weed. We soon took off for the Rockpile ourselves, while the 8th graders got a chance to spend time with the Young Friends high school group that they will be joining next year. We were all re-united at dinner, and then together watched the talent show with the rest of the community. There were some fabulous performers, including our very own Jeff Rosenthal on guitar and vocals, and then Julia Hayden on the violin! The square dance that followed was a big hit, and finally the tired dancers made their way to the camp fire, where we heard a story, sang songs, and ate graham crackers. Everybody slept well on Saturday night. Sunday morning was another fresh start! We cleaned up our cabins, and then had a serious session of four square, to make up for the extra time we had spent hiking the previous day. Business meeting was next, and a lot was accomplished: we evaluated how the weekend had gone, nominated people for the Nurturing Committee, and discussed prospective clerks for next year. Our current clerk, Sam Collins, did a phenomenal job as usual, and we welcomed a different recording clerk, Bennett Warner - also excellent! The weekend ended with some Meeting for Worship with the whole community, followed by a final small group time where we reflected on the weekend, and made affirming comments to each other about what wonderful people we are. Our lunch time was our final good bye time - hugs and promises to keep in touch aplenty! Huzzah for Middle School Friends!!
Middle School Friends Gathering The Middle School Friends gathered from the 27th to the 29th of January, 2006, at Burlington Conference Center to tackle the tricky issues of sexual health, substance abuse, internet dangers, and how to ice skate. Friday night's focus was on healthy living, and people bonded over their lifestyle likes, dislikes, and hopes for the future. Saturday was a busy day, as always! Morning worship exercises started off the day, along with some singing, and then off to workshops. In the morning, two groups rotated between a workshop with Kate Murray, from CHOICE (Concern for Health Options: Information, Care and Education) about sexual health and decision making, and an open forum for discussion on street safety, internet dangers, and other concerns that people could bring up. In the afternoon, the two workshops were substance awareness with Chris Mahoney, Middle School Director of Friends Select School, and "Choices: Make them your own", with MSF assistant Pauline Rosa-Martir Schepperd. Many Friends had interesting and valuable contributions that they made, during both the morning and afternoon sessions. After so many weighty topics, it was time to let loose and go ice skating at "The Igloo" in Mt Laurel NJ! A good time was had by all, and even our shakiest skaters kept their spirits up, despite the rest of their body often being down closer to the ice. Sunday morning involved a lot of busy cleaning, and a final time in our small groups, before coming in to Meeting for Business. This was the first Middle School Friends Meeting for Business in a fairly long while, and it went spectacularly - items on the agenda included evaluating the guidelines, evaluating the role of the Nurturing Committee, suggesting possible themes for future gatherings, and deciding the fate of the giant pole left over from the community art project at Arts Camp last August. We ended with a period of worshipful silence, before cheering, and then proceeding directly to the piles of Lost and Found. On the whole, this was an excellent gathering that was made especially possible by the super-skilled and talented help of Lauren Baumann and her moral support team, Becca Howe - both of whom came to the rescue when the MSF coordinator found herself too sick to leave bed on the eve of the gathering! Thank you also to the rest of the staff and the wonderful team of FPs. Some snippets of feedback are featured below: "I thought Lauren did a great job seeing as she just stepped in and really made it work whilst she was there." "I LOVED the Meeting for Business that the MSFs had!! I thought that went very, very well. I am thinking this was the first time you had this? Great, great job!" "For a middle school youth group, you have a wonderful dynamic going with all of the kids and they are especially kind and considerate. Given how challenging middle school age kids can be, you have a particularly wonderful group here." "I think that these gatherings are a great opportunity for these kids to be together, make social connections, and focus on learning about things that aren’t on tests but that matter more in life than the things they are tested on (endlessly tested on…). Thank you for organizing them and putting so much consideration into the activities." "As a past parent of teenagers and grandmother to 4 small boys, who will face the tricky path to adulthood, and as president of Planned Parenthood of Greater Northern New Jersey, I applaud the Middle School Friends Gathering tackling the subjects of sexual health etc: with young people. Leave it to the Quakers to understand that education on these topics is the right course of action and produces teenagers capable of making wise choices. You should be proud!" "I am a parent of 2 Quaker children who are a bit younger than middle school age. But, they will be there someday and I must say this was a really nice report to receive. It sounded great. Gives us something to hope for." "If anyone should ask you, "what does
PYM do for me or my Meeting? Or, what does PYM do with the Annual
Fund money?" Tell them about the following report. When Young
Friends and Middle-School Friends come together this is the only time
they are part of a large crowd of Quakers their own age." |
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May
5-7, 2006 Camp Swatara Report