Military and donors gather to open the new dining facility at Camp William Hinds in Raymond By Michelle Libby

Using the scissors from a special Pine Tree Council camp’s pocket knife, invited guests, donors and members of the military cut a red, white and blue ribbon to officially open the new Camp William Hinds dining facility. 
 

“We have the most beautiful outdoor learning center in the country,” said Scout Executive Eric Tarbox. 

Four years into the Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) project, developments at all four of the Pine Tree Council Boy Scout camps (Raymond, Belgrade, Sabattus and Acton) have been completed or are almost complete. There are still projects on the schedule however the dining facility in Raymond is by far the largest. The over 21,000 square foot building provides room for 500 people at a time, and the walk out basement has classrooms used by the RSU14 Katahdin School during the school year and houses the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) program during the summer. 

“We look forward to staying here until it no longer makes sense,” said Katahdin School principal Rich Meserve. 

IRT started back during the Clinton “Rebuild America” days. The military was tasked with “finding innovative ways to help the US by giving them real world opportunities servicing the communities we serve,” said Chief Master Sergeant Todd Jones. Having the IRT program in communities gives people, who don’t have exposure to the military or the IRT, a chance to experience military life, he said. 

Mid-April the military began the buildup in Raymond, putting up a tent city to be ready when the troops were deployed on April 22. This year over 250 military members from the Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard and United States Marine Corps have worked on projects at the camps. This year alone the military is completing work on the dining facility, made road improvements, did ditch grading, upgraded a staff cabin with plumbing and electrical, did camp maintenance and will complete a fire pond that will benefit Camp Hinds, Kingsley Pines and all homes on Plains Road. 

“We’ll be hitting it hard moving some dirt,” said Jones, discussing the fire pond work. The pond, which was breached in 2005 during the Patriot’s Day Storm, will be six to eight feet deep when completed and will have a fire hydrant on Plains Road. 

“This is a win/win for the community and the military members,” said Jones. 

On the camp property, the Scout Community has stepped in to help fill in any gaps not provided by the military. 

“This is truly a civilian/military experience,” said Tarbox. The work has all been done by service members who serve on a “brand new crew every two weeks. The crew has never met or worked together and all of this happened over a period of years,” he added. The troops have come from Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Royal Marines from England and Maine for their two weeks a year training in their field of service. 

“Over $5 million of construction value was added to our camps,” said Tarbox.

The new dining hall has a new kitchen thanks to the “scrappiness and pluck of the Messers”, who saved ovens, serving lines and refrigerators from UNUM, when that company remodeled years ago.

President of Pine Tree Council, Jeff Messer, stored the items in trailers until they were needed, on the thought that someday there would be a new dining hall, Tarbox told the group. 

“I’m very impressed with what they’ve done here with the resources they’ve been given,” said Air Force Chief Master Sergeant, Cathy Dugas, the highest ranking Air Force member in attendance. It was her first time at Camp Hinds. 

The driving force behind the IRT project has been past Pine Tree Council President and Eagle Scout, Horace Horton. 

“When we started the IRT there was nothing on this site. We’re just so proud,” Horton told the guests. “What a transformation this has made.” 

Each family and business that was a major contributor to the project was recognized during the ceremony; from the design work and construction material donations, to the old dining hall and the naming of the health lodge, to the Ellen K. Stinston Health Lodge. 

“I was a little taken a back,” said former school nurse Ellen Stinston, who the health lodge was named for. “It was totally unexpected. I suggested helping the health lodge. It didn’t know it would be named after me. I probably would never have done it if I’d known.” 

The ceremonies renaming other properties at Camp Hinds will take place on June 24 starting at noon. Pine Tree Council Vice President of Properties, Walt Stinson has his signature on many projects in the council. Bill and Jackie Thornton gave money for the STEAM center and so many more contributed to the projects. From Internet hardware to electrical design and window donations, to monetary donations, the project will serve a large number of scouts for many, many years. 

The one person holding everything together for the council is camp ranger Scott Martin, who has worked with the IRT, collaborated with other property owners and has done much of the finish work on the various projects at camp. 

With a strategic vision the key players in the projects, especially the dining facility have upgraded Camp Hinds to a destination summer camp, where scouts from all over the region and even the world come to experience Maine. This year 40 scouts from Egypt will attend Camp Hinds, adding to the 10.6 percent increase in Boy Scouts and Venture Scouts attending camp this summer. 

“It’s amazing all of the contributions and coordination,” said former scout and retired Navy man Tim Gallant, Maine Staff Assistant to Rep. Bruce Poliquin. “This shows that Scouting is alive and well. All these Scoutmasters are unbelievably amazing,” he added. 

For more information about Pine Tree Council, visit www.PineTree BSA.org or to find out more about the IRT, visit IRT.Defense.Gov.

When disaster strikes, AmeriCorps will be there to help - By Michelle Libby

Last Friday, AmeriCorps volunteers gathered at Camp William Hinds in Raymond to train for one of their ancillary responsibilities, running a volunteer reception center to manage the volunteers who step up when a disaster strikes. September was National Preparedness month.

The AmeriCorps volunteers were from two of Maine’s largest programs, the SySTEM REAL AmeriCorps Program and the Goodwill Multilingual Leadership Corps. 

The SySTEM REAL AmeriCorps program places teams of AmeriCorps volunteers in schools throughout the Windham/Raymond school district. Volunteers work to increase student academic achievement, as well as social and emotional learning, by implementing STEM-based and service-learning programming that allows students develop new skills and use them to create a positive impact in their communities.

Goodwill's Multilingual Leadership Corps places AmeriCorps volunteers in Maine schools, housing communities, and nonprofits to engage K-12 English Language Learners through mentoring, goal-setting, school skills support, and community engagement activities.

