campoakhallows

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Why should we bother hiring architects and engineers to design our campus when bookshelf miniature holiday towns already exist

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My oh my, this goal is sky-high! Our founder Virginia Gaffney is committing $15,000 to match donations from 12/25 to 01/01. Visit bit.ly/match15k (Facebook event “The Big Match Week”) to help out!

Virginia Gaffney is a 23 year old Austin-area educator earning $15/hr working in public high schools. This match promise represents 1000 work hours, about half a year’s income. Read more at CampOakHallows.com

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Do you have a special interest or skill that you could talk about so much that everyone around you gets annoyed?

Hi, I’m COH Founder Virginia Gaffney, and my family once called me Encyclopedia Brown Eyes because I just wouldn’t shut the fuck up, and this is a job offer for you.

Camp Oak Hallows (501c3) is recruiting for The 2024 Coalition, a collection of development projects to build the world’s first all-accessible and all-sustainable school campus for kids who just don’t want to be in public school, for whatever reason.

From foster youth to those of enlisted guardians, disabled kids, queer kids, kids with interests they cant explore with their local school’s offered courses, all the way to gifted youth trying to avoid burnout, there’s something for everyone at COH.

If you’re even vaguely interested in a future in education, healthcare, youth advocacy, environmental protection, culinary arts, or deep specialized research, please consider joining the 2024 Coalition.

If you’re on your school’s student council, talk to your officers about joining the 2024 Coalition.

If you’re climate-aware and tired of the wasteful ways of traditional school settings, join the 2024 Coalition.

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I wish they didn’t push 4 Year College so much on us,” join the 2024 Coalition.

If you somehow saw this post cross your dash organically, at least click this link to learn more about COH and what we do.

Thanks. Please share.

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Camp Buildings/Places…

Using DALL-E AI images to generate Camp Oak Hallows…

COH Professors…

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Camp Vibes…

More Professors…

Using DALL-E AI images to generate Camp Oak Hallows…

COH Professors…

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Using DALL-E AI images to generate Camp Oak Hallows…

COH Professors…

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PTC #4, but there’s no P and you didn’t have an aPpointment…

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Watch on TikTok: here

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Parent-Teacher Conference #1

See on TikTok: here

Image description: A woman (Headmaster) in a red blouse sits down at a desk for a meeting with a mother (Parent) in a green blouse and sunglasses, and her son (Kid) in a gray hoodie. The son appears uncomfortable.

HM: Hi, thanks for coming to this meeting. Tell me what’s going on?

Parent: We need to withdraw our son from your hippie school.

HM: Oh, okay, are you planning to re-enroll in public school? Are they going to accommodate his 504 needs?

Parent: No, we’re going to homeschool because he’s failing everything.

HM: Let’s take a look at the schedule. It’s a pretty full course load. Lots of hard sciences… Um, are you enjoying the classes?

Kid: Im not really getting the time to do the stuff I want to do

Parent: That’s because school isn’t for fun. I picked these classes so—

HM, interrupting: You picked all of these?

Parent: Yes

HM: Without his input?

Parent: Yes

HM: Okay, we love involved parents, but our biggest thing is student agency. We cant teach independence if our students don’t have control over their learning environment.

Parent: Independence? No, no, you’re here to teach him to get into a top college.

Kid: What if I don’t want to go to college?

Parent, shocked, gasps

HM: Mom? What if he doesn’t want to go to college?

Parent: The military then!

Kid: You can’t make me enlist! I want to be a blacksmith.

Parent: You are not going to trade school! You’ll end up like—

HM: Like who? The people who built your house and everything in it? We offer metalworking as a PE and Art credit. Can I convince you to apply for the apprentice scholarship?

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Another day, another TikTok from COH Founder VL Gaffney (watch with captions: here)

Image description: a woman in a red shirt plays both Presenter and Audience in this tiktok titled “Staff Meeting of 1”. The Presenter stands before a dry erase board, and the audience settles into a chair with a notebook and pencil.

