Meet the Year-Round Staff

Name: Mark Packer
Job: Executive Director
Years at AF: In January, he's starting his 24th year. He's spent half his life at Appel Farm! He started as the Head Counselor of North and Assistant Camp Director. He said he was terrible at it, but loved the place so much. He believed deeply in what Albert and Clare cared about, like using the arts as a means to learn about ourselves and encouraging young people to think critically and always question why.

1. What animal do you think you are most like?
For some reason Mark declined to answer and plead the Fifth on this one. But we like to think of him as an alpaca. It's kind of like a camel or llama. Mark Alpaca. Get it? (That joke was brought to you buy Jason Blacketer, Events Coordinator.)

2. Do you sing in the shower? In your car? Yes! Mostly Broadway musical tunes.

3. What is the last dream you remember? I have a satanic cat that is very overweight with long claws and I was trimming his claws. That's all I remember.

4. Would you take a dip in Lake Inferior for $20? If not, how much would it take? Yes, sure. (He answered before I even offered him the $20!) But it would have to be the right time of year, like July or August.

5. If you couldn't work at Appel Farm anymore, after the tears, what would you do for a living? Probably parks or environmental work.

WHAT IS YOUR HOME AWAY FROM HOME?

Start with the question and rearrange the letters according to the instructions to find the answer.

“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.” -Ronald Reagan

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mind is inceblrdie. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht odrer the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

“I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.” -James Earl Jones

Backwards Day Race
Bunk 14, First Session

Bunk 18 Girls dressed up for the
Second Session Dinner Dance

David and Emily playing the
Tibetan Freedom Festival

When were you at camp?
I went to Appel Farm thanks to a scholarship from the Marie J. Carroll Foundation and the Merchantville school district. I attended second session in 1987, 1988, and 1989.

What was your major and what were some of your minors?
I started out as a music major, but quickly switched to being an art major and never looked back. 

I always had an art minor, but changed my other minor each summer. I had to take swimming my first year because I was a south senior and could not pass the swimming test. A good friend of mine switched into the same minor even though she was an excellent swimmer, just so I would not have to be alone. 

I also tried photography, and tennis.  I hit more tennis balls into the corn than one would like to believe. Over my three years I spent many moons at the table with Maggie. I learned many skills from her and still use them to this day. In fact I currently have a project on my bead loom here on my desk!

What was camp like when you were a camper and what are some (is one) of your favorite memories?
Camp was a fantastic experience for me. Personally it was four weeks of my life each year where I could be myself without having to worry about anything. Away from camp there were pressures to be something I wasn't, and it wasn't like that at the farm at all.

I remember meeting Sarv and how much that changed my life. Sarv and I traded writings and talked frequently, etc. To this day, we still trade emails and he's been reading a new project I'm working on. I can't believe that after almost 20 years, he and I are still that close...

Where are you located and what are you doing for work and fun?
I currently live in the Atlanta area with my family. I coach my son's soccer team, but I don't fit the mold of the “soccer mom” by any means.

I still work with many different raw materials and do different art pieces here and there. I am also writing a book, based on the wacky people involved in my life and the nutty experiences I've had along the way.

I am work with a company called wKleinberg. We make high-end leather fashion accessories that can be found in stores like Saks, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman. I am new to the company but love every facet of it. My background at Appel Farm, in conjunction with my personality (which I credit the farm with helping to nurture during those awkward formative years), is what landed me the position with this company.

How do you think you were influenced by your Appel Farm experience?Appel Farm taught me that it is okay to be a free-thinker, even at an early age. I learned a lot about myself at Appel Farm that still carries over into my daily life today.

What advice or suggestions do you have for present day Appel Farm campers?
For current campers I'd have to say that the most important part of the Apple Farm experience is to not discount the opportunities extended to you. Sure it may be summer camp, but Apple Farm on a resume is actually a good thing. My background at Appel Farm is what landed me with my current employer, working in the fashion industry.

You truly will make friends for life at Appel Farm. Sarv and I are closer than ever, and I still talk to Louise as as well.

Yackety, Yackety, Yack, Hoppety, Hoppety Hop

When I was very young, Amy and Peter gave me a book of A.A.Milne poems, appropriately entitled "When We Were Very Young." I don't know who Amy and Peter were. That was on November 7, 1942. [I like saying that because it shocks me that it is so long ago. After all, I am an historian by training and the passage of time interests me. And, so far, I enjoy getting old. No real aches and pains. Knock on wood or anything else.] I grew up on these poems. One of them goes,

Christopher Robin goes
Hoppity, hoppity,
Hoppity, hoppity hop.
Whenever I tell him
Politely to stop it he
Says he can't possibly stop.

Nice thing about a good poem is that it grows with you. Now I don't hop much. In fact I have always been more of a skipper or a runner than a hopper. But my mind is different. My mind definitely goes hoppity, hoppity hop. Or, more accurately, it goes yackety, yackety yack.

There's nothing like being alone to realize how much one fills up the thought waves with endless chatter. It's not that I talk to myself a lot. I don't do that by myself more than I do it when I'm with other people. It's just that my mind seems to have a life of its own and blah blah blahs without stopping.

A few years ago I gave a Dream minor on the platform where the Grove Stage is now. It was probably the most beautiful spot in camp. One day I told the minor we were just going to lie on our backs with our eyes open and let in all that was around us. And there was a lot around us. There were birds flying back and forth each in its own zone. There was the burble of the brook and the far off sounds of voices from somewhere. There was a breeze -- a soft gentle whisper against our faces. Through it all I couldn't wait to hear what the campers had felt.

We had ten minutes left to the minor. I asked people to share their experience of this feast of nature.

Sarah said that all she could think about was her boyfriend. Ian kept going over an argument that he with his best friend earlier that day. Allison was worrying about memorizing the part in her play. And so on and so on. Yackety yackety yack. Hoppety hoppety hop. It's not just old farts like me whose minds go round and round and round. We are used to worrying, thinking about the future. We are used to being any place but where we are. What to do?
Three years ago I decided that I would take a two mile walk. I live on top of a beautiful mountain. It would be great exercise.

I started in the spring. Boy did my mind go yackety yack. I found myself arguing with people that weren't there. I finished old arguments. I made up new ones. I worried about things that might happen. And on and on and on. Instead of feeling refreshed, I ended up feeling annoyed and on edge. Some exercise!

Then I realized that I had to force myself to be in the moment -- in the present. How could I do that? Haiku -- that's how.

Haiku is an ancient Japanese form of poetry. It is incredibly simple. Each haiku has three lines. The first line has only five syllables. The second line has seven and the third and last line has five syllables again.

You can't go blah blah blah with haiku when you only have seventeen syllables. Traditionally, haiku is about very specific things -- usually found in nature and reflecting the seasons.

So I decided I would write haiku each time I took my walk. It was like magic. I had to pay close attention to what was going on around me. I had to focus on the moment. There was no space to worry or think about the past or future. There was only now. I found that the same road was different every single time that I walked it. After a year I started putting my haiku on a blog -- check it out.

Now I look forward to my walks as much for the haiku that I will write as for the exercise. And I appreciate the very small changes in the seasons on the mountain.

It seems to me that creativity happens in the moment -- in the now. So, as artists, the more we are able to appreciate what is going on around us, the more creative we can be. Every little bit helps.

It would be great to say that my mind no longer goes yackety yack or hoppity hop. That would not be true. But at least for one hour every other day, I walk along Yerry Hill Road without the blah blah and mind static.

The sky is slate gray;
Cold winds rush down the mountain;
Dry seed pods rustle.