An interview with Ana Ebi, edited for length and clarity.
Ana Ebi grew up in the Cashe Valley Meeting in Logan, Utah, where many of the institutions are aligned with the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Not being a member of the Mormon faith community in that state is to often feel like an outsider. Ana spent her childhood through young adult life in Intermountain Yearly Meeting (IMYM), having in-depth community experiences of spirituality as she came up through youth programming. In the summer of 2008, as a rising senior in college, she became a counselor at Friends Camp in South China, Maine. It was in that summer that she voiced a leading down at the waterfront on the spring-fed lake. She says:
“I was a little older (than many of. the other counselors) and they offered me the role of the meeting house director. The meeting house is their arts and crafts space with a ceramics studio. I also was old enough to drive the vans. Nat Shed, the camp director, accommodated my request to go back and do one more summer at IMYM, since I was still in the senior young Friends. I arrived at Friends camp a little later in the staff training
“There were lot of tears and lots of love and connection at the Yearly Meeting those last two summers, but especially that summer, when we were dealing with some loss and some hard things. It brought the group together. I had that feeling of being part of a really strong, Quaker, intentional community within IMYM and then seeing how that developed at Friends Camp among the campers and staff. It felt familiar to me. I felt a little bit like I was on the outside, because I didn't know people. I was new coming in. And some of the counselors there had gone there since they were, like, nine years old all the way through and then back as staff, which is such a cool experience.
“I found it quite challenging having the social responsibility for a group of preteens and teenagers and managing that, day in and day out. I learned a lot. I hadn't been part of a project like that before, where you were both living and working together, trying to create arts and crafts, and skit nights, and fires and campouts while leading, helping, and guiding younger people and taking care of them physically. If there’s a health concern, you have to take kids to the health hut in the middle of the night or go find somebody who actually knew what they were doing.
“It was really a group project to discern where we were going programmatically and in terms of caring for the campers. We had support from the director of staff, but there was really that sense that this was a group endeavor. I appreciated how Friends Camp was a majority non-Quaker people who only knew about Quakers through the camp. Most of the counselors didn't attend a monthly meeting or a yearly meeting. Some of the key leaders in the group did. There was also a sense that we could use Quaker testimonies and practices. We had meeting for business with a modified structure and would explain that to kids and to staff.
“There was a picture in the Meeting House from the first year of Friends Camp. I think here were roughly eight campers and a few adults. We learned about how they grew the camp and added cabins and infrastructure slowly with lots of volunteers over the summers.
“I was at the waterfront one afternoon. I was watching the kids jumping and playing and canoeing and swimming and it was an idyllic and beautiful day. I started thinking about creating something like this, but in my home territory. A feeling of hope and excitement grew in me. You could start small, with friends. The people I was with started throwing out ideas. It was then that I put into words this idea: It would be cool to go to a camp like this. What if I could have had this experience as a kid, or worked at a camp closer to home? What if we made something like this camp? Could we bring a camp like this into the world as a ministry or as a calling? Could a camp be made for Intermountain Yearly Meeting? A seed can spark from just a couple of people and a very modest program can grow. You can do it organically and start with donated spaces or labor or expertise and pull it together.
“I wanted to build something that was more inclusive and diverse. I remember talking to people that summer about how all the Quaker spaces I've been in had been grappling in different ways about how to do that work: how to be both open and part of the world, thinking about where we're coming from, where we are and where we're hoping to go in terms of diversity and openness to people who aren't already part of the space in the community. Also, I was one of the few people of color at camp that summer and at IMYM usually.
“I was really noticing relative diversity, going back and forth between college in New York City and Utah. I was studying ethnic studies and psychology and different things and working and working at an after-school program In Harlem that was close to campus. I was thinking about institutions, how the programs are set up, who's here and included. I was trying to reconcile some of the different parts of my life and my identity.
