A PUBLICATION FOR FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND SUPPORTERS

Community SpotlightOur daughter Julie begins her fourth academic year at

Camphill this month. Julie is twelve and reads and writes,

enjoys dining with her house mates, and eats a variety of

foods, including vegetables! continued on page 6 >

Anonymous donor issues $140,000 capital campaign challenge see page 2 >

FALL 2010

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Sharing Life and Learning: A Campaign for Camphill Special School’s Transition Program is nearing the finish line . . .we need just $280,000 more to reach our minimum goal of $3 million . . .$280,000 more to complete the largest fundraising effort in Camphill Special School’s history. . .$280,000 more to build a beautiful new residence and education center at Beaver Farm.

We continue to meet new people every week, friends who make generous gifts and pledges to our campaign. Such a friend recently told us he wants to help us to cross that elusive finish line.

Learning that we have $280,000 left to raise, an anonymous donor in Philadelphia has pledged to

donate $140,000 to the Sharing Life and Learning campaign if we raise another $140,000.

If you have not yet made your own gift or pledge, please do so now. All new gifts and pledges made by December 31, 2010, will qualify for this match.

If you already have made your gift or pledge, please consider making an additional gift especially designated to meet this final challenge. You can make your check payable to Camphill Special School and note that it is for “The Challenge.”

Thank you for helping us grow!

Anonymous donor issues $140,000 capital campaign challengeBy Carol Goetz

Board President Warren Gleicher and School founder Ursel Pietzner wield a ceremonial shovel at our Beaver Farm building project. See page 9 for more Beaver Farm construction photos!

A New Kind of NewsletterWelcome to the latest issue of Reflections. You will notice our newsletter has undergone some changes, with a new look that better exemplifies our appreciation for our volunteers and supporters and the extraordinary achieve-ments of our students. Be sure to visit our website at camphillspecialschool.org to learn more about how our look may have changed but our mission in service of children and families remains constant.

SPECIAL NEWS 3

GleiCher eleCted new preSident of BoArdWarren R. Gleicher, Esq. of Livingston, NJ, recently was elected President of Camphill Special School’s Board of Directors. Warren and his wife Amy are the parents of Jonathan, Adam, and Max. Max is in the twelfth grade at Beaver Run.

Warren has been a member of the Board for five years and served on our Parent Campaign and Development committees. He and Amy also are New York Regional Chairs of the Sharing Life and Learning capital campaign. Warren is a partner at NYC’s Olshan Grundman Rosenzweig & Wolosky LLP. He was selected as a “Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics Magazine in 2007.

Retiring to the status of “member” after six years at the helm as President of the Board is Craig L. Adams, COO of PECO in Philadelphia. Craig came to Camphill via Leadership, Inc. and has no children at the school or other “vested interest.” He has worked tirelessly for all the children, saving dollars, cutting red tape when it needed to be cut,

and representing us all with good sense and good humor.

Guy Alma, Director of Development, says that Craig’s tenure “demonstrated the true meaning of leadership. Always a steady influence with an eye for the essential, Craig continually asked us to push towards a future that we determined for our-selves. We have learned to look ahead and chart our own course with resolve. Camphill Special School simply would not be the place it is today without having had Craig at the helm.”

In other “Board business,” members Eliza Carlson Lee, Leslie Meril, and Lainey Webb Moseley retired and Gregory Ambrose was elected to the Board. Eliza will remain active on the Finance Committee; Leslie as NJ co-chair of the Sharing Life and Learning campaign; and Lainey on the School’s Marketing Committee. Greg is a Project Administrator at The Vanguard Group in Malvern, PA. He is a member of our Strategic Planning Committee and with his wife Annie has served as a co-chair of the Camphill ProAm for the past two years. They live with their two children, Joey and Becky, in Pottstown, PA. Joey is a ninth-grader at Beaver Run.

Warren Gleicher, new President of our Board of Directors, with his son Max, a twelfth-grader at Beaver Run.