Presenter: Alright, folks… this is what we’re talking about [White board reads, “The Ten Year Plan”]

Presenter: We started off with 100 consecutive days of tiktoking. We moved on to Facebook ad placements. And then we started writing letters to potential business sponsors. BUT, the next step — the most key — here’s, here’s the important one. An ad campaign has to actually work.

Audience member, raising their pencil to speak: Yeah, here’s the flaw I’m detecting… Nobody knows about us. Not even friends or family will share the stuff we post online. And like, I’m sure they know, because it’s the only thing we’ve talked about for the last several years. Uh huh, yeah at this point they’re definitely just willfully ignoring us.

End description.

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Thanks to Taylor Swift for giving this TikTok the right audio for this vibe.

Video description: Audio of Taylor Swift singing “I bet you think about me, yes, I bet you think about me.” Camp Oak Hallows founder VL Gaffney scrolling through her phone, and being surprised by something.

A screen recording shows the Camp Oak Hallows tiktok profile.

She rubs her eyes.

A screen recording shows the most recent tiktok on the profile has more than 400 views, which is unusual.

She cleans the screen with her shirt sleeve.

A screen recording shows there is a lot of view activity on the video.

She squints, confused.

A screen recording shows there is only one “like” on t the video.

She rolls her eyes. End video.

Watch the original on TikTok

Watch this video on TikTok

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Wow, that's a big number! But what's it all for?

See the breakdown of our Cause Project Phases and learn more on our website at https://campoakhallows.com/2021/10/12/ten-year-plan-2/ including ways to give to a Project you care about.

$23,305,000 -- that's the magic number for us. It includes a large "up front" estimate of over $8,000,000, which is a high max estimate that can be decreased significantly with community support and volunteering. Beyond Phase 1, the growth of COH can be accelerated and slowed by the ebb and flow of partnerships with (and generosity of) businesses and organizations interested in our mission and goals. What matters most to you? Could it be the state-of-the-art academic resources like The Hive library, or STEAM Labs? What about a cutting-edge Athletic Park designed for abled and disabled students alike? Are sustainability and green energy your biggest concerns? We're listening! Support the change you wish to see in our world by becoming a Cause Project donor today.

Camp Oak Hallows is a 501c3 organization and your contributions are tax deductible.

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Sorry I’m late I was obsessing over herb spirals

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Hello from central Texas!

On behalf of the administration of Camp Oak Hallows, I’m reaching out as President and Founder inviting you to join the Construction Coalition, a mission-oriented project team comprised of powerful forces for change. Your work caught our eyes as the impressive kind of passion for action that we need in the Coalition for this limited run. Partners and sponsors who elect to participate commit to just under 30 months of collaboration and dedication on a strict timetable, with a clear end in sight.

What is COH, and what are we doing? Since inception in 2017, Camp Oak Hallows has produced accessible and free K12 educational materials, across platforms. We believe that going beyond the traditional scope of classroom subjects into trade and life skills is essential to serving our Campers on their way to adulthood. Now, it’s time to realize our big dreams of becoming the first school of our kind, opening a campus as accessible and sustainable as possible, through critical innovation and unprecedented networking. To open our gates by the spring of 2024, we’ll need all the help we can get, from groups large and small, and anyone with even a remote interest in seeing COH succeed in advancing education.

What do Partners bring to the cause? Your audience and reach are things COH doesn’t have. We can’t amass the kind of public awareness and interest necessary for this project without the help of generous folks who know they have the gift of an engaged following. Through targeted and strategic efforts, we can garner the support of industry professionals, university students and engineering departments, television media outlets, and social media influencers to put donor contributions to good use. Roundtabling as many strong minds and hearts as we can, COH can meet the goal of premiering an operational campus in time for the next total solar eclipse in April of 2024, which will pass directly over our intended site.

