Memphis Democrat
October 8, 2007

Tony here with all the rabbit news. Dancing Rabbit celebrated 10 years on the land this weekend with a big reunion. We had over 100 people in attendance for the Land Day reunion with folks coming in from far and wide to join us in celebrating. It was an amazing weekend of telling stories about the old days, singing songs, playing ultimate frisbee, contra dancing, eating amazing food, and just generally reminiscing.

Part of our Land Day routine is to retell the story of how Dancing Rabbit got started. Cecil shared the story of how he and his friend Dave first conceived of an ecological village back in 1993. I told my story of joining up with Cecil and Dave at Earth Day that same year and Chris Schaefer told the story of us all moving to Berkeley in 1995 (Chris was a member in California but never made the move to Missouri and hadn't been out to visit since 1998). Rachel told the story of our mechanically plagued road trip across country to find land in Missouri and how we found the land we now own. We then told stories from the last 10 years remembering all who have come and gone (or stayed) and how they have all helped make DR what it is today. Thanks everyone!

In attendance for the reunion from out of town were: Molly Hatfield, Nicole Dionne, Chris Schaefer, Cecil Scheib, Jeffrey Harris, Liberty Merril, Maggie Lamb and Brendan Scott, Richard Miller, Clay Yapp, Mark Sundlin, Megan Cain, Emily Huyck, Ma'ikwe Ludwig-Schaub and her son Jibran, Ed Jenkins and his friend Chris, Heather Ward and her friend Art, Antonio "Kalen" "Approximato" Prince and Polona Kordus, Julia Schafermeyer and her friends Malavika Ramakrishna and Isaiah Taylor, the Marcianni family, Joe Locke and his friend Margaret, Bill and Val Durica, Stan and JoAnn Katz, Cherith Moore and her kids Sage and Olivia as well as her friend Alexandro, and Tim Johnson and Jennifer Christopherson and her son Isaac. We also had our friends from Red Earth Farms and Sandhill as well as many more from the NEMO area.

On Saturday evening we were all entertained by an amazing live benefit auction with Laird from Sandhill as the ring master. Attendees had donated an amazing array items, many of them hand made arts and crafts. Following the auction we then had a Talent/No Talent Show with over a dozen acts. There were madrigals, dance performances, dramatic readings, poems, arias, comedy routines which had us all impressed and often exploding in laughter.

The weekend also brought the arrival of a new baby! Adam Day Champion was born October 4th to Michelle Day and Toby Champion. Despite the surprise of an early arrival, all are doing well and Adam even attended some of the festivities (with Toby). Its amazing how big Zane looks in comparison to Adam despite just a few weeks head start on life. We're sure he'll catch up in no time.

Unfortunately our week was not without some sadness as Kurt's father passed away. Kurt went up to Minnesota to be with his family but was back down for the reunion before he and Alline went back for the funeral. Our hearts are with them.

Duncan Carleton celebrated his tenth birthday on Sunday. He got a special cake at the reunion and fireworks on his birthday. What more can a kid want.

Last Monday Cynder shared the results of her new photography hobby with a digital slide show. Rachel has been helping Cynder with the technical end of things but Cynder's photographic talent seems to be innate. It doesn't hurt that people aren't afraid to ham it up for a 9 year old with a camera.

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