In 2014, The Holbrook Community Foundation created a fund to support the Holbrook Community Foundation Education Initiative. The goal of this fund is to support education about our marine environment in our local schools. Between 2014-22, HCF has supported the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust to provide classroom and outdoor environmental education to students at the Harpswell Community School and to run a summer nature day camp in Harpswell. Between 2015-18, HCF supported the Harpswell Coastal Academy to an oral history collection called Harpswell Voices.
CURRENT INITIATIVES
Harpswell Boatbuilders:
Kids Build Skiffs in Cundy’s Harbor
Since 2017, Ann Flannery of the Harpswell Boatbuilders in Cundy's Harbor has led a boatbuilding class for local youth. From January through May the students, ages 9 – 14 years, meet once a week to learn the skills of small wooden boatbuilding as well as the value of teamwork. With instructional help from Holbrook Community Foundation board member Greg Barmore and other volunteers, a wooden boat is typically launched by Memorial Day weekend. The boat is sold, and all profit goes to the Holbrook Community Foundation.
For more information contact Ann Flannery.
PAST INITIATIVES
Outdoor Science and Nature Day Camp 2020-2022
For the seventh year, the Holbrook Education Initiative supported the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust (HHLT) to provide educational programs and resources to engage young people with the natural world and with Harpswell’s habitats and heritage.
Every student at Harpswell Community School participated in multiple sessions of hands-on, outdoor, Harpswell-focused science learning during the 2020-2022 school year. HHLT created five different exploration kits and offered them on a sliding scale to families.
During the 2020-2022 school year, HHLT educator Julia McLeod led 65 outdoor science lessons for HCS students.And, during the summer of 2022, HHLT offered 12 sessions of Nature Day Camp for 163 students.
Harpswell Community School 2019-2020
Thanks to Harpswell Heritage Land Trust's education work, Harpswell Community School fourth graders learn about clams and their role in the mudflat ecosystem through a dissection.
Nature Day Camp combines exploration, art, play, music, movement, and science to create a fun and memorable experience for children. In this photo campers make "nature names" at Johnson Field Preserve.
Harpswell Heritage Land Trust provides outdoor, place-based science learning to all students at Harpswell Community School. In this photo a third grader helps demonstrate snow's insulating properties during a field trip to Houghton Graves Park on Orr's Island. (Elizabeth Gilley photo)
Harpswell Coastal Academy 2015-2018
Between 2015 and 2018, HCF supported HCA’s Harpswell Voices oral history collection. Students produced a series of interviews with Harpswell residents that explored the town’s history and its connection with the ocean. Holbrook Community Foundation board member, Bill Mangum, was one of the interviewees.