4 SPECIAL EVENTS

Camphill Special School student Adam (center) with his family: brother Andrew, parents Amy and Dennis Colannino, and grandparents John and Linda Schoonmaker.

Our Camphill ProAm 2010 tennis teams, ready for action!

The winning team of Lynn Dickson and Wasyl Manko, with Anthony DeCecco, made their “owners” Becky and Annie Ambrose very happy.

proAm 2010 rAiSeS A reCord $152,000By Courtney Coffman

Put together a record-breaking crowd. . .an unmatched fundraising total . . . the best auction items ever. . .delicious food. . .a fantastic band. . .and the area’s most talented tennis athletes.

What do you get? The Camphill ProAm 2010!

Thankfully the Tennis Ball was held at Sunnybrook Ballroom on May 8, because there were more people and auction items than ever before! Over 310 people crowded the huge, historic space to celebrate and support Camphill Special School and our students.

Thanks to our sponsors, program advertisers, auction item donors and purchasers, raffle ticket holders, Tennis Ball and ProAm Tennis Tourna-ment attendees, donors, and volunteers over $152,000 was raised to benefit the school and our capital campaign for the Transition Program at Beaver Farm.

Highlighting the evening was an announcement by Camphill Foundation President Roger Begelman that, by virtue of the Foundation’s extraordinary $500,000 grant to our capital campaign, the new Education and Resource Center at Beaver Farm will be named in memory and honor of Sarah Jane Herman. Sarah Jane was a student at Beaver Run thirty years ago before her untimely death as a young adult. Also present for the announcement

were Sarah Jane’s parents, Betsy and Bill Herman, longtime supporters of Camphill Special School and the Camphill Foundation.

Watch our December newsletter for announcements about our 20th Anniversary ProAm in 2011!

Fern Goldstein with husband Roger Begelman, President of the Camphill Foundation Board of Directors, and Betsy Herman, parent of former Camphill student Sarah Jane Herman, traveled from New York for the Tennis Ball.

SPECIAL EVENTS 5

plein Air for Camphill: An artfully good time

Bike for a cause. . .not just because!

Dan McCoubrey, Rick Moseley (Camphill Challenge founder and father of sixth-grader Leta), and Ted Boinske (Challenge Committee member and father of eighth-grader Jackson) at last year’s rainy Challenge bike ride.

The second annual Plein Air for Camphill exhibition

benefiting Camphill Special School will be held on

Tuesday, October 5.

Over fifty invited professional artists will participate,

working in a wide variety of media, including paint,

pastel, ink, clay, video, and film inspired by the

Children’s Village at Beaver Run and the Transition

Program at Beaver Farm.

The art will be on view and available for sale on

October 5 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the presti-

gious Rosenfeld Gallery in Old City Philadelphia.

A reception with the artists will begin at 5:30.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Camphill’s

growing Transition Program.

What: Camphill Challenge 2010—Pedal a course that

is 10, 33, or 50 miles through scenic Chester County

during peak autumn foliage, enjoy a wonderful picnic,

and support Camphill !

When: October 17, 2010, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Where: Camphill Village Kimberton Hills,

1601 Pughtown Road, Kimberton, PA 19442

The Challenge will be held rain or shine.

Why, you may be asking yourself, are the rides begin-

ning and ending at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills?

This year’s Camphill Challenge will benefit all three

Camphill Communities in Chester County—Camphill

Special School, Camphill Village Kimberton Hills, and

Camphill Soltane!

To register for the ride (early bird registration and

pricing ends on September 30; kids under 10 are

FREE), make a donation, or become a sponsor of

the event go to camphillspecialschool.org. Simply

choose which community you would like your

registration or sponsorship to benefit. Of course,

we encourage our parents, grandparents, and

friends to choose Camphill Special School!

For more information about any of our special

events, contact Courtney at 610.469.9236 x132

or ccoffman@camphillspecialschool.org.

