Village 2020 Cancelled

Dear Friends of the Game of Village,

Throughout the past several weeks I've worked with counselors Josh and Jasmine, and with our dedicated board of directors, to find a way to hold camp this summer. We've sought guidance from professionals and the patterns of previous pandemics. We've filled pages with ideas. We've lost sleep; we've shed some tears. Our main priority every summer is the health and safety of our campers and staff. Given the uncertainty of this situation, we just could not get there. We could not ensure the safety of our community this summer. It is with profound sadness that we share our decision to cancel camp this summer.

We know our campers needed camp now more than ever. We're working on ways that we can support them and build our community this summer - albeit in a very different way - and we'll share those plans with you in the coming weeks. For the moment, though, we all need to take some time to feel this loss.

With much sadness and high hopes for a wonderful reunion back at Village in 2021,

Jesslyn and Jacques

The Game of Village Summer Program Director

What is Village? - - - Summer Program Sign Up!

Briefly, The Game of Village (aka Village) is a slice of the real world at its best, in the scale of 1:24. Young people are invited to become Homesteaders on a mini frontier of real territory. In exchange for their agreements, they develop a harmonious and productive community in miniature. Homesteaders are granted a mini acre of land on which their PEEPS (short for miniature people) are required to reside, and make their home. Homesteaders may borrow money on their land at a land bank, without interest, and seek their fortunes as they will, for a stipulated period of time.

Constraints of time do not allow for every dream born of this bountiful opportunity to be realized, but the ones that come true are truly wonderful; and others may be stored in that wrinkle in time where they may grow and bear fruit later.

Adults in the program play the role of Commissioners of a figmentary government, the United States of Monadnock (or the name of the local area). They, too, have land and Peeps and are active in building the institutions that will make the community thrive.

Village is not a programmed game. It is richly tempered by the creative spirit of its players. This does not mean that there is no sequential plan in the scheduling of events, but it does mean that outcomes are dictated, as they are in real life, by unforeseen circumstances, confrontations with natural laws, fortuitous events, personality differences and creative imagination.

Check out our blogs and other Village websites - - -