Last January was a little nerve-wracking: The Island Fellows Program had just placed its first-ever fellow on Matinicus, the most remote Maine island, with an assignment to work with the new teacher and the school board and develop curriculum and standard procedures for the school. Usually, fellowships are filled by the preceding July, with on-island interviews coinciding with blooming lupines, early summer weather and crowded, bustling islands. It is completely unplanned. Truly.
However, little blooms on Matinicus in January, and the population can dwindle to fewer than 20 individuals. And Anne Bardaglio, the new fellow, called and said, “I don’t know what to do.”
Winter can be hard for fellows. After the excitement of the holidays, daily life can slow way down on many islands. Cold weather induces residents to huddle inside warm homes. Fewer people are outside walking or chatting on the street. Was Anne not meeting the community? Was she not feeling welcome?
Bardaglio replied, immediately. “Oh, that’s not a problem. Everybody’s been great here. I just want to work on something right now. I’ve met the kids in school, I feel completely comfortable. I just want to start on something right now.”
It usually takes fellows a few months to get acclimated and familiarize themselves with the island, its residents, its history and the rhythms of such a unique way of life. But Bardaglio thought she would do that after school hours. So she looked around the classroom for something to tackle, and said, “well, the library doesn’t look too organized.”
So she began organizing the school library: an overstuffed bookcase and piles of donated books that had accumulated over the years. This September, the project was finally completed — and it involved much more than reorganization. New textbooks line locally built shelves; a list of “requested books for donation” is now available to community members and fresh paint covers the walls. Lisa Twombly-Hussey, a community member, organized a summer read-a-thon that raised $600 in pledges. Anne is thrilled to start a full school year on Matinicus.
Anne Bardaglio first learned about Matinicus in fall 2006 while studying writing at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland. For her semester project, she profiled Dotti Carter, the new teacher that year at the Matinicus School. Throughout the semester, Bardaglio traveled several times to Matinicus and developed a relationship with Carter, some students and the school board.
“When I first saw Matinicus, I knew immediately that it was special and I got hooked pretty quickly. I would be back in Portland and would be dreaming of the island,” says Bardaglio.
She knew of the fellowship opportunity at Matinicus School, but was concerned that her application might change the perspective she had established for her Salt Institute project. But a month after completing her story, Anne found herself once again bound for Matinicus School. This time, however, she would stay for a little longer.
“Moving out here felt like a natural transition. I knew people out here and knew I would like it. It was different coming as a writer than as a fellow; during the fall it was coming out to observe and not to participate as much. I didn’t really get to know the kids until I got to come out for the fellowship. I left the whole Salt chapter behind; it was different living here and it felt natural.”
Some were nervous about placing an Island Fellow on Matinicus, an island with a colorful reputation that some are often anxious to dismiss, and also to embellish. Bardaglio has won them over.
She spent the spring visiting Downeast schools and compiling data, resources and budgetary information to apply to Matinicus. New math, social studies and science curriculums have been largely completed. Carter returned for another year of teaching.
And the experience has been wonderful for Bardaglio as well. She turned down an opportunity to study non-fiction writing at Columbia University in New York City to return to Matinicus for another year.
“All I thought of was, how could I leave here?” she says, describing her feelings as `Matinicus madness.’
“I don’t feel like I’ve ever been in love with a place before. Everywhere I’ve lived before that I’ve loved, I also loved having the flexibility to leave. But here it’s the feeling of coming back and being relieved to come back. It’s part landscape, part weather, partially the community and loving the job, and then its just partially about the distance; being removed from the mainland. It’s a comforting separation from the mainland. I like that the electricity is generated on-island, there’s a certain degree of self-sufficiency that the island brings out in me and in other people too.”
In the coming year, Bardaglio is focusing upon completing the language arts and writing aspects of the curriculum. She is also interested in establishing the school as a center for the community.
One of her favorite moments this fall was “seeing everybody’s reactions to the new look of the school, and how everybody seems to be pleased with the way that all the work that we’ve done over the summer has helped to improve the school. The dynamic in the classroom is just amazing, the discussions they have, the curriculum guidelines, the atmosphere is just great. It’s moving in such a good direction.”
At the Fellows annual dinner this August, Bardaglio’s advisor, Natalie Ames, echoed Anne’s sentiments.
“My husband, John [a Matinicus Fisherman], jokes that when we got our fellow I got a sternman to help me with my long laundry list of things I needed to do to help get the school back on track…It has been amazing how much we’ve accomplished since January. I’m so thrilled Anne has decided to stay another year — I’m feeling like some wonderful, positive changes will happen. Anne is energetic, bright, and subtle; she’s slipped into this community in a way I’ve never seen anyone do on Matinicus. She’s integrated better than longtime summer residents. She has crossed amazing social strata and bridged people together, and bridged us with other islands- to pick their brains and learn from them. I love that bridge that Anne has created. I love my sternman!”
Unfortunately, when Bardaglio herself tried to extend the metaphor into an actuality, it was not so successful.
“I liked being on the water, but I couldn’t stop throwing up,” she said. “The second morning that I went out, I came down to the wharf with wrist bands, ginger gum, all the drugs for sea-sickness…like I was about to go out on the “Deadliest Catch,” and I still threw up all morning.”
The only positive outcome?: “I managed to keep my head out of the baitbox.”
Cyrus Moulton is Fellows Program Coordinator at the Island Institute.