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Work Is Love Made Visible

The first AFSC work camp trained young leaders while aiding a community.

One of the most important and popular of the AFSC's programs was the summer work camps, established in 1934. While the AFSC did not initiate the work camp concept, it influenced its development in Europe. Following World War I, a Swiss scientist and pacifist, Pierre Ceresole, impressed by the reconstruction efforts of Quakers in France, was looking for a form of alternative military service for pacifists. With backing from the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, Friends, and other pacifists, he organized a group of young men from Germany and France to help rebuild devastated areas of France. The idea spread throughout Europe and especially took root in Germany, where thousands of young people enrolled in voluntary camps.

Sunday evening supper, July 1934.

Ray Newton of the AFSC's Peace Section suggested adopting the European work camp scheme in 1933. The United States was going through the Great Depression, and some young people were losing hope in the future. It was felt that participating in some kind of summer activity that would contribute to positive solutions-no matter how small-would help them regain a positive outlook. Also appealing was the idea of including participants from privileged backgrounds to help those young people acquire better understandings of the economic and social problems facing the country.

Clarence Pickett helped the process in several ways. First, he spoke to an AFSC supporter who helped finance the program with a $30,000 contribution, and so the AFSC had enough money to plan three years of work camp activities. Second, Pickett was a consultant in federal government work in subsistence homesteading and was familiar with the project in western Pennsylvania called Norvelt. It was decided that an AFSC work camp could help the Norvelt project with construction of a reservoir and ditch to hold a water main for the community.

In the summer of 1934, fifty-five young people contributed 10,000 hours at Norvelt by digging a ditch one-and-a-half miles long and constructing a 260,000-gallon reservoir. They spent evenings discussing economic and social problems that had contributed to the depression. The directors of this work camp were Mildred and Wilmer Young, who later devoted their lives to several experiments with cooperative enterprises in Mississippi and South Carolina. Another one of the first group of work campers was David Richie, who later developed weekend work camps so students could participate at one location for an extended period of time.

Documents from the thin folder of material pertaining to Norvelt in the AFSC Archives reveal a variety of impressions about the work camp's effectiveness. For example, here is an excerpt from one camper's letter: "…I found it stimulating beyond measure. I feel that I have learned a great deal that will be valuable to me sometime." A note attached to his letter presents another view: "…spoiled, and left early without adequate reason. Am glad he felt it worthwhile."

However, Homer Morris, who worked with the federal government at the time of the Norvelt work camp but was connected with the AFSC during other periods, stated a positive impression: "This work camp was the most successful type of educational procedure that I have ever seen. I think probably this camp more nearly duplicated the experience which the Service Committee workers had in reconstruction work in Europe, than anything the Service Committee has been able to do since."

Campers at lunch at Socialist picnic.

Rear view, Jesse Holmes at Socialist picnic. (Dr. Jesse Holmes, professor of philosophy at Swarthmore College. Ran for governor on Socialist ticket.)

Based on this initial experiment and with support funds in hand, the AFSC continued to develop work camps in the United States, later expanding to international locations. Work camps continued for three decades and continue to be used on a much smaller scale by the AFSC/Intermountain Yearly Meeting Joint Service Project and the AFSC/Southern California Quarterly Meeting Joint Youth Service Project.

Jack Sutters, AFSC Archivist

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