“Undecided Sky” by Nancy Bea Miller was painted at Beaver Farm. Miller, the founder of Plein Air for Camphill, is a well-known Philadelphia-based artist and the mother of three young sons including Henry, a student at Camphill Special School.

Michelle Obama, Mahatma Gandhi, and Abraham Lincoln all are figures Will has studied in his main lesson blocks.

An ArtiSt in oUr MidSt: trAnSforMinG trAShAn AppreCiAtion of will

By Ginny Thimme

Whilst studying the History of Art many years ago, I was fascinated by the work of Kurt Schwitters. Schwitters was part of the modern art movement known as Dadaism, and he created much of his artwork out of trash: bus tickets, wheels, wire, newsprint, old socks, broken pencils, etc. He roamed the streets, picking up what had been

discarded by others and taking it home and turning it into art.

In my years at Camphill Special School, I have had the honor of living with Will (Class of 2010 and now a student in our Transition Program). Will, like many Beaver Run students, spent many hours doing trash and recycling chores. What sets Will apart from other students, however, is that he is an artist in the tradition of Kurt Schwitters. He always is on the lookout for materials to be used in his art projects. Will finds most of his treasures in the recycling sheds and he specializes in three-dimensional art.

Soda cans are Will’s favorite medium, especially Coca-Cola cans (similar, in a way, to Andy Warhol’s soup cans). Like Warhol, Will’s art also

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COMMUNITYSPOTLIGHT Julie’s most important achievement, however, is her social interaction with her peers. Camphill is teaching Julie the “rules of friendship” with group activities that require communication (verbal and eye contact) among the students. Mealtimes at her house provide perhaps the best “real world” opportunities for developing social skills (e.g., table manners, setting the table, asking for someone to pass the pasta, using utensils, initiating conversation, and answering questions) when a lively houseful of children and adults sit together for three meals a day. Julie loves to talk about Camphill—and her first friends—during her vaca-tions at home with us in Florida. Camphill Special School is a godsend to our family as it helps Julie reach her fullest potential.

—Deborah Hayes and Michael Finger, Julie’s Mom and Dad

(continued from front cover)

CSS awarded SeCOnd fuLL aCCredITaTIOn

Camphill Special School recently was awarded a full seven-year term of accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools.

This award was made just weeks after the School received full accreditation from AWSNA, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America.

features icons, including Donald Trump, Abraham Lincoln, the Red Baron, Michelle Obama, Prince Charming, and Mahatma Gandhi.

What impressed me when I lived with Will was how his work was continuously evolving and improving and how he would work on making one figure over and over again until he got to a point of perfection and/or peace. When I went to look at his artwork recently, I found eight different versions of Michelle Obama, the icon that he and much of America are struggling to define right now. I also found not only Gandhi and Lincoln, but Hamlet, Emerson, and Thoreau, all figures that Will learned about in his main lesson blocks with his teacher, Peggy.

I realized looking at his work that Will not only is transforming trash into art, he is also transforming all that he has learned here in school in his own unique way.

To be accredited, a school must meet standards in each major area of its work and activity. These areas include the school’s philosophy, mission, objec-tives, governance and leadership, organizational design and staff, educational programs, learning media services and technology, student services, student life and activities, facilities, health and safety, finances, assessment of student learning, and strategic planning.

Warren R. Gleicher, President of our Board of Directors, said, “We are very proud of the accredita-tion awarded to our School by Middle States. The

entire accreditation process validates the integrity of our unique programming for children with special needs and clearly justifies the faith and resources our many supporters place in Camphill Special School.”

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Will is an artist in the tradition of Kurt Schwitters, transforming ordinary trash into amazing works of art.

Soda cans are Will’s favorite medium, especially Coca-Cola cans.

oUr CoMMUnity wiSheS MiriAM CoSentino wellIn 1990, having attended Waldorf school and studied nursing and anthroposophy in Europe for fifteen years, Miriam Cosentino knew that she wanted a Waldorf education for her young daugh-ter Maya and a community for both of them. She found both at Camphill Special School.

