SPRING 2003Sondra Ball
Mickleton MM
kay, folks, go get that trusty calendar. I’ve got a really important date for you to mark on it, probably the most important date of the summer. It’s something you don’t want to miss. And your kids don’t want to miss it either!
It’s the all-new Salem Quarter Retreat! That’s right. You heard it first here. All us people from Salem Quarter are going to get together at the Burlington Meeting House, August 15 through August 17, 2003.
“All right,” I can just hear you wondering. “What’s new about that? Haven’t we done that before? A few times before? Oh, it was lots of fun each time! And the people who went absolutely loved it. But new?”
Yep, folks, it’s new!
First, the topic is new: We’re going to deal with simplicity, and not just your ordinary simplicity, either. We thought first of calling it “Radical Simplicity” but the leader of the workshop tells us it isn’t exactly radical. But even if it’s not exactly radical, it’s more than just “thoughts on simplicity” too. It gets down to the nuts and bolts of how to live a more simple life without moving to Barrow, Alaska. Or even how to live a more simple life after you move to Barrow, Alaska. Now, I’m not recommending Barrow. It’s got permafrost up there. And this time of year, the polar bears roam the streets and occasionally eat people. I know this because I have a friend who lives there.
We won’t have any permafrost or polar bears in Burlington. In August it will be warm and sunny and safe. Just right for our usual search for the East Pole, which we would have found already if it weren’t for that ice cream parlor that keeps getting in our way.
Oh, but that’s old stuff. What else is new?
Well, we have an all-new children’s program divided into two parts: one for the elementary and middle school kids and one for those tots we’ve neglected in the past. So the little ones will have a bit more than just babysitting. They’ll have their own crafts and stories and things like that related to the same topic you’re dealing with geared to their age and made especially to be fun as well as educational. We’ll let the high school folks choose whether they want to hang around with the middlers or with the adults.
And then there’s another new thing so new it’s breathtaking. Nothing like it has ever happened before at the Salem Quarter retreat. We are inviting all the folks from the Atlantic City Area Monthly Meeting to come join us. ACAMM is looking for more cooperative efforts with Salem Quarter, and this will give us a chance to get to know each other better. It’ll be a “hands on” getting to size each other up. Their adults can meet our adults. Your kids can meet their kids. They can learn if we really are river otters. We can learn if they really are dolphins.
Of course we will have an absolute registration deadline for people bringing kids. We expect to have a number of kids coming, especially with inviting another meeting in and we need time to get all the crafts and books and whatever we need for them. So after that deadline, we will accept no further registrations for kids. We will let you know that deadline later, when we’ve decided what it will be.
Okay, what’s the price? you ask. I’ll tell you that in a minute. But first, I want you to know that we are trying to work out ways to get scholarship money from the Young Adult Friends of PYM to cover part or all of the cost of the people in the 18-to-40 bracket. That hasn’t been worked out yet, but will be by the time the next newsletter goes to print. We’re also trying to work out scholarship money for the little ones and the middler ones and the teeners. We have $500 in the Quarter youth fund which we hope to use for scholarships for the under 18. We’re also looking around for other monies.
At worst, it will cost $45 for each adult and $30 for each person under 18. The littlest kids who do not sleep in their own beds and do not participate in the kids’ program come for free. Folks who don’t like to sleep in the beds at the Burlington Meetinghouse can, of course, either commute from their homes or sleep in a nearby hotel. You’ll miss some of the midnight snacking and chatting, of course, but some people don’t seem to mind that.
Oh, and there’s one other new thing. The leader of the adult retreat is a former Salem Quarter member. He was raised in the Woodbury Meeting and is known to many of the Quarter people. He is none other than our well loved Chip Thomas. So come join with us—the old and the new. We’ll look forward to seeing you.
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Last modified:
Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM
