University of Virginia Library

Innisfree: An Escape From Hopeless Alienation To Inner Freedom

BY BILL BARDENWERPER

Imagine that you are 18
years old, out of school, unable
to secure a job and mentally
retarded. So you are
committed to an over-crowded
and under-staffed institution
laden with a feeling of death.

Or, you are left at home
fearing a future without loved
ones, of someday being alone.
If you do get a job it is merely
to pass the time and fill the gap
between day and night: it is
dull, repetitious tedium that
provides no feeling of
accomplishment or fulfillment.

Otherwise, you sit fixed to a
chair, staring endlessly at the
television or listening
incessantly to a blaring radio
unmoving, unfeeling, merely
existing.

Is this all there is to life for
the mentally retarded? Can he
expect only to be nursed and
cajoled the rest of his life?

Heinz Kramp believes
otherwise. Last year he set out
to prove that life could be
better for the mentally
retarded.

Commune In Foothills

Last fall he began his little
community on a 400-acre tract
of woods and rolling farmland
in the foothills of the Blue
Ridge mountains near Crozet.

There were then only
three retarded adults, or

Villagers as they are called, and
five co-workers. Today
Innisfree Village, an
interdependent working
community with mentally
retarded men and women is the
home for 11 Villagers, 13
co-workers and 12 children.

Innisfree Village provides an
alternative to the large
institution where the
handicapped person is kept
sedated 24 hours a day. The
Villager is not viewed as a
patient to be entertained, kept
occupied or treated with
special condescension. Rather,
Innisfree provides an
environment where the
handicapped Villager and
non-handicapped co-worker
can live and work together.

There are no institutional
kitchens, dormitories or mess
halls. Instead the Villager eats
meals with co-workers in a
family atmosphere within their
homes.

Modeling his community
after the Camphill Movement
established some 30 years ago
in Copake, New York, Heinz
Kramp's community is one in
which "volunteers choose to
live with the handicapped, not
for the handicapped." Here it
is hoped that the mentally
handicapped can live a vital
and productive life in an
environment free from
distraction and hostility. Here,
at Innisfree, the mentally
handicapped may develop a
sense of belonging to a
community in which he can
make significant contributions.

Mentally retarded adults
who are accepted as Villagers
at Innisfree must be at least 17
years old and must be able to
manage their own personal
hygiene. They must also
demonstrate a certain promise
to work and live compatibly
with others. "This," says Mr.
Kramp, "is indeed necessary
for Innisfree to be successful in
the kind of living situation
which we promote."

Villagers Contribute

The Village is a working
farm where everyone has a job
which contributes to the
support of the entire
community. Thus, the people
of Innisfree are able to produce
many of their daily needs right
on the farm.

Providing its own beef,
dairy products, eggs, vegetables
and bread, the village is able to
recover a portion of its
operating expenses by
marketing locally beef cattle,
cereal, eggs and bread, which
the Villagers make in their own
bakery. "Our aim, of course, is
to be fully self-sufficient," says
Mr. Kramp

The Village also has a
woodworking shop and
weavery in which the
community produces furniture,
toys and simple woven articles.
This too has aided Innisfree in

the process of becoming
self-supporting.

Nor is Innisfree expecting
sometime in the future to
receive substantial federal,
state or local funds. In time, it
is expected that produce and
product sales will account for
as much as 30% of the Village's
income. For now, though,
Innisfree must rely heavily on
individual contributions. This,
together with contributions
from tax-exempt foundations
and a $300 monthly tuition
required of every Villager, has
helped Innisfree to survive.

Scholarship Provided

Mr. Kramp hopes that his
community will eventually be
opened also to the poor and
under-privileged through a
scholarship program which will
pay their tuition expenses.
When the community is
completed, he believes that
one-third of all Villagers will
then be supported by
scholarships.

Future plans also call for
four new houses, a greenhouse,
a new bakery, a saw mill, a
community center, a school
and a gymnasium. Enrollment
would then be 150 persons as
"an absolute maximum–that is
80 Villagers and 70 co-workers
and their families," according
to Mr. Kramp. "But when we
get 50 Villagers, we'll begin
planning another Village
somewhere else in Virginia, or
maybe Pennsylvania or West
Virginia."

Houses Clustered

Mr. Kramp explains that
what they would ultimately
like is three small communities
within the larger Village. A
cluster of three or four houses
could comprise the smaller
community with all the
communities utilizing the
larger facilities of the school
and gymnasium.

"All our daily needs are
provided for us," explains Mr.
Kramp. "But let's say, for
example, that someone in the
community should like to visit
a friend in New York. The
members of the community
would then pool their money
together– that is the $10 per
month everyone earns for
spending money–so that this
person might be able to go."

Mr. Kramp presently lives in
a large new house with his
wife, six children and five
handicapped adults. "We all
live together 24 hours a day,"
says Mr. Kramp, "and are all
part of one family."

"Most of the co-workers are
college graduates," states Mr.
Kramp. Pointing to one man
sporting a heavy red rd and
work clothes, Mr. Kr
declares, "for
fellow rushing out the door to
de-rock the pasture is a novelist
and former professor at Yale.
He lives in a small room above
the weavery, by the way."

Mr. Kramp himself is a
geneticist by profession who
once taught in Iowa, and more
recently worked in
Washington, D.C.

"This is really quite
communal living," contends
Mr. Kramp. "Most of the
co-workers are people I met
while working in Washington
who liked the idea and
followed me here. But unlike
most communes, this is one
with the handicapped.

In a few years," he

explained, "we're hoping we
can just call ourselves Innisfree
and not a community for the
handicapped. We dislike having
to make that distinction. We'd
rather this be a community
devoid of any special
designation as to who is
handicapped and who is not."

The Villagers do not appear
self-conscious of their
handicaps. Rather they seem
supremely confident and very
proud of their newly found
independence.

As Janice, one of the
Villagers put it: "I don't have
to worry about anything here.
I work in the weavery on
Friday afternoons and help
give tours. And, in return, I
have fun."

Innisfree, thus, seems to be
the answer to the
de-personalized life within the
institution and to the severely
sheltered life which the
handicapped person often faces
at home, where parents must
worry what will happen as
their handicapped child grows
older and they are no longer
ab to for .

handicapped person learns to
become quite self-sufficient.
He lives in a normal home in a
normal environment. Here he
lives freely in a community
where he is accepted for what
he is and where his
contribution to the community
has a real meaning and
importance. No longer is the
handicapped person a
hindrance to society. Rather at
Innisfree he is made a part of
society, a part of the
community instead of an alien
to it.

From the structured
community of Innisfree it is
possible that the handicapped
person may one day be able to
make the move back into
society without consciously
experiencing the transition.

"We like to think we have the
kind of living situation here
that they will find in the real
world," says Mr. Kramp.
"Thus, hopefully, the
handicapped person will not
lose the self-respect, dignity
and confidence he gained here
should he move from our
sheltered community back to
the real world".

Innisfree thus serves as a
model not only in the
development of better
treatment for the mentally
handicapped but as a lesson in
tolerance to the entire world.
Only when the rest of mankind
comes to experience the inner
freedom of Innisfree can we
truly speak of an
understanding, of a
brotherhood of man.