Over Labor Day weekend 2024, Quaker Center held a series of events to mark the celebration of 75 years. Over 150 people gathered over the long weekend to celebrate, make Quaker Center shine, sing, worship, enjoy great food, hike, relax, and eat cake. Friends of Quaker Center came from far and wide, including many neighbors and some San Lorenzo Valley residents who had never visited Quaker Center before but had been hoping for a reason to come.
Saturday: Work Camp Day
Things began on Saturday with a Work Camp Day in the tradition of Family Work Camp (an annual week-long event held at the beginning of August). FWC has been held here for decades and always brings together several generations of Quaker Center folks. On this Work Camp Day, one and all pitched in to get our place ready for the weekend – gussying up the orchard, setting up picnic tables and blankets, and getting the Redwood Circle and the Casa de Luz prepared for company. It was wonderful to kick off the anniversary celebration with a happy nod to Family Work Camp – one of Quaker Center’s most cherished annual activities.
That afternoon, Bryan Runyan created a one-of-a-kind anniversary scavenger hunt that took participants from one end of Quaker Center to the other and all points in between, finally arriving at cold lemonade in the Redwood Lodge. It was great fun and togetherness, and we all made it eventually.
Sunday: The Center is Quaker
On Sunday, we held a special Meeting for Worship on the occasion of Quaker Center’s anniversary in the beautiful Redwood Circle. Those gathered represented a remarkable cross-section of our extended community: Quaker Center staff and former staff, Santa Cruz Friends Meeting members, Quaker camp campers and their families, Family Work Camp folks, San Lorenzo Valley neighbors, current and former board members, brand new visitors, Quarterly Meeting-goers, and even some of the children of the original founding group of Quaker Center. It was a magical, gathered Meeting for Worship, and many of those present shared what had first brought them to Quaker Center and what they still loved so much about it.
The name of this day’s event, The Center is Quaker, refers to a memoir written by Earle Reynolds. He and his wife Akie were some of the first ‘resident hosts’ of the Ben Lomond Quaker Center. Earle was also a legendary peace activist who sailed his boat The Phoenix into an American nuclear testing area in 1958 to protest and draw attention to the madness and inhumanity of nuclear warfare. In his memoir, he managed to capture much of the joys and quirks of living and working here at Quaker Center, and the playful title for his book still works fine today. The Center is Quaker still. What better way to follow a Meeting for Worship than with a potluck we held in anniversary fashion at the newly-repainted Casa de Luz? Gorgeous weather, happy people, the matchless view, and terrific food made it a perfect occasion.
Attendees took part in a simple seed-planting ceremony held after lunch. In the hot afternoon, a few dozen people lined up to receive and plant seeds in our parched garden. Quaker Center staff, as always, pledged to water and tend to these seeds. Those gathered used this simple activity to recommit our shared institution to its original mission of providing Quaker programming, welcoming all into this unique space, and furthering Friends’ testimonies. And with that, the next 75 years began.
Monday: Quaker Center Open House and Birthday Party
This event was held on Monday, September 2, 2025 – Labor Day. Once again, those present prepared our space for visitors, who began to trickle in through the morning. They were drawn by Quaker Center’s invitations, by an Open House sign down on Highway 9, by a story in a local newspaper, and more. We gathered outside the orchard lodge in a great big circle and, arm in arm, sang a special Quaker Center version of ‘Those Were the Days.’ Chef Tod Nysether prepared a gorgeous outdoor lunch for all, and folks scattered through the orchard on picnic tables in the shade. From the stage, the music of a harp filled the air.
The growing crowd slowly made its way down to the Redwood Lodge, where Alma Moon had baked a birthday cake for the ages. Decorated with an iconic QC apple tree image, the cake had a middle layer of custard made from Quaker Center’s apples. The same heavenly flavor led Lucille and Clyde Manley to purchase this property in 1920. We sang Happy Birthday, we cut the cake, and enjoyed coffee and tea. We celebrated being there with such delicious food and company.
Did the famed “Rey León” taco truck actually come all the way up Hubbard Gulch Road to offer their award-winning Mexican food to revelers later that afternoon? That piece of the schedule has already been lost to the mists of time and mythology, another one of many Quaker Center tall tales that only those who were there might confirm for sure one way or another.