When she visited Beaver Run for the first time, Miriam says, “I knew immediately that this was home.” So for twenty years filled with friendship, house parenting, involvement in almost every aspect of the School, and acting as Beaver Run’s school nurse, Camphill has been home for Miriam and Maya.

“The concept of Camphill as community is what makes so many things possible in people’s lives,” says Miriam. “For instance, it is because we are a community that children—children with special needs and staff children like my daughter—are able to experience a kind of childhood that nearly is impossible to find anywhere else.”

During the past twenty years Miriam not only came to know hundreds of children extremely well, she

also earned a BS degree in nursing at Immaculata University and achieved her school nurse certifica-tion. She says these accomplishments were made infinitely easier because of the nurturing support found in community life.

“In Camphill we know that we do not have to look out for ourselves,” she says, “for it is our respon-sibility to look out for others. We do this for each other and for the students. That is how community works.”

Miriam met Nick six years ago when he came to Camphill to oversee the garden and create an oasis of peace and beauty at Beaver Run. Both are ready for a change now. Miriam’s mother is eighty-nine and not well, so for awhile at least they will live in Colorado with her. “It’s hard to know when change is necessary,” says Miriam, “but everyone here has been supportive and caring as I transition.”

Maya completed her studies at Kimberton Waldorf School, studied neuroscience and psychology in college in Maryland, and has finished her first year of medical studies in Germany. Her goal is to earn her anthroposophical M.D. and then form her own community to work with youth addicted to drugs.

“After my twenty years here,” says Miriam, “I hope that I will be remembered as a friend.”

Miriam Cosentino is “transitioning” to a new life after twenty years at Beaver run.

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diGGinG And BUildinG Under wAy At BeAver fArMAsplundh Tree Expert Company kindly donated their services to remove several huge trees from our site, two ancient tractor sheds were torn down, a traditional groundbreaking ceremony was staged, and the bulldozers moved in. We are on our way to building a new student residence and an Education and Resource Center for our Transition Program at Beaver Farm!

If you live anywhere near 551 West Seven Stars Road in Phoenixville, PA, please be sure to drive by and take a look for yourself as our landscape evolves. For those of you a bit further afield, we look forward to welcoming you as we sched-ule a series of “Down on the Farm” afternoons. Be sure to check our website at camphillspecialschool.org and Facebook page for more updates.

FUNDRAISING FACTS: We’re not quite finished!

Total gifts and pledges: $2.72 MILLION

Amount needed to reach our minimum $3M goal: $280,000

Your new gift or pledge made by December 31, 2010,will be 100% matched!

91%

9%

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Girl Scouts planted 300 trees along Center Creek at Beaver Farm, creating a riparian buffer to help keep French Creek clean and healthy.

Tina, in the center and dressed in blue, is a Transition Program student. She is surrounded by hard-working and ecologically minded Girl Scouts who completed a huge project at Beaver farm in april.

Green vAlleyS ASSoCiAtion And Girl SCoUtS reStore Creek At BeAver fArM By Guy Alma

One of the environmental concerns we are addressing in our building project at Beaver Farm is that of watershed protection. Rain gardens will form ecosystems that prevent storm-water runoff into French Creek, the southern boundary of our property, and cisterns will harvest rainwater from our roofs for agricultural re-use.

Center Creek, however, is a tributary that flows into French Creek through Beaver Farm’s fields. Denuded over the years, it badly needed restora-tion so that with more trees along its banks it could function as a riparian buffer, cleaning pollutants and preventing erosion from storm- water runoff.

Green Valleys Association, which oversees 155 square miles of all five of Chester County’s north-ern and eastern Schuylkill River watersheds, and the Girl Scouts came to our rescue! On April 24th, under the watchful eyes of GVA’s Margot Taylor

and John Hoekstra, the Girl Scouts planted three hundred native trees along the creek.

Margot commented, “Special thanks to Bartlett Tree Company whose support was pivotal, moving plants and materials to the sites; Octoraro Nursery, that found time to squeeze in a plant delivery in the middle of their busy season; and the PA Landscape and Nurserymen Association, who sup-plied the coveted Scouting ‘patch’ commemorating the day.”

