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Winter 2008
Kimberton Hills welcomes violinist and composer Mark O’Connor
Grammy-winner to perform April 5, 2008 |
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Acclaimed violinist Mark O’Connor returns to the concert stage to perform his celebrated solo recital. Join us as O’Connor shares everything from traditional fiddle tunes, ragtime, jazz and blues to his own electrifying caprices, free improvisations and a warm homage to his violin and fiddle heroes. This is a rare treat to see a musician of this caliber in the intimate setting of the acoustically-ideal Rose Hall. Mr. O’Connor will also meet with guests at a post-concert wine and cheese reception in our Café. Don’t miss this unique opportunity!
Mark O'Connor is widely recognized as one of the most gifted contemporary composers in America and surely one of the brightest talents of his generation. A product of America’s rich aural folk tradition, O'Connor has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Yo Yo Ma. O’Connor has absorbed knowledge and influence from a multitude of musical styles and genres and has melded and shaped these influences into a new American classical music. O'Connor has appeared at The White House, the Presidential Inauguration Celebration and the ceremonies of Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Games for which he composed Olympic Reel.
The concert will be April 5, 2008 at 7 p.m. followed by a wine and cheese reception with O’Connor. Tickets are $35 for concert only; $60 for concert and private reception. Sponsorships are available and include tickets to the performance and reception.
For tickets, sponsorships or advertising opportunities, contact 610-935-8660 or rachel@camphillkimberton.org. Learn more about Mark O’Connor at www.markoconnor.com.
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New Cafe fills with light, life and laughter
by Madeleine Banulski |
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The Café has officially reopened for business at Kimberton Hills. As a new member of the café work crew, I have been impatiently awaiting the conclusion of the renovations, anxious to begin this new journey. The Café is our “new baby” and any expectant mother can tell you that a few extra weeks can seem like an eternity.
The transformation of the Café has been a success. At first glance you may be dazzled by the sparkly red countertops and sunlit view of the Kepler green, but behind the swinging door in the kitchen there have been many changes as well. The professional kitchen equipment and larger seating area will allow for increased weekly business and catering opportunities. We were also able to install energy efficient geothermal heating which utilizes the steady temperature of the ground to regulate the more drastic changes in temperature in the outside air.
Of course at Kimberton Hills the people are always more important than the buildings, and we have filled our new Café with a cast of old and new characters. We welcome the culinary expertise and calm, cheerful spirit of new manager Erin Graver; the good-natured enthusiasm of Christian Burka; and my own passion for food and its importance in community. Mary Bright, Sue Weicheld, Johannah Neumann and John Gardner are the returning villager work crew that has been eagerly anticipating the reopening of their workplace. They have returned to tirelessly set tables, serve drinks, wash dishes and generally keep the place running. Sue has taken up the job of officially welcoming Erin to the community. About three times a day Sue comments, “I like this new lady. We should hire her.”
Fortunately, mishaps in our first few weeks were small enough to be comical. One customer lamented the lack of soy dressing that was an old staple at the Café. The truth is I would have gladly added soy sauce to the vinaigrette if I could only have gotten the lid off the industrial-sized bucket it came in! Another day the cash register key went missing. With opening time fast approaching we needed to open the cash register drawer to make change. Christian saved the day with an insider technique (that did not involve a sledge hammer) that opened the drawer, buying us enough time to locate the key. The Café fairy godmothers, Diedra Heitzman and Joan Allen, have also been on hand to contact the necessary professionals to attend to mechanical glitches as they occur.
One of the best things about working alongside villagers is that they will always tell you just what they think, good, bad or otherwise. Luckily after two weeks of serving food to the community, they have pronounced it delicious. As long as we keep up the steady supply of soups, salads, sandwiches and most importantly, cakes and cookies, we should be able to keep our customers coming back for more.
The Cafe is open Wednesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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Focus on Sustainability
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Kimberton Hills is known for its seamless integration of people with disabilities into a sustainable village, and we are actively engaged in sharing our practices in order to be an attractive educational tool for the entire Philadelphia region. Our ecological designs bring visitors into contact with our community and ways to create a cleaner environment through the wise use of effective design, practices, and technology. Read on to find out just how many different ways we are living sustainably.
Examples of community-wide practices include re-use, recycling, car and ride sharing, and laundry lines. We commute to work via paths and village roads on foot, bicycles and solar-electric golf carts. Living in close proximity to workplaces has an added benefit: it fosters community and creates a deep sense of investment in the immediate surroundings.
The newest buildings directly reflect these ideas. The Serena Stevens Merck House, the Community Health Center, and the Café use natural materials and sustainable technologies. The community considered cost-effectiveness over the life of the buildings and ease of maintenance by incorporating the following elements of design and sustainability:
Examples of Renewable Building Materials
Each of the new buildings is constructed with timber from certified forests. In the renovated and new buildings, cellulose made from recycled newspapers provides insulation. Countertops are made of wood or stone, and there is natural, biodegradable flooring made from bamboo, linoleum, wool carpets and tile.
