Wintering (Cover Letter)

Wintering (Cover Letter)

Dear Cobscook Community,

I write to you today as a Cobscook Institute Board Member of 7 years, a Washington County community resident living in Pembroke, a citizen of the Passamaquoddy tribe and a professor of linguistics.

Our roles in life should not be viewed as separate from each other. Everything we do in our lives can be understood in a sense of relationship where each part makes up the whole. If you’ve ever been in a canoe on a river in the forest you understand; at a certain point your body and the canoe become one with the river and the forest is also part of you, cradling and even guiding you.

Cobscook Experiential Programs Expanding our Reach through New Summer Camps

In response to local parents and youth seeking additional fun summer learning opportunities, we offered two new summer camps for local youth this year. These camps helped us offer more choices to local teens and interlinked with our other experiential program offerings to build upon our expertise in interdisciplinary outdoor and arts programming.

Teen Art Camp

The vision for this camp was to be an affirming place for self-expression guided in part by participating teens. Alongside camp leads Anne Shields Hopkins and Maria McMorrow, teens were able to select from a menu of different art experiences each day so they could work on their own work during open studio time, learn new techniques, and learn new ways of self-expression. Our new classroom and studio space was the perfect setting for this camp. Teens also enjoyed a field trip to explore Eastport’s arts scene. They visited the Tides Institute, Eastport Arts Center, and listened to Music on the Rocks.

“I learned some new and interesting art skills. I liked painting and getting to have free time, and going to Eastport! I'd like to see Art Camp offered again.” -Teen Art Camp Participant

“I liked seeing new people and being able to try new things. I got new skills and interests out of the camp.” -Teen Art Camp Participant

Outdoor Skills Camp

This camp, designed for younger teens, had full enrollment. They met on campus each day but headed into the field to learn and apply new outdoor skills. They learned paddling basics at Rocky Lake, practiced those skills on the Orange River, hiked a mountain, built shelters and fires, and paddled to a campsite for an overnight campout.

Parents shared that they were especially excited to have this opportunity for this younger teen age group since there aren’t currently many summer opportunities for them.

A New School Year is Here

The 12th year of our public experiential high school program has begun with full enrollment! Students recently returned from a canoe trip learning about canoe culture, indigenous technology, Thoreau’s writing and records of seasonal changes, climate adaptation, and art.

This year we are expanding our after school clubs which are open to our students and the greater community. Chess Club will start this fall and Art Club this winter. Contact us at cobscook.me/contact if you’d like to organize an after school club.



River Camp’s Ninth Season

2021 was our ninth summer offering River Camp in partnership with Downeast Salmon Federation. As usual, teens interested in conservation careers engaged in Atlantic salmon habitat improvement projects and recreation improvement projects on Downeast Salmon Federation’s public access sites. They also collected water quality data on the Orange River and practiced whitewater canoeing skills on the Machias River.

“Someday at Cobscook Institute” and the Generosity of Vision

In 1999, a group of community members from the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the Euro-American community, and our neighbors from nearby New Brunswick, Canada, asked the question, “What would improve life in our rural region?”

Cobscook Institute was born from community co-creation. Such creation is made possible by the gifts of wisdom and dreaming of many people.

Colin Brown

Since 2011, Colin has been involved with Cobscook Institute as a program participant, leader, and partner. He became familiar with us early on by guiding intergenerational Road Scholar trips based on campus, then co-led an outdoor adventure club. For the last eight years, he has been a key volunteer for the Downeast Spring Birding Festival, including serving on the planning committee.

Stephanie Bailey

“My childhood years were spent at Sipayik and I later followed my heart to our sister reservation, Motahkomikuk,” Stephanie said. “Living at Motahkomikuk, I woke to the harsh world of how badly the 1980 Land Act has fractured us deeply and quickly so I began volunteering to write a newsletter and hand deliver them to help get information out and to teach.”

Regina Grabrovac

Since 2012, Regina’s involvement with Cobscook Institute has primarily centered upon apples. She helped lead and coordinate pruning and grafting workshops, bringing in apple experts from around the state, and later partnered with us to coordinate Downeast Apple Day in 2019 which welcomed over 200 people to learn about and celebrate apples. Regina’s son also attended the high school program for two years and he and Regina’s daughter attended River Camp.

Goodbye for now!

On the theme of season change and possibility, I have a more personal story to share…

I first learned of Cobscook Institute (then Cobscook Community Learning Center) in 2015 when I was wrapping up my Master’s program at Antioch University New England. At the time, my partner Joe Horn and I were finalizing plans to incorporate Maine Outdoor School, L3C (MOS) in Milbridge, just an hour away from Cobscook.