Welcome to
Circle Pines Center
Circle Pines Center teaches peace, social justice, and environmental stewardship through cooperation in work, education, and recreation.
We are a member-based, cooperatively-governed (501(c)3) non-profit. We co-create a children’s summer camp and year-round retreat center with programs for families, children, and adults, and have facilities which are available for rent (school, faith-based and other groups, retreats, weddings, family reunions, etc.).
Spring Free Retreat! WORKBEE WEEKEND: APRIL. 25TH-27TH was really fun and productive. So many projects got attention and everyone lent helping hands!
Will work for delicious food! Free meals and housing at our Free Retreat! WORKBEE WEEKEND: APRIL. 25TH-27TH ! See you this weekend! Please register for meal planning.
Our FREE RETREAT is this weekend! Just help us out for a few hours a day and you get to relax, eat great food and stay in our lovely Swallows Lodge! Please register so we can plan for meals!
Focus will be on the following:
- Garden prep and planting seeds
- Chicken coop repair
- repair projects for cabins
- trail clearing and mowing
- tractor work to fill potholes and move fill dirt (learn to drive a TRACTOR!)
- AND MORE!
circlepinescenter.org/event/workbee-weekend-retreat-april-25-27-2025/
Calendar of Events
Music
Festival
Every June, the Buttermilk Jamboree offers a family-friendly festival experience of music, arts, food, education, and community.
Summer
Camp
The Circle Pines Center Summer Camp focuses on cooperative work, environmentalism, social justice, and critical thinking.
Community
Events
Throughout the year, Circle Pines offers retreats and workshops for mushroom cultivation, maple syrup making, music, and more.
Private
Events
Find a peaceful place to reconnect at Circle Pines for your next family event, small business retreat, or community activist event.
When questioned many decades later in an interview with folks from Circle Pines as to the origins and meaning of Circle Pines’ commitment to recreation, as well as education and cooperation, Graham simply stated, “The best way to get a cooperative state of mind was out of an hour of folk dancing.”
Peace
The greatest work can be accomplished when people are at peace with one another working toward a common goal. Understanding individual differences with a focus on grassroots activism and community brings a sense of unity and collaboration to CPC.
Social Justice
Social justice is important to our cooperative education, because we are striving for an economically, racially, and socially equitable world. Whether it’s summer camp or purchasing food, Circle Pines Center strives to implement and educate for social justice to create a more cooperative and equitable world.
Environmental Stewardship
Recognizing that humans have the power to change the planet for the better or for the worst, we believe that it is our role to be stewards of the environment. Protecting the environment through conservation and sustainable practices flows through all we do.
Cooperation
From special events to camp to community meetings, a shared sense of purpose and cooperative thinking enhance the quality of life at Circle Pines Center. Through daily work projects, conversations, and relationships, CPC instills the practice of cooperation as a way of life.
Support Circle Pines
Every time you visit Circle Pines you leave this space a better place. Your donations, membership fees, volunteer service, and rental fees fund so much more than a summer camp and meeting space. It contributes to a rich history of commitment to our core values and promises a future where these values always have a place to call home.
Circle Pines Center is
Near You!
Located between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo off the North Country National Scenic Trail, the center is nearly 300 acres in Southwest Michigan. Filled with rolling hills, hardwood and pine forests, meadows and frontage on spring-fed Stewart Lake, we have miles of trails for hiking and cross-country skiing, diverse wildlife and an organic garden and orchard.
CONNECT WITH OUR SPACE
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