At Freedom Farm Community
The first time Ann Rader-Hayes and her husband, Edgar Hayes, visited Camp Deerpark was for a church retreat in the year 2000. They were living at Menno House in Manhattan and attended Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship.
In 2004, Ann and Edgar, along with Ann’s brother and sister-in-law, Benand Elka Rader, and parents, Bill and Clara Rader, purchased a piece of land in Orange County, New York, and began a farm. They named it Freedom Farm Community. In keeping with a vision they had when they were young, the goal of Freedom Farm Community was to combine youth education in peace and justice with organic sustainable farming and Christian community. Ann wanted to grow food without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides or other artificial chemicals and share it with people who couldn’t otherwise afford organic food. Today, Ann and Edgar donate a variety of vegetables, such as carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, squash, kale and onions, to local soup kitchens and senior homes.
When the farm was purchased, Ann and Edgar didn’t realize how close it was to the camp that they had visited four years earlier. But when they made the discovery, Edgar ventured across the mountain in the fall of 2004 to introduce himself to their new Camp Deerpark neighbors. Edgar found Ken Bontrager in the middle of patching motel walls after a flood and their brief conversation ended with the standard, “Let’s get together sometime.” It was nearly two years later when Ken and Deborah invited Edgar and Ann, and Sean and Kim McConaghay, to their home for a meal. Sean had been hired as facilities director in January of 2006 and the McConaghays were eager to put down roots in the community.
The meal was the start of a beautiful partnership between Camp Deerpark and Freedom Farm Community. Camp Deerpark from early on had a desire to include farming and gardening in the children’s camp program. Freedom Farm had a desire to engage youth in education that offered alternatives to violence, sustainable agriculture and opportunities to discover God’s transformative love for each of us. Over the years, Freedom Farm has helped with racial reconciliation and conflict resolution training of Camp Deerpark summer staff. And during the summers, Ann has shown up at camp each Friday, delivering fresh produce to share with campers and guests.
All of the campers take a trip to Freedom Farm during the summer to help with chores around the farm, or to learn how to make different foods like butter or pizza. The campers love the chance to have even more space to run around, visit animals, and to see how food they eat is grown. In 2017 Freedom Farm hosted a July Fourth picnic for campers.
“Camp Deerpark is fortunate to have a relationship with Freedom Farm and the support they provide us in the form of produce and program sharing,” said Paul Holderbaum, a summer camp nature teacher at Camp Deerpark. “The interaction between our Christian ministries provides an even more powerful witness to our local community.”
“In the ‘early days’ of Freedom Farm, before their barn was built and our kids grew up and rearranged our schedules, we’d gather in the old farm-house dining room for a weekly potluck we called “Soup Tuesday,” said Sean McConaghay, Camp Deerpark facilities director. “These meals were usually in our collective offseason, and despite the drafty windows, the environment was always warm. Edgar and Ann make you feel welcome not just with their words, but with their lives—which is probably why the single young men from Camp Deerpark had no qualms about showing up late to finish off the food!”
Camp Deerpark campers and staff have also enjoyed worshipping with the Rader-Hayes family at the farm around a campfire. A quote from the farm’s 2016 Annual Update noted that, “Even our valley burst into song when youth from Camp Deerpark belted their praises under the night sky.”
“There is a great deal of love shared between folks at Camp Deerpark and the Rader-Hayes family at Freedom Farm,” said Ken. “Kim McConaghay serves on the Freedom Farm board. Ben Rader served for nine years on the Camp Deerpark board. We have had an annual Thanksgiving Day football game for at least 10 years. And in the months after Hadassah’s death, our family needed a place to spend quality time together away from camp, as there were several young adults living in our home. So we had weekly meals in the Freedom Farm barn. It became a wonderful place of healing for our family.”
—Written by Dillon Hershey, Ken Bontrager, and Donna Stoltzfus.