| We purchased our 12 acre kipuka “island of trees” in 1987. There are 35 founding members (mostly jugglers and performing artists) from 8 different countries, who met at one of the 19 Hawaiian Juggling festivals. We loved the Big Island of Hawaii enough to decide to live or visit here regularly and organized ourselves to establish a permanent home and performing arts center.
We bought an abandoned jungle homestead that was overrun by vines and weed trees. Since 1987 we have worked thousands of hours on the land, and have turned a slice of raw jungle into a tropical paradise. Almost all of the work has been done voluntarily and with love.
Bellyacres has eight houses and twelve cabins for staff, faculty and interns. Typically we are about 20 adults and 6 kids plus 4-6 visiting interns. Our lives are integrated with several of our neighboring families.
Our organic homestead is focused on exploring location appropriate sustainable agriculture practices. Seasonal crops include, coconuts, medical marijuana, breadfruit, mangoes, papayas, avocadoes, bananas, many citrus, soursop, jack fruit, lychee, rambutan, berries, passionfruit, pumpkin. We have 100 hens, 4 roosters, 2 horses, 2 dogs, 7 cats and a stuffed monkey. We only have small conventional temperate climate vegetable gardens since they are mostly inappropriate for our location. We get all of our electricity from solar panels. Our water is collected from roof catchment systems and stored in tanks. We work hard to improve our food production, food processing and local food distribution through our weekly SPACE Farmers Market.
For nearly 20 years we organized a traveling circus (HICCUP -Hawaii Island Community Circus) providing weekly performance arts classes throughout Hawaii in schools and in rural communities, plus presenting a range of community performances and circus training camps. Due to the success of these activities we raised funds to build our own community performance arts center. Our SPACE facility opened in November 2007 and has changed the focus of our work. We host a small Waldorf inspired charter school, a weekly farmers market and a variety of other social and community building events.
Despite our jungle location, we have a well-equipped and cozy communal kitchen with electricity, telephone, free mainland calls, high speed internet, library, hot showers, refrigerators, flush toilets, pool table, ping pong and a sauna Status: Maturing like good wine | Bellyacres Early Years |
Statement of Housing Non-discrimination: Our community does not discriminate in regards to housing based on race/color, national origin, religion, sex/gender, family status (i.e. having children, not having children, or being pregnant), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, ancestry, source of income, age, creed, personal appearance, political affiliation, HIV infection, military/veteran status, unfavorable military discharge, gender identity or expression, receiving public assistance, or being the victim of domestic abuse.
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