Meet the Year-Round Staff

Name: Emily Huffman
Job: Arts Education Associate
Years at Appel Farm: 2 summers at camp,
1.5 years in the office.      

1. What animal do you think you are most like?
I've been told I am most like a three-toed tree sloth.  Why? I'm not sure why and I also haven't decided if I should be offended or not.

2. Do you sing in the shower? In your car?
I live with Adam Moreno and I know my singing could never compare to his so I usually don't sing in the shower.  In your car? Adam and I have been known to have a few sing-a-longs while driving. 

3. What is the last dream you remember?
I had a dream the other night about cake. All I remember is eating it. The funny thing is that it was chocolate cake and in real life I don't like chocolate cake.

4. Would you take a dip in Lake Inferior for $20? If not, how much would it take?
Sure. Every year I compete in a race that is 4 miles long through mud and trenches full of dirty water. Lake Inferior seems clean after all the dirt I've seen.  

5. If you couldn't work at Appel Farm anymore, after the tears, what would you do for a living?
I have always wanted to be a professional whistler. I heard Paul Simon had a whistler that would tour with him and I thought that sounded like a fun job. A couple of summers ago at camp I had my whistling debut. I was on stage with AJ Visgil while he played a Belle and Sebastian song at a staff event.  

2nd Annual Rachel Rae’s Movie Game!

Every title listed below is a movie nominated for an Oscar this year and can be figured out using the thesaurus in your mind. For example, “Battle of the Planets” becomes “War of the Worlds” or ”Teacher Who Likes Pecans” becomes “The Nutty Professor.” Give it a try!

1. The Ruler
2. Tiny Daylight Girl
3. Nightmare Ladies
4. The Ones Who Have Left
5. Cheerful Extremities
6. A Problematic Fact
7. Pot’s Maze
8. Satan Dons Versace
9. Vehicles
10. A Name: Enlightening Education of the USA to Help a Magnificent Country

Every title listed below is a movie that has a word or words missing that relate to Appel Farm. For example, “The Secret _ _ _ _ _ _” becomes “The Secret Garden.”

1. Space _ _ _ _ (think what we are)
2. Funny _ _ _ _ (think what our name is)
3. The _ _ _ _ _ Dumpling Gang (think what our “naem” is)
4. _ _ _ _ _ League (think classes)
5. _ _ _ _ _ by _ _ _ _ _west (think bunks)
6. House on Haunted _ _ _ _ (think bunks)
7. _ _ _ _ _ Pacific (think bunks)
8. _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _   Lights (think concerts)
9. I Know What You Did Last _ _ _ _ _ _ (think season)
10. _ _ _ _ _ _ and the _ _ _ _ _ (think sculpture)

Click to check your answers!

“But thy eternal summer shall not fade .”
-William Shakespeare

Ah, summer!  That wonderful season when the bright sun shines, the warm breeze blows, the beautiful garden grows, and we all return to an amazing summer at Appel Farm.  We all look forward to those great months, June, July and August!  For some, it is the thoughts of camp that get us through the long, cold winter months. Summer offers us four weeks of fun and learning, old friends and new experiences.  What does winter offer… frigid temperatures, bare trees, grey skies, and school.  However, is this selling the winter months short?  Without these cold, gloomy winter days would we fully appreciate the warm, sunny summer days?  Can any of us truly appreciate all the wonderful aspects of our lives without the inevitable downfalls, misfortunes, or sadness?  As we sit at our desks looking out the window at a wintery snowfall on a sunless afternoon, daydreaming of summer…remember that the wonderful days at Appel Farm are made even better thanks to these long months away from the camp we love!

“In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer ” -Albert Camus

When were you at camp?
I was at camp for the summers of 2000, 2001, and 2002

What was your major and what were some of your minors?
My major was violin for my first and second summers, and the theater my last year. I took many minors ranging from musical theater to ceramics, music, and dance.

What was camp like when you were a camper and what are some (is one) of your favorite memories?
Camp was a wonderful experience where the campers and counselors got along in a great community feeling. I always felt at home anywhere on camp, and everyone was always happy.

