Magic Coach: How a local business owner inspires wonder with hand-crafted camper
Tracey Baum-Wicks wants to be a fairy godmother.
The owner of Syracuse’s Sanctuary Spa, Baum-Wicks spent the summer creating a purple-striped, caravan-inspired camper — the perfect magic coach — with her friend Dan Gardner. She said she hopes to inspire creativity and wonder using the vehicle, much like a fairy godmother would.
On the corner of West Genesee Street and North Terry Road, just 15 minutes off the Syracuse University campus, the camper is visible to drivers passing by. It stands out next to the ordinary cars parked in the driveway with its bold and whimsical details — a bright purple-and-green color scheme, copper floral decorations and a sign that reads, “Gone Wishin’.”
Baum-Wicks had been inspired by nomadic culture for years when she decided she wanted to build a camper to take with her on her trips to summer festivals and gatherings.
Having the creative vision but lacking the mechanical skills to build such a thing, she enlisted Gardner, whom she knows, as Gardner and his wife are long-time customers of her spa.
After tossing ideas around for about a year, this summer Gardner said to Baum-Wicks, “Let’s do it. Are you ready to do it? I’m ready to do it.” And the project began.
Gardner said he spent over 100 hours building the camper, working about four hours every day for a month during July.
It was very daunting because there's a lot of pieces involved to start with, but once we got started with it, it was kind of like we got on this roll. I was cutting out the pieces, she was painting them, I was assembling them, and when we got the basic skeleton together she just took over creatively, and I’m still amazed when I look inside of it.Dan Gardner
The duo used a book called “The New Gypsy Caravan” by Timothy Lemke to guide them in the building process. The book outlined how to build the camper using about $1,000 worth of materials. However, the design from the book was too simple for Baum-Wicks — the style and personal touches of the camper are all her own.
“It was just a thrilling kind of geeky, mad science project,” Baum-Wicks said.
As an environmental activist, it was important to Baum-Wicks to take advantage of repurposed materials in the creation of the camper. Parts of the inside are made out of shower curtains and the flap that covers the back window during drives is made out of an old hot tub cover.
Baum-Wicks has a greater vision for the camper than just using it for travel. She dubbed it “Wonderlust” because she hopes it will inspire wonder and empower people to engage their creativity. She said she hopes to use the camper to spark joy by lending it to close friends as a gift as well.
“For my birthday, she gave me the gift of a weekend with the glam camper with my little grandchildren who are going to think they’re in fairy land,” said Anne Kowalczyk, owner of Syracuse’s Moonstruck Gifts and Baum-Wicks’ neighbor and friend.
When Baum-Wicks took the camper to the Quaker Farm and Wilderness campgrounds in Vermont for a family Wiccan camping event, she realized its ability to trigger imagination and its potential as a tool for activism. Wicca is a modern, pagan witchcraft religion that Baum-Wicks practices.
The camper was difficult for people passing by at the camp to miss — it was parked in a spot that was visible as campers turned around the bend to get to the dining hall.
She said the children at the camp acted as if they thought the camper was part of a Disney exhibit, asking their parents to bring them over and let them go inside. They were equally bewildered by Baum-Wicks, who they viewed as a magical character, she said.
That week all the strawberries were ripening, and I would tell each kid, ‘OK this is your strawberry, you can have your daddy check it each day and when it’s ripe you can pick it and come tell me how it tasted.'Tracey Baum-Wicks
After her time in Vermont, Baum-Wicks realized she wanted to develop the persona the children imagined her to be. She plans on using the camper to create a magical experience for kids — potentially volunteering for organizations that help kids in need — acting as what she described as “a fairy godmother” or “the last wild witch in the woods,” telling stories under the shade around the camper, serving snacks and maybe running puppet shows. She said by doing this, she hopes to “spin enchantment.”
Baum-Wicks said she hopes the camper could inspire others of her faith to make their own campers — something that could help promote environmental activism by catching the media’s attention. She said that after her trip, at least two or three of the families are considering building their own campers.
“We’re always trying to figure out interesting and fun ways to you know, draw attention to important causes and share information with people,” Baum-Wicks said. “And [the camper] was really an attention-getting, attention-holding, phenomenon, so why not use it?”
Next summer, she’s planning on taking it on as many trips as she can squeeze in May through October. In particular, she hopes to make it to the Kaleidoscope Gathering in Canada, the Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference in North Carolina and Fairy Camp Destiny in Vermont.
“I live my life in a creative flow all the time,” Baum-Wicks said. “That’s how I roll.”
Published on October 11, 2015 at 10:40 pm
Contact Alex: aerdekia@syr.edu
