Someone once told me that to truly belong to a community, you must help the community meet its needs while you reap the benefits and joys of belonging to it. This certainly applies to island communities.
We know the joys: neighbors who support each other, children who thrive under the watchful eyes of all of the adults in “the village” and unparalleled opportunity to connect with our natural environment.
But then there are also the needs: the limited job opportunities, the high cost of ferry transportation and declining school enrollments that can threaten an island school’s future, to name a few.
Peaks Island, where I reside, has initiated Island Adventure Camps, a program that hopes to support island nonprofits and small businesses while developing new approaches to long-term sustainability of the island community.
With pilot funding from the Peaks Island Fund, seven summer day-camp programs are marketing themselves collaboratively, reaching out to mainland families and encouraging them to “give their child an island this summer.”
In addition to promoting the seven island camps, the program provides chaperones for campers on the ferry from Portland to Peaks and childcare through the working day, if a camp session does not last that long.
The initial feedback we’ve been hearing is “where have you been all this time?” Ironically, this new approach is, in many ways, the brushing up of an old island tradition.
Peaks has offered recreation for youth “from away” since the 1800s when the island boasted not only boating, swimming and long boardwalk strolls but also an amusement park, complete with hot air balloon rides and theaters.
One of the Peaks-based organizations participating in Island Adventure Camps will celebrate its 150th anniversary this year: the Brackett Memorial United Methodist Church, which will offer a gardening and greening eco-camp.
The Fifth Maine Regiment Museum offers summer camps in Civil War history and history comics.
The historic waterfront home of the Trefethen-Evergreen Improvement Association was built in 1912, and attributed to architects John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens. From this location, the club has launched young sailors into Diamond Passage for over 40 years. They continue the tradition with summer programs for the children of member families, both those who reside year-round on the island and those vacationing for short periods of time.
More recently, island entrepreneurs have created camp programs that celebrate our preserved open spaces, woodland trails and public beaches. These include Horse Island Camp, the Peaks Island Fiber Arts Camp, and Whole Dog Camp.
Horse Island Camp is most beloved for its “mini” horses, which could steal the heart of the most hard-core curmudgeons.
These private camps nudge school-age children to learn horsemanship with a kind hand, to master fiber arts from medieval to colonial eras, and to unlock the mysteries of animal training with ducks.
According to Whole Dog Camp director Jenny Yasi, “Children will condition ducks to relax, to associate a cue with reinforcement, and to do some tricks! We supply the ducks! But what children learn about animal training is applicable to any animal.” There is also another session for youth who already own dogs.
The island camp collaborative pivots around the Peaks Island Childrens Workshop, an accredited childcare facility, which has operated since 1972.
The community guidance committee that brainstormed the collaborative suggested that the childcare center act as the “glue” that holds the group of seven camps together.
The workshop, which also sponsors summer camp programs such as Island Rovers and Casco Bay Explorers, will supply the camp counselors that chaperone mainland children across Portland harbor on the ferry, where they can then join island children for the day.
In addition, according to Acting Director Lori Freid Moses, “The workshop is offering extended care for those [other] camps whose programs do not last for the duration of parents’ working day.”
Certainly the economic downturn presents Island Adventure Camps with a challenging pilot year. However, with United Way’s announcement that camp scholarship monies will not be offered next summer, the time for innovative partnerships couldn’t be better.
To learn more about these seven Peaks Island camps, see http://www.picw.org/camps. You can also send an E-mail to: cascobaycamps@picw.org.