WISCASSET, Maine - Every year, tens of thousands of young people come to Maine from across the globe for the experience known as summer camp. One of the best-known camps is Chewonki, the Wiscasset-based outdoor learning center which reaches over 20,000 young people each year through its various programs. Chewonki is celebrating its 100th birthday this year.
If you had to define the philosophy of the Chewonki Foundation in three words, they might be "learning by experience." Chewonki staff member Fred Cichocki, known as Doc Fred, conducts one of his popular nature walks through a heavily-forested section of Chewonki's 400-acre Midcoast campus.
"Well, the aim of it is to encourage kids to be observant and let them know that there's always something new to be seen," he says. "If they have taken that hike once, they have not seen even remotely everything that's there. If they've taken it 100 times, they're no closer to seeing what's there than the first time."
"There's a lot more stuff to look at and if you don't know what it is, and then you learn about it," says 11-year-old camper Mungo MacNeish. "it's just really cool to be able to, like, share it with other people."
MacNeish, who is from California, says Doc Fred's nature walks have made him a lot more observant and appreciative of the world around him. As we talk, MacNeish notices some leafy green plants growing on the forest floor. "These are all sarsaparilla, which grows in groups and it's edible root and you can make drinks out of it."
"The mission of Chewonki has three main parts," says Chewonki Foundation President Willard Morgan. Morgan says the first - and most important - part is to bring about what he calls "deep personal growth" in all those who attend.
"Second is connection to and learning about and stewardship of the natural world," Morgan says. "And the third part is to build thriving sustainable communities."
The camp now known as Chewonki was set up in 1915 by Boston area science teacher Clarence Allen, whose "back to nature" philosophy sprang out of concern over the negative effects he felt increasing urbanization was having on his students' lives. In 1918 it moved to its current location near Wiscasset.
Unlike most camps, Chewonki is open all year round, operating a semester school where high school juniors are taught a wide-ranging curriculum, all with an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning.
There's also an emphasis on sustainability: Chewonki is involved in a number of alternative energy projects, and students harvest their own firewood, which is used to provide heating in the colder months. In addition to this, the camp has its own working farm.
Farm Manager Megan Philips is in the process of carrying out a natural dye workshop. "We raise sheep on our farm, both for meat and fiber. They were shorn this past February and now the yarn from the sheep we're dyeing with plants from our garden."
There are also cows, chickens and turkeys, says Philips, and the operation is powered by the farm's 1,900-pound Belgian draft horse. "And then we also raise vegetables in the spring, summer and fall, and harvest firewood out of our working woodlot with our draft horse in the fall, winter and spring."
Elsewhere on campus, Steve Kerchner is conducting an outdoor trigonometry lesson. His class is preparing to catapult a water balloon into a the top of a pine tree. The aim, he says, is to calculate the height of the tree by timing how long it takes for the balloon to fall to earth. "It's much more fun to teach math this way."
Kerchner's lessons emphasize the practical, teaching students right from the outset the importance of mathematics in everyday life. "In the wintertime we take students out to fell trees and we use trigonometry to do that, so there's a real risk, if I don't get my math right, them I'm miscalculating where that tree's going to fall."
Chewonki President Willard Morgan says, as the camp begins its second century on earth, the organization's mission is more important than ever. "It's been really interesting to watch the conversation of educational philosophy come back around to what we've been doing for 100 years."
Morgan admits that the Chewonki experience isn't cheap: Summer camp is priced at around $6,000 per person, and a semester at school here costs $25,000. But Morgan says about a quarter of those who attend the summer camp receive some level of scholarship. He's also hoping that a collaboration with other Maine non-profitswill enable Chewonki to expand its presence in public school classrooms throughout the state.