Nonprofit retreat center
to open all week

MILANVILLE - The Innisfree Country Inn on River Road, near the Skinners Falls Bridge, will be open seven days a week, starting June 15th, its owners say.

In recent years, the nonprofit retreat center has only accepted guests on weekends. While Innisfree's main focus is organized groups, individual guests and families are also welcome.

The facility is owned by Bud and Ann Rue, until June of Lawrenceville, New Jersey; now taking up full-time residence in Milanville. Formerly, they commuted every weekend.

Bud Rue is president of Innisfree Corporation, which leases the premises. Its nine trustees, none of whom are paid, meet once per year.

Bud is about to retire after 25 years public teaching experience, and Ann from 20 years in private, nonprofit day-care administration and teaching.

Now, the Rues say they will open the facility seven days a week, and continue to focus on educational, social, recreational and family groups.

Innisfree was founded in 1970 -- the year after the Woodstock Music Festival took place in nearby Bethel -- by a group of more than 15 professional educators and 45 long-haired teenagers, as an experimental self-governing community. Since then, it has hosted a variety of programs, including drama workshops, psychological "growth groups," outdoor-educational activities, river groups, and private family functions.

Yoga classes and a Unitarian Universalist religions fellowship are held Sunday mornings in the recreational hall, though the corporation is nonsectarian and nonpolitical.

The center includes five buildings on 13.7 acres. Indoor sleeping capacity is about 55, according to the Rues, who will offer and all-you-can-eat homemade breakfast for $3. However, Bud Rue noted the name of the establishment is taken from a poem by William Butler Yeats, and does not mean "the inn is free," as some have asked.

Innisfree is within walking distance of the Skinners Falls river access. Rates for individuals are moderate, with special five-meal packages available for groups of 10 or more. The facility is a member of the Pocono Mountain Vacation Bureau.

For more information, call 717/729-xxxx

Nonprofit retreat center to open all week

Nonprofit retreat center
to open all week