This featured photo is community service-themed. In the past few years community service has become a buzzword in the world of teen summer camps and travel programs, and that’s great. At Deer Hill, community service for teens has been an integral part of our mission and values for two decades. We might even humbly suggest that we were some of the innovators of experiential learning through service projects and cultural immersion.

This photograph, taken by Deer Hill Founder Doug Capelin in 1990, shows an early Deer Hill group working with Navajo teenagers to construct a water catchment dam, on the property of the Halwood family near Chinle, Arizona. The project was a collaboration between Deer Hill, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Future Farmers of America. The dam created a low-impact way of storing rain water for wildlife as well as livestock and crops, and continues to help to sustain the traditional ranching lifeway of a Navajo family. The Halwoods have planted a fruit orchard and cornfields below the dam that have thrived over the years. In addition to the fun and memories that were created as these young people from very different cultures worked together, something of lasting value remains as a legacy of their labor.