Renewable Energy Sources
The energy needs of these buildings are partially met by photovoltaic arrays. An 8.3 kilowatt system is mounted on the nearby garage, keeping electricity production away from habited spaces. Several hallways and the new Café are equipped with Solatubes: highly reflective tubes that use sunlight to brighten dark spaces. New roofs are metal, with no petrochemicals; their light color reflects sunlight and keeps rooms cooler throughout the summer months. Fan and ventilation systems for cooling and airflow allow for minimal air conditioning, and in the CHC there is no air conditioning. The CHC also features point-of-use water heaters, which eliminate the need to keep a tank of water hot for hours when the water is not in use. The Café has geothermal heating and cooling.
Landscape Design and rainwater catchment and infiltration
Roof catchment systems direct rainwater from roofs into a cistern for low-flush toilet use, laundry, and landscape watering. The parking area is constructed of pervious surfaces for better rainwater drainage, with a planted catchment basin for in-place infiltration. Native species plantings form a prominent part of the landscaping. An innovative constructed wetlands garden is an ecologically-sound method of waste water disposal. The system includes a pond with Flowforms, native species wetlands plants, and educational signage for visitors. This wetland system is the first of its kind in Pennsylvania; including the use of Flowforms, it is the first of its kind in the United States! The water quality of the effluent is high—as a professional tester said, “it is as good as good well water!”
Aesthetic Design
The Lazure technique, used throughout each building, layers color throughout rooms to produce rich tones and textures on the walls. This is done using non-VOC paints, which do not emit volatile organic compounds.
At left: Work on the geothermal well began in November. The solar panels on the garage provide additional energy to run the adjacent buildings.
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Sharing Ideas, Encouraging Minds
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Kimberton Hills recently received a $105,000 grant from the Chester County Convention and Visitors Bureau to help with the renovations of the Camphill Café and Rose Hall and to work toward marketing the renovated village center as a venue for conferences, cultural events, catering and touring.
“Our goals are to continue to enrich the cultural life of the region and to help advance the state of the art in sustainable building and practices,” says Diedra Heitzman, village coordinator.
Recent cultural events included two medieval Christmas plays, a concert from a local soprano Julia Chalfin, now studying at the Ricard Strauss Institute, “A Christmas Carol,” presented by Walking the Dog Theatre, and of course, “Heidi.” Upcoming events include a conference co-sponsored by the Camphill Association of North America and the Camphill Foundation on ecological practices, a concert by Grammy-award winning violinist and composer Mark O’Connor, and a performance by members of Astral Artistic Services, a mentoring organization for classical musicians.
Many students, home schooling organizations and interested individuals have all recently visited Kimberton Hills.
Forty students and their teachers from the Radnor Middle School Watershed program visited the village in December to learn first-hand what it takes to build and maintain a sustainable community. The Watershed is an alternative, integrated program, which replaces a student’s entire seventh grade curriculum.
The students were charged with creating a model culture the size of a small community which will be sustainable economically, environmentally and socially. As part of their research, they visited Kimberton Hills to examine our wetlands, see our green building practices, learn about biodiesel production and tour the garden and dairy. Discussions with Joan Allen, Diedra Heitzman, Sebastian Kretschmer and Steven Clee sparked many questions from these young visitors, eager to learn more about how to live sustainably.
“I learned so much in a little amount of time,” said one student. “My group will definitely try to incorporate most of the environmentally friendly practices into our culture project.”
“I have always wondered what a sustainable community was like,” said another participant. “I also think it is very cool the way your tractor and trucks run on biodiesel, which is so much better for the environment.”
Would you like to visit Kimberton Hills? Groups or individuals who are interested in seeing our sustainable community in action can contact Bernadette at 610-935-0300, ext. 12 to learn more.
At left: Students from Radnor Middle School learn about our wetlands. |
Making a Positive Difference
by Diedra Heitzman |
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Charlene rushed in, excited and breathless with her news: “Al Gore won the prize!” She knows our emphasis on ecological sustainability—she is a member of the informal eco-group that meets to talk about what we could do better, and encouraged our CSA bio-diesel project and the new geothermal heating system in the Café. Sustainable agriculture and building, recycling and energy saving are parts of her life. Kimberton Hills finds itself a natural part of the movement of the times: finding ways to live on earth without making the earth sicker.
You might be thinking: What is all this emphasis on sustainability? Isn’t your mission to live and work well with people with disabilities? We can answer: this community is about everyone working together to make a positive difference in the world. What is more empowering and hopeful than being able to make a positive difference in our own lives and the lives of others?!
A University of Toronto Quality of Life study of people with disabilities examines whether or not people with disabilities have a chance to develop values and interests; are they able to learn and become? We might further ask: can people with so-called disabilities contribute to society by being a part of and helping to shape good culture, healthy living practices, and so on? Can they benefit from being a part of something they can be proud of? We believe the answer is yes to both.
