Dear Friends of Cobscook Community Learning Center,

Greetings from all of us at the CCLC! We hope this letter finds you well.

Here in easternmost Maine, we’re experiencing the familiar anticipation of summer. Peas are planted, garden beds are ready, and there is a palpable sense of something new just around the corner. May’s warmth arrives each year, and we are treated to the wonder and poignant thrill of being immersed in an ever-changing, living landscape, not knowing exactly what will emerge next in our delighted discovery.

DISCOVERY is the theme of this newsletter. At the CCLC, we’re engaged in our own quiet but extremely dynamic season of discovery. It’s all about listening and responding.

Good listening is a tremendously active process, as anyone knows who has encountered Brittany Ray, TREE Program Director. She has been listening with unflagging, impassioned, and focused energy for the last eight months to teachers, administrators, students, and community members as she has worked to discover and develop a genuinely collaborative model to address the educational challenges facing children experiencing poverty and trauma. 

The long-haul work of discovery can be a creative, collaborative effort to uncover hidden potentials, passions, and strengths. Kara McCrimmon, Lead Teacher of Cobscook Experiential Program for High School Students, is vigorously involved in this work every day. She lets us share a glimpse of an interdisciplinary “Ah-ha” moment in the pages that follow. Avery Danforth, Manager of Retreats and Community Programming, gives us a look behind the scenes at the three-year old Heartwood Lodge, which is becoming what we all hoped it would: a place to nurture deep, immersive listening and collective responding about issues that matter critically to all of us. 

We are immensely grateful to each and every one of you for the support you have extended to the CCLC over the years. It is your generosity that feeds the fire of discovery. We invite you, as always, to join us here at this “homeplace,” in this landscape we share, where new spaces and collaborations are leading to new opportunities for health, growth, learning, and well-being. Together, with friends, we find a way!

Warmly yours,