LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
The Roots of CAMP: Our First Decade |
by Murray Archibald |
This summer is the tenth year of CAMP Rehoboth. Sometimes, instead, it seems like yesterday, and at others it seems like forever. Time, here at the beach, can become strangely suspendedan endless summer, even in winter's quiet time. I've loved living this past decade, and yet, at the same time I'm a little startled to find myself still here in this new millennium. Many of you, over the past year or so, may have noticed the tree at the far end of the CAMP courtyardnext to Twist. The brightly painted barrel in which the tree was planted ten years ago has almost completely rotted away, leaving a ball of roots and very little dirt. Sitting next to it is another brightly painted and much larger planter, specially made to hold the tree and allow it to grow. The reason the new planter is still sitting next to the tree rather than the tree sitting in the planter is that when we went to move the tree we discovered that, unbeknownst to us, it had put down deep roots between the six inch thick concrete slabs in the courtyard. There are four trees in the CAMP courtyardall planted back in 1990 by our dear friends Chris Monismith and Randy Weaver in those first tentative years in the creation of CAMP Rehoboth. Chris and Randy both died of AIDS in the early and mid 90s and our lives are less because of their absence. The trees they planted, however, live on, and I continue to fuss over them like a mother hen because of the personal history they hold for me and for those of us involved in the first year of CAMP Rehoboth. Two of the other courtyard trees are the same varietyplanted at the same timeas the one about which I've been writing. The other two trees, however, have remained within the confines of their pots. Their roots are bound up tight and as a result the trees are much smaller and less healthy looking. Like all living things, the trees need room to growto expandto reach the water. I don't know what we'll end up doing to save the tree, (advice for how we should solve the problem has ranged from building another planter around the tree, to waiting until cooler weather to cut the roots), but the experience has reminded me a lot of our lives here and of the past ten years of CAMP Rehoboth. Without realizing it, we've put down roots in this community and those roots are providing the nourishment we need to keep going. Anyone who has kept up with the work of CAMP Rehoboth, even peripherally, over the past year, should know that we are involved in a long term project to expand to a full service community center. Support for the Center is coming from many different parts of the communityin fact it has taken on a life of its own. The vision created by those of us working on the committee for the Community Center Project have envisioned it as being the heart of the community. A heart pumps nourishment to the body; tree roots deliver nourishment to the tree; so too, does our vision of the Community Center provide a kind of spirit sustenance for the community around us. Ten years ago, when we first started the work of CAMP Rehoboth the essence of the Community Center was there. It's why we set out to create a courtyarda free spaceconnected to a gay and lesbian bookstore and CAMP Rehoboth. The seeds of the Community Center existed even then. Over the years the roots have grown and been cared for by the dedicated love and support of people from all parts of our community. Ten years ago we were a handful of people who fell in love with the idea that our community needed some kind of organizing, positive force around which to rally. Even then it was about heartmaybe I should say especially then it was about heart. In the beginning, it's always about heartthe trick is to keep the heart alive in the ensuing years, even in the face of the trials and tribulations that are a part of the life of all young organizations. Looking back over the past ten years of CAMP Rehoboth is a somewhat fuzzy endeavor for me, as the years have run together a bit. There is both success and failurebut that's just a part of life. The important thing is how we deal with our success and our failure. Over the years people have come and gone and come again. We exist in a crossroads, a place where people pass by, a place touched by many different cities and many different people. The crossroads is both our strong point and our weakness. It makes our community much larger but at the same time harder to defineharder to know. In the eighties, my partner Steve and I were here on a part time basis. It was a vacation place for usa getawayas it is for many people. After we committed ourselves full time, Rehoboth became something else for us entirely. It became the kind of place where you put down roots without even realizing that it's happening. Even if something should change and we were to move on, I don't think we could ever completely sever the roots that have developed here over the years. As we begin this next phase in the life of CAMP Rehoboth, as we begin the work that will lead eventually to the Community Center, it is important that we find ways to care for and nourish the roots that are already here. It is important that we put down new ones and encourage others to do the same. It is vitally important that the Center remains always a place that provides sustenance for all the many diverse elements within our gay familyand though it is a gay and lesbian Community Center, that includes our straight family and friends as well. Over the year's, Steve and I have used the biblical interpretation of the word Rehobothroom for allmany times. Here in this place that began as a Methodist Church Campground, has grown another kind of CAMPground; a place that I hope and pray, remains open to all. In our work on the Community Center this past year and the CAMP Rehoboth Project Advisory Committee meetings that led up to its creation, it has always been important that all the meetings and workshops were open to everyone who wanted to attend. We want and need as many people as possible to claim the Community Center as their own. To be the heart of the community is to continually reach out and provide nourishment where it is needed. I don't know exactly what will happen to the tree in the courtyard. I hope to see it safely replanted and growing for many years to come. If it doesn't make it, it's not the end of the worldit is, after all, only a tree, albeit one with deep sentimental value. As for CAMP Rehoboth, I have great faith that there are many roots that have quietly grown down into this CAMPground where we live. When I see all the people who are bringing their time and energy and talents to this place, to this project, I know that the heart is strong and the pulse is steady. I know that the Community Center is a good thing and that we will find the resources to make it happen. The next full meeting of CAMP Rehoboth's Project Advisory Committee, which includes the committees working on the Community Center Project, is Saturday, September 23, from 9:00 a.m. until noon at Epworth United Methodist Church, 20 Baltimore Avenue. The meeting is open to all. For information, call CAMP Rehoboth at 302 227-5620. Murray Archibald is founder and President of CAMP Rehoboth. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 10, No. 10, July 28, 2000. |