If a household in Kimberton Hills begins to get ruffled, if tempers get heated over little things, and people aren’t getting along, we have to think of solutions. No one wants to live that way for long. We try to change and use the resources of the community to find how people can make things hum together. With agriculture, we feel the vitality of our food; we can best do what is needed if we are healthy and our meals nourishing. We notice whether the land looks cared for and healthy or depleted. The animals we see each day give their healthy mood to our lives—as well as their milk, eggs, and fleeces. People NOTICE if an animal looks less than healthy! In short, there is a well-tended community urge toward health and well-being. That can’t end at our periphery—we are all citizens of the larger world community.
While the Greenland ice melt and changes in species habitat are serious matters, we haven’t given up hope. We meet many people who are interested in consuming organic local food to save oil, taking sustainable technologies and a simpler lifestyle seriously, learning biodynamics (here and elsewhere), and trying to learn to live side-by-side with people with differing capacities and needs. Challenges create learning; change brings – well, change. Kimberton Hills is changing everyday—despite the settled idyllic atmosphere visitors sometimes comment on. Your interest will help us continue our research: how can we as human beings make life better? Thanks, Charlene, and everyone else, for helping this small but significant experiment continue and flourish!
At left: Winter arrives at Kerria House.
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Village Profile: Andy Eisenson
by Annett Orlishausen |
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Approaching Sankanac, the village house directly across from the Hritz barn, a distinctive voice is heard singing along to the piano playing “Shake, rattle and roll.” The voice belongs to Andrew Eisenson, who has been a member of Camphill Kimberton for more than 30 years.
The village community is familiar with this singing voice, one of Andy’s many talents. A true music lover, Andy often reinacts popular performances from the Ed Sullivan show or broadcasts from CBS-FM, a radio station in New York. The Beatles and Elvis Presley are his favorite stars and Andy often watches old episodes of the Ed Sullivan show, performing the music and dance steps right along with these legends.
“I love all the events such as Halloween and Fasching (a Mardi Gras party) as well as field trips to the YMCA and the library,” says Andy. These holiday events allow Andy to entertain the whole village as Elvis during Halloween or Fasching skits.
In his free time Andy “listens to FM radio and plays music with Michael and Karin,” two of the garden interns that live with him. Together, they are working on a performance for open mic night at the Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville.
As much as he loves to sing and dance, Andy is serious about his work in the village: housework in the morning and garden work in the afternoon. His house duties include vacuuming and most certainly doing the dishes. To his household, Andy is better known as the “living dishwasher,” always willing to do them every morning and after dinner. In the garden he has developed a passion for mowing the lawn and now uses the riding mower.
Although he has been a part of Kimberton Hills for more than three decades, Andy has never forgotten where his roots are. A native of Queens, Andy likes to visit his hometown at least once a year. He participates in the annual Bike NY tour, which is a 42-mile bike ride through the five boroughs of New York City. If that was not enough of a challenge, Andy completes the tour using only a single gear throughout the event! He, along with a group of villagers, also bowls every Friday evening with a 200 average!
As significant as his athletic skills is his knowledge of dates, times and events. Living with Andy, there is truly no need for a trivia book anymore; Andy has far more extensive knowledge. But above all music is, and always has been, one of the most important things in his life.
In the words of Ludwig van Beethoven, “music is the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life.” This describes Andy as he has managed to find a great balance between his love for music and everyday life.
At left, Andy on a recent trip to New York. |
Heidi: The Musical
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The Rose Hall stage was transformed into the Swiss Alps for a production of Heidi: The Musical, written and directed by Veronika Roemer, which ran from Feb. 1-3. The performances were well attended, including new visitors from Philadelphia and Reading.
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Ella Clee (right) stars as Heidi along with Matthea Roemer as Clara. |
Double the Impact
Does your company match gifts? |
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Many companies sponsor matching gift programs to encourage employees to support various charities and non-profit organizations. This action can double or even triple the value of your gift to Kimberton Hills! Often it is as simple as filling out a form or visiting a website. To find out if your company has such a program, check with your Human Resources department.
The following donors have various personal reasons for supporting Kimberton Hills, but both have realized the impact a matching gift can have.
“I visited Camphill Kimberton several times over the years with the Scottish artist Richard Wawro,” says Lawrence Becker, who supports Kimberton Hills with a matching gift from Bank of America. “We have many fond memories of our stay there and the warm welcome from Tom and Carol French-Corbett and others. My work for over 30 years with some of the world's great autistic savant artists has helped me appreciate the wonderful living opportunity that Camphill Kimberton offers all who live there.”
“We believe in the mission and the supportive community environment of Camphill Kimberton,” says Jean Humphreys, whose gifts are matched through TYCO. “Matching gift programs are a wonderful way to leverage your dollars. Most companies have funds budgeted for this reason and all you have to do is ask. With online forms, it is often as easy as pushing a button to double your contribution.”
If you are interested in learning more about ways to give, please contact the Development Office at 610-935-8660.
At left: Your contributions support those who live and work in Kimberton Hills including Sue Weicheld (left) and Eva Herz |
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