A Peaceful Protest
Wednesday, July 29th, 2026
PUPPET GROVE circa 4:26pm—A gentle breeze is causing our communal pile of ripped up butcher paper to misbehave. Half a dozen campers and a couple of staff have joined me in the Puppet Grove to apply paper maché in the quick-dry afternoon. We sit at a large, sturdy craft table, built approximately 20 years ago by the late, great Hog Farmer and Camp Puppeteer Tinker Lamb. I had the privilege of working with him on his final puppet show circa 2012. All these years later I have found myself back in the puppet game.
The children wrestle with yarn-bound wads of paper, attempting to make the stiff brown paper lie flat on the shapes with the help of a diluted glue mixture. Having an outdoor classroom made the use of food-based paper maché mixes impractical, so our goop is simply half water, half Elmer’s.
Intent on indoctrinating the campers with anti-war propaganda, I have renamed the puppet class the “War Abolition Regiment, W.A.R. for short.” At the W.A.R. we make puppets in the name of peace. Last session we made a flock of monarch butterflies. This session, we had a brainstorm session and the kids decided we should make honeybees, a scorpion, a cricket and a flower. Today we are paper maché-ing the first layers on our swarm of eggplant-sized honeybees.
“Puppets can make people happy with how beautiful they are,” says Corinne, 9. “They can help the earth by spreading peace and joy because they look like animals. Honeybees represent defense because they can sting, and they represent hard work because they make honey.”
“I don’t know, it’s just fun to smack around some glue and paper,” says Milo, 10. “I guess paper maché gives a ‘demolish war’ kind of vibe. If we’re gonna make a scorpion, let’s make it a peace scorpion. Puppets is definitely the best class.”
“Puppets can capture attention because they’re fun and distracting,” says Oliver, 10, squishing his glue-covered hands together and slowly unsticking them. “If I had the attention of everyone in the world, I’d tell them to go get on a unicycle. Bees are fuzzy and loud. You can make anything in puppets.”
“Puppets tell their own stories,” says Luka, 9. “They can change people in a way. When you make more than one puppet, it’s like you’re making a story. The bees represent working hard and not quitting. That’s what we’re gonna have to do if we want world peace.”
“Sometimes if I’m stressed I just make a puppet and it calms me down,” says James, 9. “People can make peaceful things with puppets, like bugs. Bugs remind us that humans aren’t the only creatures in the world, and knowing that helps us realize that we have a responsibility to take care of each other and the environment. The needs of even the smallest creature are just as important as the needs of kings.”
“Creating puppets is a peaceful protest,” says Teen Staff Beatrix. “Just the act of building these puppets together is an act of building community. The work we at Camp do supports conflict resolution, and the passing on of that knowledge has the potential to prevent future wars.”
“What else are we here for if not to speak up for peace?” asks Restorative Justice Coordinator Silver Morningstar. “In the current human war, there’s been nearly twenty-thousand casualties. We need to use every form of art at our disposal to build enormous pathways to peace worldwide!”
“I think puppets play an important role in abolishing war,” says MESH Lead Elizabeth Theriault. “From what I witnessed today, they are bringing people together, they’re sparking curious conversations, opening hearts and inspiring playfulness. I was drawn to today’s class because I love bees. They’re such communal creatures. They rely on each other and their specific roles. They’re a beautiful symbol of community and intentional collective living. It all gives me hope, for bees, for puppets, and for world peace. L’chaim!”
Stay hydrated,
—J. Payseno, Editor