PORT HADLOCK — A mammoth volunteer effort has poised Sunfield School to open its doors — and farmland — to students for the first time in September.
The idea of establishing North Olympic Peninsula’s only Waldorf School on an 81-acre organic, biodynamic farm in Port Hadlock motivated many local people to volunteer their time and skills to the project.
Many volunteers are parents of children who will attend the school.
Many have donated 500 hours to the project. Others have put in 1,000 hours.
The initial infrastructure portion of the project has cost roughly $400,000 in grants and donations, School Administrator Abigail Jorgensen.
Sunfield still has $80,000 to raise before the end of the year, she said.
Holistic approach
The current bustle of backhoes digging trenches for infrastructure will be replaced, come Sept. 11, by the pre-kindergarten through fourth-grade students.
They will be there to get hands-on education in the Waldorf tradition, which emphasizes a holistic approach to teaching.
“This is what it’s all about, hearing these kids play,” said John Camastro as he watched his second-grade daughter Ula with other children of volunteers at the farm on Wednesday.
Camastro, in his capacity as owner of Port Townsend-based Moving Earth Excavating, has provided use of his equipment and work force, as well as many hours of his time, to the project.
Sixty-eight students now are signed up to be the first to learn at the farm, said Jorgensen, who expects about 75 students to register by the first day of school.
Having a school on a working farm is a rarity, Jorgensen said, with only three others existing in the country.
And although the farm is used to educate the children, the goal is not to produce a crop of farmers.
“We’re trying to raise children who are connected to the land,” Jorgensen said.
For instance, to learn math and business, third grade students will start a mock egg business and must be involved in every aspect of it, from harvesting to creating a marketing plan.
“There are lots of creative ways to integrate academics into the farming,” Jorgensen said.
Natural materials
On Wednesday, Port Townsend woodworker Jim Tolpin was busy building a deck at the back of the school building made from cedar wood grown on Eagle Mount.
“We’ve put a real emphasis on natural materials with local sources,” Tolpin said.
He is also building cabinets in the school building for students, one of which is his kindergarten son, Abel.
Peter Bates, a construction worker at Port Townsend-based McFadden and Davis, spent a lot of time obtaining natural, local materials for the project.
“It definitely was a lot more work to do it that way, but it was worth it,” he said.
“It’s certainly been a rewarding experience, that you’re participating in something at the ground level,” he added.
“That school’s going to be around for years and years.”
Another who has donated his time is volunteer project manager Cody Patterson.
He has spent more than 1,000 hours over the last year working with Jefferson County Community Development to obtain the permits for the construction.
In addition to the main school building, Orca School in Port Townsend recently donated modular classrooms to Sunfield School.
Farm house from Canada
And a farm house that was shipped on a barge from Canada is new to the farm.
It is where the farm manager and his family will live.
The infrastructure is almost installed, which leaves the finer work inside the school building and landscaping still to be finished.
For more information on the school or to enroll, phone the school’s offices at 360-385-3658 or visit its Web site at www.sunfieldfarm.org.
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Reporter Evan Cael can be reached at 360-385-2335 or evan.cael@peninsuladailynews.com.
