Welcome to the spring edition of Cobscook Currents! A little over two years ago, I found myself in Downeast Maine having moved from Wyoming where I had been homeschooled. I knew no one, and being sixteen, I decided I wanted to enroll in a public high school. I was intimidated by the idea of being surrounded by all sorts of cliques where I didn’t belong. Then I found out about Cobscook. I knew immediately that this was where I belonged: a tightly-knit environment all about connection, whether it be a connection to the community, environment, people, or skills.

It’s been about a year since the COVID lockdown began, and isolation last spring was especially difficult while school was online. When school resumed in September, though, students were pleasantly surprised by the new system. Educators managed to restore the Cobscook experience. We were back in person, canoeing, building guitars, and learning by experience–in fact, on October 5th, we took our first trip of the year.

Making in Place has consisted of regular virtual open studios and discussion spaces for creatives and self-proclaimed “Downeast Dabblers” to gain inspiration, focus, and a sense of community via Zoom while the pandemic prevents in-person gathering. Each week, there have been opportunities to be in creative community with each other and explore the process of being a maker.

Dear Cobscook Experiential Program High School Students,

As you read this, I am hiking 500 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Virginia with a classmate for college credit! I would never have attempted such a trip if it weren’t for my experiences at Cobscook.

An important goal of Cobscook Experiential Programs is to engage teens in meaningful conservation work so that they may become lifelong advocates for natural systems. The Orange River water quality monitoring project began as an outgrowth of our work with Downeast Salmon Federation, and was related to issues emerging from community dialogue related to the prospect of dam removal and a vision for the restoration of sea-run fish passage into the Orange River watershed.

This has been a hard year. Lives lost. Financial struggle. Separation. Isolation. It has highlighted the inequities that already existed. At Cobscook Institute, we have used our tradition of responsiveness to pivot programming and adapt to the challenge before us. We’ve heard from people about their immense appreciation for our continued programming; we’ve been a lifeline for our students; we’ve pivoted use of our gathering spaces to instead be used as incubator spaces for mission-aligned small businesses. And we are excited to gather again in person and to welcome people back to our homeplace for celebration, learning, and connection.

And yet, we are changed. We emerge anew with fresh ideas and perspective. With an urgency that we not return to normal, but instead to continue to innovate and collaborate in order to be most relevant and impactful. With that commitment, we are refreshing programming and community engagement. This takes time and listening and we are committed to it.

To be a responsive, inclusive, equitable organization, those values must be reflected within the organization. For this reason, we are exploring and implementing models of distributed leadership.

After 6 years in international philanthropy, I jumped at the opportunity to come on as Head of Development at Cobscook Institute starting in January. Like many of you, I felt called by personal connection—a culture of generosity that can only be achieved through community.

But more importantly, why have you—the hundreds of community members of Cobscook Institute—carved a place in your heart for this mission? We sent an online survey to learn what you think, why you give, and how Cobscook Institute delivers on its mission.