Ryan Miller learned of Zeno Mountain Farm a half-dozen years ago from his Guster bandmate Luke Reynolds, who had recently moved to Lincoln in Addison County.
It was a camp in town, Reynolds told Miller, geared toward helping people with disabilities. Year-round, folks with and without disabilities worked on an even plane to put on shows, all for free. Miller went to one of Zeno Mountain Farm’s annual plays, the musical “Best Summer Ever,” and discovered a “gateway drug” that has kept him in the world of Zeno Mountain ever since.
“When I walked in there and saw the play and saw this place and saw this community, I was like, ‘Well, this is the most magical thing on earth,’” said Miller, who lives in Williston. “It feels like science fiction.”
Miller corralled many of Vermont’s highest-profile musicians to perform Nov. 16 in a 12-hour dance marathon at Zeno Mountain. The fundraiser was expected to raise about $100,000, said Peter Halby, who founded the nonprofit camp with his family. That totals roughly a sixth of the organization’s annual budget.
“We take care of each other together,” Halby said in describing Zeno Mountain’s mission. “We really want to push the definition of inclusion.”
A sense of community in Lincoln, Vermont
As the org says online, Zeno Mountain Farm aims to support “people with disabilities, cancer and traumatic brain injuries, along with veterans, people in recovery and ever-expanding kindred groups.”
The group had roots in California before moving to Lincoln in 2008. The next summer came Zeno Mountain’s first monthlong summer camp, and over time, the team “realized the Zeno model worked to create a society without margins for everyone.”
Of the hundreds of people involved in Zeno Mountain Farm, only four staff members are paid regularly. No one pays to attend. There are no distinctions between counselors and campers. Everyone works together to put on plays and concerts and travel “to all of the sweet spots of Vermont,” Halby said.
Zeno Mountain strives to avoid defining those with disabilities as “almost less-than,” Halby said.
“It’s just like one element of who they are,” he said.
Zeno Mountain Farm offers about 15 residential camp sessions a year totaling nearly 100 days, Halby said, with 50 to 100 people in attendance per session. He said the goal is to invite the same people every year, building a sense of community for those who often bounce around between homes and otherwise miss the thread of togetherness.
“People go back every year,” Miller said. “It really becomes this family, like a real family.”
Zeno Mountain Farm exists “on this incredible network of volunteers,” Halby said. “It’s hundreds of people, hundreds of Vermonters.”
Miller is one of those Vermonters.
“He has taken this on,” Halby said of Miller and his work on the upcoming dance marathon. “He’s so into it. He gets Zeno. He’s such a light and so great at this, and he pours his heart into it.”
Guster singer gets to work
When he saw his first play at Zeno Mountain, Miller was struck by how there was no delineation between actors with or without disabilities. If an actor had trouble speaking a line, they were given the space to speak it. A performer with trouble walking would have someone walking with them. It seemed to Miller to be a place with no race, no age, no particular ability or disability, no hierarchy.
“It’s so hard to be cynical within the walls of the place,” he said.
Miller has been coordinating performers for the half-day dance marathon. Vermont musicians including Brett Hughes, Lowell Thompson, Troy Millette, Matt LaRocca, Mark Daly (Madaila), Eric Maier (formerly of Madaila), Sadie Brightman and James Kolchalka are scheduled for this year’s event.
Miller — who seems to know everyone connected to Vermont’s music scene and many not — is so into Zeno Mountain that the man, who spends months every year on the road with his rock band, has agreed to serve as a board member for the organization.
“I’m not a fundraiser kind of guy,” Miller said. “I don’t want to come in as, like, Daddy Warbucks. What I can do is come in and try to connect people.”
Miller said he aims to be optimistic about life. Zeno Mountain Farm, he said, helps him feel good about humans.
“I think you take that outside of Zeno,” Miller said. “It serves as ballast in my moral maneuverings.”
If you go
WHAT: Zeno Mountain Farm annual dance marathon fundraising event
WHEN: 1 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 15-1 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 16
WHERE: Zeno Mountain Farm, 950 Zeno Road, Lincoln
INFORMATION: To donate, sponsor a dancer or take part in the dance marathon, visit zenomountainfarm.org or fundraise.givesmart.com/e/aahyTg?vid=1muq04
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.
