Part 3: An Idea Gets Legs
This section describes how the idea of Lamplight began to be organized into reality.
On the Naming of Lamplight
Kevin Burns
Kevin was part of the first road trip and recently spent his summer in Alabama working on the land and doing outreach in Guntersville and Birmingham.
“Yeah we were supposed to write pitches, like how would you describe what we were doing, what the project was, and where it was, to somebody who didn't know, quickly, in a way that made sense to most people. A big part of that also was for us to have it make sense in a really clear way to ourselves. This was at an earlier point in the project so we were really just trying define it in clear terms for ourselves and then for others.
Burns poses by the push mower near the lake.
For me the pitch — my pitch — had like two main purposes, which was my favorite thing with the project at that point especially having just done the road trips was the property and I really wanted to highlight that I feel like it was the main draw, you know, and I thought it would be great to bring people into it then highlight all of this amazing work folks have been doing in terms of what would actually go on at the camp. So I really wanted it to be kind of a romantic vision of the property in the cabin. So I went all out I think with the descriptions there. And the other point was I really wanted to get a name that was like short that you felt like after you been to the camp you could say, ‘Oh yeah, I went to Lamplight,’ or, ‘I'm going back to Lamplight this summer.’ I wanted a name like that and Lamplight was my favorite name.
So I wanted it to be something simple and catchy and sounded cool. And yeah I was totally convinced that I could get one of those from a Halo map or a location in Fallout and I did so… I was pretty proud of that.
Burns lets out a cackle by the lake before kayaking out into a brewing storm.
Burns confronts some unfortunate wasps.
Then there's meeting after, which was great. We had all these pitches and I was feeling like mine was gonna to be what I wanted to be, which was, you know, mine’s gonna be a little bit more story-like, a little more romantic than technical, although looking at it now it’s like half gobbledy-gook on the technical side. But during the meeting, all of the different pitches were not labeled with people [authors]. And we were like: ‘Alright, let’s take 5 minutes to read the pitches.’ And we start were reading and reading and people were like, ‘Hmm... Oh good,’ and then everybody starts laughing and I know instinctively that they got to my pitch. My pitch is being read and everybody’s laughing and they’re like ‘Who wrote the tumbledown cabin? Who’s that? What’s the beaming bejeweled sunroom?’ and I was like ‘Ohhh... I think I overdid it, I went a little bit too far.’ But at the time, I was like, this is a good pitch, this is really good. And… uhh.. Yeah, it was quickly laughed out of the pitch-making process, probably rightfully so, but you know it’s still…”
Daniel: “But, the name?”
Burns: “But the name, the name stuck. We got the name. Lamplight. I’m still very proud of that name.”
Zac joined the team in the spring of 2018. Here, he discusses his background and hopes for the Sand Mountain Cooperative Education Center, which will host Lamplight as its first program.
The Winter Retreat
in january of 2018, an 8-person crew gathered in snowy ithaca, NY, to sketch out a plan for the next phase of the project. below is an account and some photos from that weekend.
Pablo Uribe drove through a blizzard to make it from New Haven, CT to the retreat in Ithaca. To the right, he recounts what he found when he got there.
I remember the drive to the winter meeting really well. I had left New Haven early because I knew there was a storm going on in Ithaca. On the drive, all I could think about was our vision for Lamplight and the logistics for the weekend ahead. In that way that happens on long drives the two strains of thought started blurring together in my mind. The practical question: Will we cook together at the house? shifted into a daydream about what a Lamplight meal will feel like. The concern: Are we going to get through the agenda? led to wondering about how students and staff will make decisions next summer… that kind of thing.
As I got closer, the snow started picking up. It was enough to make the ride a little tense for this West Coast driver… I thought: It is not always easy to travel to Ithaca… but I’ve got a good reason to press on. The tricky road conditions gave me just the adrenaline I needed to jump right into the flow of things. I dusted the snow off of my jacket and changed into sneakers. Someone had made soup. I think we were talking about different renovation plans for the property...
