Meet our Staff of 2013!

Camp Director: Anastacia Easterling: I grew up in Utah and became a member of Logan Friends Meeting right before moving away at age 17. Since then I’ve studied, worked and traveled in Sichuan China, New York City, Pendle Hill PA, Pahoa HI and Washington DC,
and I am always glad to come back to Logan and connect with friends and family. During college I spent a great summer as arts and crafts director at cabin counselor at Friends Camp in Maine. I talked it up so much to the IMYM Senior Young Friends that we decided to form a committee and start our own summer camp. Five years later, here we are getting ready for the fourth session of Mountain Friends Camp! I am looking forward to building Quaker community and having a great time with f/Friends new and old this summer in Tincup, Colorado. See you soon!

Emma Jonté, a recent high-school graduate, lives near Washington,DC and will study studio art at Montgomery College next year, concentrating on painting and graphic design. She has worked in Friends Community School’s Extended-Day program for two years and its summer art camp for five years. She enjoys DC’s museums and cultural opportunities, but even more, she loves escaping its humidity and spending August in Northern California with her cousins, hiking in the Trinity Alps. She looks forward to going to Colorado for the first time and getting to know another Quaker community.

Dave Wells, a MFC parent from Tempe Friends Meeting, is eager to return to a camp environment. He worked as a summer camp counselor from age 16 through 21. Dave brings values of environmental sustainability and vegan cooking skills. Dave makes his own vegan milk, cheese and yogurt and makes a fantastic pizza crust and naan bread. Dave’s one of Arizona’s renowned solar chefs. Sun willing, he’ll showcase some of his assortment of solar ovens. He likes to hike, bike, run and kayak.

Katherine Hoffman: A member of Mountain View Friends Meeting, I grew up in Denver and moved east to attend college. Since graduating, I worked as a nanny in Brooklyn by day and studied theater at Atlantic Acting School by night. This will be my first time as a camp counselor for Mountain Friends Camp and I’m looking forward to hiking, playing games, and exchanging stories with all attending.

Gretchen Reinhardt: I grew up in Boulder, CO Friends Meeting, and attended IMYM and the work camp once held there in the ’70s when I was a teenager. I have always loved being in the outdoors (sitting, hiking, biking, backpacking, rock climbing, caving etc.), and am delighted to be back in the Rocky Mountains for a few weeks this summer. My husband, two children, and I live in Tempe, AZ. I love to dance, sing, garden, sew, cook, read, notice beautiful things, and just hang out and learn about others. I had the pleasure of serving as IMYM’s Children’s Yearly Meeting coordinator for a number of years, and currently work at our Tempe, AZ neighborhood school as a teacher’s assistant in a behavioral needs classroom.  I studied Politics (and art – but not quite enough for a minor) as an undergraduate, and Conflict Analysis and Resolution as a graduate student.  In July I will be giving a workshop at the FGC gathering that combines two subjects I think are very interesting and important: Quaker process and Climate Change. I look forward to seeing you at camp and learning about what you see as important.

Liadh Reilly: I am from the south east of Ireland, and plan to attend Earlham college in the Autumn, where I want to study the Humanities. I grew up Quaker and have been deeply involved with FGC for many years, attending Gatherings, Ireland Yearly Meeting and clerking. This will be my first time as a camp counselor and I am really looking forward to the connections I will make as well as positively impacting the Mountain Friends Camp community. I love the outdoors and mountains and am excited to hike and explore with the campers and staff, help around wherever I’m needed and have a wonderful time overall.

Dominic Ireland: I have been a counselor and care-giver since I was old enough to drive. I love the wilderness and the happiness it brings to those who embrace it. I am a practicing Quaker and a member of Intermountain Yearly Meeting. I am always looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones at Mountain Friends Camp. I have been around since the start of this venture and look forward to returning every year that I can!

Kathy French recently retired from teaching at Utah Valley University. Before her university career she worked with people having special needs, especially young people. She was raised in Illinois and moved from Utah to Tucson to live near a son and grandson. She attends the Pima Friends Meeting. She loves the outdoors and exploring Tucson’s environment.  Kathy enjoys traveling and writing. She is excited to learn, work, and have fun at Mountain Friends Camp.

Lewis Bailey is a young friend from Taos, New Mexico who has been working at summer
camps since 2007. He is currently studying at LIU Global and will be going to China and Australia. He loves nature, poetry, stories and games, and can’t wait to share with and learn from the Mountain Friends Camp community.

Ariel Bibby: I am very excited to return to Mountain Friends Camp for my fourth year as a counselor. When I am not at camp I attend law school in Washington, DC where I live with my wife-who happens to be the camp director! My favorite parts of camp are playing games, telling stories, and getting to know new people.

Pat Easterling: I was a Navy brat who moved often, though Dad managed to get several tours in Hawaii. As an adult I came to consider myself a Quaker, and after Brenda and I had children we became members of Logan Friends Meeting. Now we live on the Big Island of Hawaii where I like to bodysurf, see the new lava flow, “talk story” and am learning to hula dance. Looking forward to the songs, hikes, old and new friends and lots of PLORK this summer!

Eric Wright: I’m a member of Mountain View Friends Meeting in Denver, and have been a Quaker all my life. I think my favorite job was working as a counselor and program director at Camp Dark Waters in New Jersey, when I was in high school and college. More recently I’ve helped run a Family Resource Center in Denver. My wife Judy and I have two grown daughters, Maya and Jenny and two grandsons, William and Thomas. I’m sixty-seven this year, retired but pretty busy. I like being outdoors, cooking, playing guitar and singing, and getting to know people in a group.  I’m excited that we’ll be back at Timberline Trails in Tincup, CO for camp this year, my goal for Mountain Friends Camp this year is still to be a good listener.

Beverley Weiler:  I have been part of summer camps for 50+ years,
starting with Girl Scouts, ‘way back when’! During the rest of the year I sew, make quilts and work with pre-schoolers to adults doing art therapy and re-evaluation co-counseling. Although I was raised Catholic, and still go to mass each week, I also have been attending the Santa Fe, N.M. meeting for about 30 years! I’m excited that we’ll be back at Timberline Trails in Tincup, CO for camp this year,I have been cooking for crowds since childhood and I’m looking forward to year #2 at MFC; sharing my energies and skills in the kitchen and during arts and crafts times.

Heather Bertram: I was born in Washington State, but I have lived in NM for a long time with my aunt Beverley. I like music, traveling, pen pals, collections, embroidery and  I have a disability called Asperger’s so you might think I’m shy, but it just takes me a while to get used to things. I really like watching ‘American Idol’. Last year we went to their concert after camp. I have been practicing my singing this year and look forward to sharing and learning some new songs. I go to Quaker Meeting in Santa Fe, and I help with the First Day school almost every week.

Lucy Bauer: I was born and raised in England, but have now spent half of my life in Colorado. I live in the mountains in a small log cabin outside Bailey with Dave and the younger three of our six kids, where we homeschool, raise chickens and play lots of music. I trained as an ecologist at college and enjoy gardening and planting 300 trees each year on our 43 acres each year. I also love to play my doublebass, Hugo, in the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra. I was raised a Quaker, and attend Mountain View Friends Meeting whenever I can get down there.