As for me, I already can imagine what everything will look like in ten years when the creek is beauti-ful and healthier, with so much more wildlife living in and around it. We send huge thanks to GVA for fighting the good fight for clean waterways and winning the battle little by little, and most of all, we extend our fondest appreciation to all those young hands and hearts who have planted a piece of our future at Beaver Farm.

10 VOLUNTEERS

volu

ntee

rs

For alumni news, check our website at camphillspecialschool.org/alumni.

‘diverSity fUnd’ eStABliShed in BeAver rUn foUndAtion By Carol Goetz

Many of you may recall the photo of Benjamin that graced the cover of our Annual Report last year, as well as the story about him. Ben was not with us last school year because he was denied pub-lic school funding and could no longer afford to attend.

Ben’s story attracted the attention of Charles Wallert, co-founder and creative head of Bluewater Recordings, during a visit to Chicago. After attend-ing a fundraising event for Ben and learning more about him, his family, and Camphill, Charles knew that he wanted to help Ben and other children like him attend Camphill Special School.

After an initial event in New York City designed to raise awareness of both Camphill Special School and the difficulties families like Ben’s face, the Camphill Special School Diversity Fund was born.

The Diversity Fund, once it is built up to an amount where several scholarship awards per year might be made from it, will benefit minority students whose parents lack sufficient personal and/or

government resources to send their child to Camphill Special School. Scholarships will be awarded according to need-based criteria. Contributions to the Diversity Fund are tax-deductible.

“The care and education of children with special needs is something all of us need to be aware of,” says Charles, “and working on behalf of the Diversity Fund is a great way to focus attention on Camphill Special School as an effective and inspir-ing solution. I hope we can educate many more people about the Camphill Movement while raising money for the Diversity Fund.”

Ben’s mother, Sharon Collins, says that “leaving Camphill Special School was devastating. It was as if our small boat had been untied from a safe port and thrown into the high seas of public educa-tion.” According to Sharon, Camphill represents the ideal placement for Ben. “The Diversity Fund,” she says, “will help bring about that ideal for so many children!”

To contribute to the Diversity Fund online visit camphillspecialschool.org/diversityfund.php. For more information about the Diversity Fund, please call or e-mail me at 610.469.9236 or cgoetz@camphillspecialschool.org.

DEVELOPMENT 11

development

friends Ben Collins and Charles wallert.

Camphill Special School con-sists of The Children’s Village and School at Beaver Run, The Transition Program at Beaver Hill and Beaver Farm, and The Camphill School of Curative Education and Social Therapy.

Our mission is to create wholeness for children and youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities through edu-cation and therapy in extended family living. The Camphill School of Curative Education and Social Therapy offers a four-year professional course of studies in anthroposophical curative education, youth guidance, and social therapy in a practice-integrated environment. Camphill Special School does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, color, creed, gen-der, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, or disability.

1784 Fairview Road, Glenmoore, PA 19343 610.469.9236 camphillspecialschool.org

2010–2011 BoArD oF DirecTorsWarren R. Gleicher, Esq., PresidentClaus Sproll, SecretaryJeffrey Powers, CPA, Attorney, TreasurerGuy AlmaGregory AmbroseBrian EpsteinJan Christopher GoeschelWilliam C. Herman, Esq.Manfred MaierAndreas SchadBernard Wolf

eMeriTiUrsel PietznerRaymond Ripper

PLeaSe jOIn uS october 5 Plein Air for camphill exhibit and sale, 9 a.m.–8 p.m. Artist reception begins at 5:30 p.m. Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia october 17 camphill challenge Bike event, 8 a.m.–3 p.m. Camphill Village Kimberton HillsNovember 27 christmas café, 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Karl Koenig Schoolhouse—Blue RoomFor more details visit camphillspecialschool.org/calendar or call 610.469.9236.