This year’s Kids To The Country Harvest Children’s Village in October was a wonderful opportunity for old and new friends to come together and experience our vision of diversity within community. City and country kids, counselors, counselor helpers, and staff from partner programs spent a relaxed, but exciting day riding bicycles and ponies, playing basketball, badminton, tether ball, and doing arts and crafts. We shared a healthy vegetarian meal and took a tour of The Farm School, the school garden and the Eco-village Training Center with its organic garden.We also shared circle time talking about how ecosystems of diverse organisms provide resources for each other in nature. We drew parallels with the way that, in communities of diverse individuals like the one we built during our day together, people take care of each other so that all of their needs are met. We ended the day with high hopes that each of us would carry that vision forward as we returned to our respective home communities.

Mom leads her son to horse.

      This year the Harvest Children’s Village was joined by a new group from a Baptist Church in Nashville. The church bishop is from Nigeria and learned about KTC from a Farm carpenter who is also a native of Nigeria. The group was about 40 children and adults. Many rode horses and ate vegetarian food for the very first time. They loved the program, the setting and the Farm community. They promised they will be back for future programs and especially want to send kids for the summer sessions. Thank you to everyone who participated and helped make another session of Kids To The Country a great success!  —Mary Ellen Bowen and Peter Kindfield.
      (Mary Ellen is the Project Director and Peter Kindfield is the Counselor and Curriculum Coordinator for Kids To The Country.)

Parents, counselors and kids work on arts and crafts projects.

Bicycling in the country is an anytime activity!

"Circle time" with Peter Kindfield (center, with ahnd raised).

Horse Trainer and KTC counselor, Zack Bowman, helps a mom and her son to ride.