My most fond memory is when, on the last night of camp after having a wonderful day of performances, the final farewell singing came, and Issy and Dwayne (two counselors at the time) sang Andrea Bocelli's Time To Say Goodbye, and all of my friends and I were crying and sobbing and saying how much we were going to miss one another, and that was when I realized that these people would be my closest friends forever and they still are.

Where are you located and what are you doing for work and fun?
Right now I am living at home in Fairfield, Iowa. I do a lot of art stuff (painting, drawing, and ceramics) and also circus work. I do fire twirling and am working on getting onto the aerial silks. I am getting together a portfolio to apply for art schools in NYC.

How do you think you were influenced by your Appel Farm experience?Appel Farm really shaped who I am today because it was the place where I learned about my love for the creative and fine arts. The counselors and campers were so supportive of me that I truly blossomed at camp. It was also at camp where I realized that I was gay, and the support from my friends there really helped me embrace this fact rather than try to repress it.

What advice or suggestions do you have for present day Appel Farm campers?
My advice for campers is to enjoy camp. Whatever you are doing, whatever you think of doing, just enjoy camp. The environment of camp is one of the most closely-knit family environments, and to enjoy that is to enjoy the whole of life.

What am I Going to Write?

Gotta have a point. Gotta have a beginning. Gotta have an ending and a middle too. Have to write grammatically correct—I mean grammatically correctly.

After I drop all that garbage I can begin to write. When I sit down to write something strange happens. From the time that I first begin to put words down on paper I don’t know exactly where I’m going. But I do love trying to follow behind those little fountain pen squiggles that shine on the paper. (If you have never written with a fountain pen you are missing a great experience. There’s nothing like watching your words shine on paper. Call me crazy, but it’s fun).

I wrote my first story when I was seven. All I remember was that it was scary and some man with a limp was thumping up the steps and……. I never finished it. I think I got so scared writing it that I had to stop.

From the time that I wrote that first story until now one thing has remained the same. I never really know where it is going to end. The writing is part of the trip. It’s like my pen is a horse and I am giving it its head. Together we will find out where we are going.

It’s too bad we can’t do this more in school. In school we learn how to write essays. We have a topic. We have a beginning and a middle. We have a conclusion. And we have to know all this before we can get a word down. That’s OK. Essays are important. It’s good to know how to write in that form. But that’s not creative writing.

I once heard Steve Martin interviewed on television. He’s not only a very funny comedian he’s also a brilliant man. One of the things he said on that program was that “nothing creative comes from the conscious mind.” Quite a statement. Doesn’t mean that we do our best creative work passed out or unconscious. (Although, some of the most creative ideas come from our dreams). It means that creativity is an exploration and, as with any exploration, you can’t know what you are going to find until you go there.

Writing creatively is like stepping into a dimly lit forest. The path disappears and we find that we are all on our own. Kind of like life.

It’s a little scary—stepping into the unknown. What kind of crazy things are going to flow from this ancient fountain pen of mine? But it’s exciting as well.

I like not knowing where I’m going as long as I end up somewhere. Right now I am working on a novel. Places, people, stories keep opening up in it.  They are familiar and strange at the same time. Weird. I do hope it ends sometime. That’s what publishers and deadlines are good for.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could spend a lot of our lives following our pens, our paintbrushes, our dancing feet, our cameras—our creative tools—rather than making them follow us. Someone once said that life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be explored. I think artists explore the mystery.

Sometimes it’s a good thing to know where we are going. When we walk to our friend’s house it’s a good idea to know where we are going. When I take a plane somewhere I like to feel that the pilot knows where he is going. There’s a place for everything.

Creativity is different. Creativity—whether it is with paintbrush, pen, dancing feet or camera—is exploration. We have an opportunity to be creative in the time that we are in that strange town of Elmer, New Jersey. Funny thing is that we have an opportunity to be creative in other places and other times as well. We can be creative in the way we relate to each other—that’s an exploration. We can even be creative in the way we put our clothes on. (How many people put the same foot in the same shoe the same way every day?). Once we start not caring so much about where we are going we just might find ourselves in some exciting places.