Dear Friends,

After three years of intensive planning and support from all sides, we have arrived:

In nine days, on June 30th,
the first Eden Village campers arrive for
Opening Day!

With immense gratitude, we share with you some exciting numbers about the magical summer we anticipate:

• 134 registered campers from 17 states and 4 countries — double our initial projection!
• 37 talented, experienced staffers for our unique Jewish farm, wilderness, and arts-based program — currently participating in 10 immersive training days
• ZERO campers turned away due to financial need, thanks to the generosity of our donors
• 18 solar panels going up this summer, thanks the UJA's Greening Fellowship and NYSERDA
• $1.6M of site renovations by the UJA and private donors, including a greenhouse; all trash sent to Recycling Depot
• Ten local CSA shares, our 2-acre farm, and organic suppliers providing all produce. Organic, kosher, local dairy & eggs; other kitchen purchasing is all natural, organic & local when possible, and minimally processed.
• One hybrid camp car
• ZERO "disposable" tablewares; all recycled paper goods; computers with highest environmental ratings; all cleaning products supplied by EcoLogic Solutions; bug spray from Quantum Health; "Kiss Your Face" sunscreen.
• 100% of footballs, soccer balls, frisbees, and basketballs from Fair Trade Sports.
• 100% organic cotton shirts, sweatshirts, and polos.
• One Sefer Torah (Torah scroll) on loan from Temple Beth Shalom in Mahopac, NY!
• One farm with...
  • 14 laying hens
  • One milking goat producing 1/2 gallon of milk a day
  • Two kid goats
  • One lop-eared bunny
  • 30 varieties of vegetables
  • Five permanent no-till raised beds
  • One composting system (producing finished compost in less than two months!)
  • 34 types of medicinal plants
  • Five bunk-side snack gardens ("bunk beds")
  • Shabbat, Cholent, and Jewish Calendar gardens
  • ...all staffed by one farm manager, two farm apprentices, two Jewish Farm School directors, one master herbalist and one farm educator!

and...

One HUGE Thank You to YOU
for supporting and believing in this creation!

Many thanks to the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Specialty Camps Incubator of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, the UJA-Federation of New York, and many private donors for their generous funding. Here's to a safe, fun, and meaningful Pioneer Summer!

—Vivian and Yoni Stadlin

EVC in the News

Our directors are featured in The Jewish Week's "36 Under 36"!

...and, we got a terrific write up in the Forward:

"Where God Meets Green: A New Jewish Summer Camp Caters To Environmentally Conscious Parents and Kids"

Meet 3-Week Adventurers Lexi and Ruthie!

Lexi loves the outdoors and hopes to have a farm some day (or at least a large plot of land on which to grow things). She is really looking forward to taking long hikes and learning about organic farming this summer. She loves cooking and experiments in the kitchen often. She is also an avid storyteller/writer. She has been entertaining her family with her stories since she was four years old and for the past few years has worked on writing and editing her many story ideas. Lexi likes to play most sports and is a blue belt in Tae Kwon Do. She is looking forward to making many new friends at camp.

Ruthie loves filmmaking, reading, playing strategy and card games and hanging out with friends. A few years ago, Ruthie started an environmental organization called “Carbonfree Kids.” As a group they raised funds to contribute to alternative energy sources, thus making at least two of their members carbon neutral. She is looking forward to a summer making new friends and hanging out with other Jewish kids who care about the environment.

Meet Farm Manager (Magician)
Debra Rich!

Debra is a lover of food, whether it is growing, baking and cooking, or just eating it. She has spent three eight-month winters in Antarctica, growing hydroponic vegetables and working in the McMurdo Station bakery, and traveling the world (another love) in the off-seasons. Even returning to school in 2004 to get a Ph.D. in Horticulture couldn’t keep her from traveling! She spent three summers in Alaska, growing produce and baking for a Denali National Park lodge. She volunteered last Fall as an organic gardener for a cloud forest reserve in Ecuador, and has taught hydroponics, spinning, knitting, and canning/preserving.

Since coming to Eden Village in March, she has taken a big lawn and made it into a flourishing farm! One of her favorite things to do at camp is stand in the field at 6am, listening to the songbirds.

Second Sunday June 2010

Sharing personal highlights of the day at the closing campfire.

We were thrilled to welcome 30 families to camp on Sunday to enjoy camp and celebrate our opening! Counselors and staff led groups in hiking, playing games, building the Calendar Garden (each of its 12 sections tells the story of a Jewish month), touring, exploring the Jewish Climate Campaign's Topsy Turvy Bus, making art on the beach, and more.

Inspired by 10-day Explorer Max D.'s suggestion following his visit to camp, we are starting a library! Please send your donations of gently used or new Jewish texts and/or kid- and teen-friendly books on farming, nature, spirituality, art, and related topics:

Eden Village Camp
Attn: Vivian Stadlin, Camp Library
392 Dennytown Road
Putnam Valley, NY 10579

Food for Thought

"If the whole world did yoga, everybody would feel peaceful and wouldn't go in a war."

—Four-week Voyager Abraham J. Tore,
to his teacher when he was in kindergarten

Campers for a Healthy, Sustainable World!

Eden Village Camp is a first-of-its-kind nonprofit Jewish environmental sleepaway camp, located 50 miles north of Manhattan on 248 beautiful acres.

Our 3rd–12th-grade campers & apprentices build leadership, outdoor skills & positive Jewish identity, and awaken their sense of connectedness, purpose & joy.

A close community develops through shared experience including organic farming, outstanding organic Kosher food, animal care, wilderness adventure, natural science, a zero-waste goal, pool & lake, biking, climbing, music, arts, sports, service projects, Shabbat celebration, talented staff in a 3:1 camper:staff ratio... all in a vibrant, inclusive Jewish community.