The News from Camp Magruder January 28-February 3
It's been a relatively quiet week around camp. We've seen a lot of rain and tides have gone back down to the normal seasonal levels, after some impressively high tides in weeks' past. Troy hosted two groups this past weekend OSU's Multiracial Akido Retreat and Open School's Girls Retreat.
Camp Magruder has a long history with Open School's programs, they've come at least two or three times a year every year since I've been here. I've sat through some of their sessions and gotten to know their leaders. They work to empower middle and high school youth to fulfill their fullest potential. The leaders are passionate about the work they share in; I've always found that energy infectious. This weekend they focused on promoting positive self image and empowerment of the females they were mentoring. It was good to have them back.
OSU's retreat united students who have many different racial identities to come together to share their experiences. It was a time for encouragement and a lot of serious conversation about identity and solidarity.
On Wednesday Rik and Kevin, our maintenance men, called Troy and me out of the office to come down to the maintenance shop to help move the bell tower they built a few weeks ago. Rik and Kevin are both impressively talented, and I've been able to admire the structure on several walks around camp at its temporary home at the maintenance shop. It's made of tall, wooden beams, reminiscent (especially without the bell on top, as it is currently) on a oil well. On Wednesday, we moved it right next to Carrier Dining Hall.
Lew Schaad visited us a couple weeks ago, just to stop in and see how Magruder was doing. He visits us every so often. Lew shares with us old stories of this place-- how the buildings have changed over time, the hidden use of different parts of camp we'd not noticed, the stories to the people for which buildings are named. Rik and Kevin had just finished the bell tower the last time he visited.
Lew told us the bell that we plan to put on top of the bell tower was first given to us by Corvallis UMC when they were replacing their bell. So we got their old bell, and the bell tower was a tall, enclosed structure with a building at the bottom that served many purposes over its life span-- once an office. Now the footprint of that building is still in the parking lot of Carrier Dining Hall, just south of the firewood shed. Troy's found a picture of a time where there was a basketball goal at one side of the tiny square plot. I like to imagine the many lives of that plot of cement-- as a bell tower, an office, a basketball court. Next the bell moved to the top of Walworth building, until recently when Walworth's roof was replaced and Walworth was renovated.
Now, we get to resurrect a new home for the bell. Right next to the dining hall, it will serve as a dinner bell that you should be able to hear from all over camp. Its history has me thinking about Camp Magruder's identity and appreciating the OSU's students time set aside to conversations about where they come from and who they are now and who the world sees them as versus who they know themselves to be.
There's something to learn from looking back and taking in what got us here. There's a way to honor that as we take the next step forward. When Rik and Kevin get the old bell situated up on its new home, I like to imagine the way those first rings of the bell will wake up some old parts of camp that fell dormant. I hope to hear stories from people who knew the bell at its different homes and the memories that ring shakes free. I look forward to those moments.
Camp Magruder has a long history with Open School's programs, they've come at least two or three times a year every year since I've been here. I've sat through some of their sessions and gotten to know their leaders. They work to empower middle and high school youth to fulfill their fullest potential. The leaders are passionate about the work they share in; I've always found that energy infectious. This weekend they focused on promoting positive self image and empowerment of the females they were mentoring. It was good to have them back.
OSU's retreat united students who have many different racial identities to come together to share their experiences. It was a time for encouragement and a lot of serious conversation about identity and solidarity.
On Wednesday Rik and Kevin, our maintenance men, called Troy and me out of the office to come down to the maintenance shop to help move the bell tower they built a few weeks ago. Rik and Kevin are both impressively talented, and I've been able to admire the structure on several walks around camp at its temporary home at the maintenance shop. It's made of tall, wooden beams, reminiscent (especially without the bell on top, as it is currently) on a oil well. On Wednesday, we moved it right next to Carrier Dining Hall.
Lew Schaad visited us a couple weeks ago, just to stop in and see how Magruder was doing. He visits us every so often. Lew shares with us old stories of this place-- how the buildings have changed over time, the hidden use of different parts of camp we'd not noticed, the stories to the people for which buildings are named. Rik and Kevin had just finished the bell tower the last time he visited.
Lew told us the bell that we plan to put on top of the bell tower was first given to us by Corvallis UMC when they were replacing their bell. So we got their old bell, and the bell tower was a tall, enclosed structure with a building at the bottom that served many purposes over its life span-- once an office. Now the footprint of that building is still in the parking lot of Carrier Dining Hall, just south of the firewood shed. Troy's found a picture of a time where there was a basketball goal at one side of the tiny square plot. I like to imagine the many lives of that plot of cement-- as a bell tower, an office, a basketball court. Next the bell moved to the top of Walworth building, until recently when Walworth's roof was replaced and Walworth was renovated.
Now, we get to resurrect a new home for the bell. Right next to the dining hall, it will serve as a dinner bell that you should be able to hear from all over camp. Its history has me thinking about Camp Magruder's identity and appreciating the OSU's students time set aside to conversations about where they come from and who they are now and who the world sees them as versus who they know themselves to be.
There's something to learn from looking back and taking in what got us here. There's a way to honor that as we take the next step forward. When Rik and Kevin get the old bell situated up on its new home, I like to imagine the way those first rings of the bell will wake up some old parts of camp that fell dormant. I hope to hear stories from people who knew the bell at its different homes and the memories that ring shakes free. I look forward to those moments.
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