"Diversity and inclusion have been part of the work of Mountain Friends Camp since the beginning. We haven’t found all the answers, and it is still a work in progress over the years. For example, we have worked to support our LGBTQ staff and campers each summer, including offering gender-neutral yurt groups and encouraging campers and staff each session to share their pronouns and whatever name they prefer. I was able to connect and share with other camp leaders, who had been around for decades and were just starting to explore things like trans and non-binary inclusive spaces, about what we had been doing since 2016."
Western Friend: It seems like you felt that creating an experience of community was really important. Was it that you had an experience as a young person in Quakerism that you wanted to share through camp?
“It was that feeling of a supportive, beloved community that felt like the key to me. More so than the forms of what we do at camp: going canoeing, mountain climbing, tie dye, journaling, or even doing dishes. I think what connected me to camp and made it feel Quaker was having a community where there was a lot of trust and mutual accountability; that we would be part of this group together where we would of look out for each other; where we could agree on how to treat each other, how to live together, even if it was only for a few days or weeks at a time.
“It was the Quaker community I had both locally and at the yearly meeting that made me feel like Friends knew me and supported me through whatever was happening. I could be myself with them, not 100% but in a bigger and more open way.
“I wanted to create a space where more people could find that support ... to find what connects them to their own sense of their self, their goals, their values, and their spirits. What connects them to being part of something where they are contributing? I tell the staff and the kids every summer: you're the ones doing this. You're the ones reaching out and making people feel included or helping someone who’s homesick. All the work gets done by us. There's no one else who's going to sweep in and help out or clean up or do it.
“Camp has been the biggest vocational project of my life so far. I remember that one of the older Friends, who's older than my parents, was at the first IMYM interest group meeting in 2009. This Friend spoke about how much work it would be if we actually wanted to turn this brainstorming session into a summer camp. He said, “You know, there would be obstacles. But think how amazing it could be. If this feels like a vocation, think about how you'll feel looking back when you're 30 and saying, ‘I started a summer camp and was able to create a program and bring people together in this way.’ And I thought, Oh, that would be good. I would like to be able to say that about myself. I feel lucky that I've been able to co-create and sustain a camp.”
Western Friend: You started with four campers, and how many do you have now? How do you feel like the program has evolved?
“We started that first time with four campers and three counselors in training. That was 15 years ago. The most kids we've had in a session have been 26 at one time, and we have one to three sessions over a summer.
“We also started a family camp. It’s usually 25 to 30 people, including the younger children that come with parents and grandparents and family. This summer we're piloting a new program called Adventure Camp. We've talked about it for years, and I’m excited. There's a Quaker who has land that’s undeveloped in Cuesta; it actually used to be a youth camp back decades ago. We're going to do an additional four-night program out on that land and try to do a couple of nights backpacking and then a base camp at the site. We’ll get higher into the mountains and do wilderness skills and community building with returning youth campers.”
Western Friend: Do you have a story from camp of a process that surprised you or that showed you that the community aspect was working?
“Several years ago, a group of 11- to 13-year-old boys from one of the cabins came to me and asked for support. They had complaints about the behavior of a cabin mate and they were concerned. I was glad that they came to me. I pulled in their counselor and later that day we had basically a small ad hoc committee. We decided to just go around and have some silence, listening and working on this together. We brought it back to this: What can the campers themselves do to help the dynamic within their cabin feel more positive and supportive? What do we do when there’s challenging behavior? How do we peacefully continue to be a part of the same community even though we’re still not getting along? What do we need to do to go through time and space together?”
"There have also been so many instances of community support and feeling like Way Is Opening for us over the years. We were supported with help to find the location and people for our first pilot program in 2010, and through every challenge and transition since then. We really depend on the wider IMYM community for support and donations, participating in camp, joining the leadership year-round as board members, and grounding and connecting us every year with Quaker faith and practice. This summer we’re looking for more people at camp and on the board, so I hope Friends will look us up and get in touch!"