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

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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