Encouraging Education

Since 2018, 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.

Learn more in this documentary video produced by SALT Institute for Documentary Studies class of 2018.

For more information contact Ann Flannery. 207-751-9589 or annieflann@gmail.com

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.

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)

During 2019-20, HCF supported Harpswell Heritage Land Trust’s (HHLT) educational programs at Harpswell Community School (HCS). During the school year, all students at HCS participated in place-based science learning under the direction of HHLT Outreach Coordinator, Julia McLeod, with funding from HCF. During more than 50 school visits and 14 field trips, students used scientific skills to learn about the life cycle and habitat needs of endangered Atlantic Salmon, weather, animals’ survival strategies, native and invasive plants, food webs, Harpswell’s coastal habitats and much more! Harpswell Heritage Land Trust's Nature Day Camp provides hands-on, fun and engaging sessions for both preschool and elementary school age children. (Courtney Cronin photo)

The third grade went on nine Harpswell field trips, focused around the Junior Ranger Activity Book, which was created by a Harpswell teenager. HCF’s Education Initiative also supported HHLT’s Nature Day Camp, which in 2019 served more than 140 children. The camp engaged children through games, exploration, creativity, and science with Harpswell’s natural resources. 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.

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. To explore all of the interviews in Harpswell Stories, go to Harpswell Stories.