What kind of sponsorship is needed? Each Partner is asked to choose a focus project to fund, or partially fund, and identify remaining funds from other sources. Utilizing collective influence, costs can be kept down by recruiting volunteers, Scout groups, and philanthropic organizations or businesses looking to have their hand, and name, in the press releases. Such focus areas include the main Intake offices, lovingly named Haven II in tribute to my parents. Also on the list are The Hearth (primary kitchens and dining), Compass Lake (man-made water recreation area with water reclamation functions), the Agricultural Sector (barns, gardens, and processing machinery), or any of the themed residential Neighborhoods (Renaissance Village, Treehouses, Condos, Lincolnville…)

How will donors be honored? As a 501c3, contributions of all sizes are tax-deductible. Individuals giving as little as $8 will be memorialized in engraved pathway bricks, while gifts of at least $10,000 can land your name on a wing, or entire Academy of programs. All contributors will be invited to attend at least one special event during the first year of operations, such as the Solar Eclipse Viewing Party, or the first ever Winter Ball, a charity gala on the Solstice in December. The first contributors will be offered their choice of events, especially the planned Opening Weekend Festival to celebrate the friends and family who made it all happen. After the first round, later bursts of construction will be fit into the seasonal schedule of operations to not interrupt campus life too drastically. Less “essential” projects, like a ‘State-of-the-Fine-Art’ center and amphitheater, or on-site wind farm are on the table for development. Partners are welcome to stick around and keep up the good work with us well beyond this initial commitment.

The Timetable

By the end of 2022, COH needs to have secured at least $2,000,000 in funds from donors and Early Bird registrations for future Campers. In the next year, an additional $8,000,000 will need to be identified, as this is the year we purchase land and break ground together.

The start of 2024 will see the walls rise on the first buildings, the first solar panel installations, the first rainwater collections in the lake for retention. At the time of opening, COH’s campus should support a population of at least 250 across the desired 500-600 acres (although more wouldn’t be turned away!) in the Cameron-Mexia-Madisonville area north of College Station, Texas.

By 2027, a population of at least 1000 should be more than comfortable, with the property at least self-sustaining, if not exporting power and site-made goods.

The Requirements

If the concept of universal accessibility intrigues you, prepare to wrap your head around the notion of a campus with no stair steps or elevators, while having three-storied buildings (including one subterranean.) Consider the prospects of micro-transit above and below ground for the easy movement of people and Campers across the expanse of the facility. Contemplate the marvel of designing structures unrecognizable from satellite, effectively camouflaging the grounds with greenroofing and bee-loving arboriculture. Take a moment to think on the impact of proving how a pocket community like this can survive and flourish in a meaningful way.

Ready to sign on? Got questions?

Interested parties should contact headmasters@campoakhallows.com (cc: gaffney@campoakhallows.com) with questions, or an outline of their intent to Partner and a description of their participation capacity. Visit CampOakHallows.com for more information about who we are, and to read blogs on our goals and ideas for COH.

Thank you for your time, I hope to hear from you soon. For now, the administration will continue our efforts of writing and converting learning and study content into multiple formats online, helping families homeschool their children, and filling in resource unavailability gaps for students who are not being best supported in their school environments. Everyone deserves a proper education, so schools must be as unique as their students. We’re working on it. Will you, too?

Virginia Gaffney

Headmaster of Serenity House

President and Founder, Camp Oak Hallows

The glass is at half capacity

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Indigenous Canada. Free course. Available online. From Native Studies department at the University of Alberta (where Kim TallBear teaches).

From Indian Residential School Survivors Society, social media, 1 June 2021: “Grateful for the reminder that [University of Alberta] hosts a free course called “Indigenous Canada.” It is a 12-lesson Massive Open Online Course from [University of Alberta Native Studies] that explores Indigenous histories and contemporary issues in Canada, from an Indigenous perspective.”

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Course available here.

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Episode 2 of OAKS HIGH HIJINX now on TikTok

Description: intense music over silenced videos of characters, preparing for a game of Capture the Flag.

Headmaster Cavan narrates in on-screen captions. “Everyone knows how to play Capture the Flag, but we play a little bit differently here. Using your gifts is allowed, as long as no one gets hurt. So get creative, Captains. Choose your teams carefully. And the winners... go down in history.”

Several characters are shown to be using magical powers and have cryptid-type appearances.

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Giving just $1 helps reach the $250K goal by the end of June — but Kickstarter is ALL OR NOTHING! If the goal isn’t met, you will not be charged! Bet on us?