There are AmeriCorps volunteers in 14 of the 16 counties in Maine. 

“This event will train our community's AmeriCorps volunteers in organizing and facilitating an emergency-response volunteer reception center, through which a community manages its volunteers and coordinates their efforts in times of disaster,” said Fernando Hinojosa, outreach and development director for RSU 14 Katahdin Program. 

“AmeriCorps volunteers are trained to respond to a variety of emergencies within the communities they serve. Should an emergency (such as a natural disaster) arise in Windham, or elsewhere in the Greater Portland area, our AmeriCorps volunteers will be participating in the relief effort,” he added.

When a disaster strikes be it a flood, earthquake, or tornado, volunteers come out of the woodwork to help with clean up and other needs the victims might have. AmeriCorps volunteers spring into action to screen the influx of volunteers and match them up with a need in the area through the reception centers. This screening process allows the people in charge to know what skills the volunteers have and can also discourage those who wouldn’t be helpful. 

“I had no idea what spontaneous volunteering was. It is the overwhelming number of people who want to help,” said Haley McCracken. “Everyone is so flooded with volunteers.”

The trainings help to deal with “unaffiliated volunteers and unsolicited donations,” which sometimes are helpful and other times make the job more difficult, for example if they’re not insured or working through the Red Cross. 

AmeriCorp volunteers sign up to help with a variety of projects all over the country. Jessica Swartz was a stay-at-home mom who had a degree in marketing and advertising and did some substitute teaching at Windham Primary School before she signed up. Now she is the first AmeriCorps volunteer at WPS, coordinating projects like a garden club, STEM learning and animal care and compassion lessons. 

“I developed a love for children. AmeriCorps was a way to leave the world a better place by leaving better children,” she said. AmeriCorps provides a living stipend for some of the volunteers and after a term, they receive a Segal Education Award to be used to pay off student debt or to pay for any higher education that accepts financial aid, according to Michael Ashmore, program development and training officer from the Maine Commission for Community Service, the organization that funds the AmeriCorps grants in the state. 

 

Terms can be a full year or part time. Full time is 450 hours. The amount of the award is dependent on the term. A 1,700 hour member receives approximately $6,000. Parents or grandparents can give their award to their children or grandchildren, who then will have seven years to use it. 

The living stipend is just below the poverty level, according to Ashmore. “Part of the experience is to experience what people are living like while you’re serving,” he said. There are currently 400 volunteers serving in the state full and part time. Volunteers can be from 17 to 107. 

“I’ve been put through courses I never would have had the opportunity to take,” Swartz said. “This rounds out your full education.” From trauma training to triggers training, Swartz is proud of the broad scope of programs they participate in.  

Will Smith from Michigan has been with AmeriCorps for two years. Last year he worked with the FEMA Corps, where he did disaster training and worked a disaster in South Carolina. He served 10 to 12 hour days for two weeks, then 10 hour days for a month after the initial disaster. “When I was first deployed there, I had to learn the ropes. Serving with an organization, we had to do on the spot learning,” Smith said. “I felt like there was a lot of dependence on us.”

September 30 was AmeriCorps Stand Down Day, where programs all over the country look at their emergency plans, personal and professional,” said Ashmore. 

“They are on call for responding for natural disasters. They are able and prepared to do it,” Ashmore said. “Count on us. We’re there when you need us to be.” 

For more information on the program or to find out about having AmeriCorps volunteers at your not-for-profit, faith based or government agency, visit www.maineservicecommission.gov or www. NationalService.gov.

REAL School returns to the district with a new principal, but the same philosophy - By Michelle Libby

This fall the REAL School is relocating from Mackworth Island in Falmouth to Camp William Hinds in Raymond. The school was divided into two entities at the end of the last school year, according to new principal Rich Meserve. The students who attended the school from out of the RSU14 district will be incorporated into the Brunswick school system and the students from Windham and Raymond will move to the new location in the walkout basement of the new dining hall at Camp Hinds on Plains Road.

“It will be strictly for kids from Windham and Raymond,” said Meserve. “It will be the same mindset and approaches, social, emotional, and environmental that we did before.”

Between 20 to 30 students will attend the program which features experiential learning taught by a seasoned staff with over 50 years of REAL School teaching experience combined. “There’s lots of opportunity for experiential adventure-based curriculum,” Meserve said. 

With Panther Pond, the Tenney River and the existing facilities at the camp like a low ropes course,

the students will be able to continue their lessons while engaging in physical pursuits like paddling on the river, said Meserve. 

There is also a plan for the students to build mountain bike trails to use and that can also be used in the summer for the Scouting program. The school’s hoop house will be relocated. These reciprocal projects will be used jointly by the Scouts and the students, Meserve added. 

“We will have all sorts of new activities to showcase their talents. It’s a fresh start in a beautiful spot,” Meserve said.   

The school on Mackworth Island was antiquated and had many issues that the new space at Camp Hinds will not have, said Meserve. There will be a little change in staff, but “the students know all of us well.” Those transferring with the school are three senior drivers, the administrative assistant, the counselor, three teachers and many of the AmeriCorps volunteers.   

“We believe in the child first philosophy. Smaller class size and increased engagement translates to bright futures for our students,” Meserve said. “It’s a big change and it’s hard to be away from those we’ve worked with. As we move forward we provide a great opportunity for kids in the district. We’re thrilled,” he said. 

Superintendent Sandy Prince toured the facility last week and was excited to have the school located back in the district. 

The space should be completed before school begins in less than a month.  

Camp Hinds hosts dignitaries for briefing on IRT progress - By Michelle Libby

Governor Paul LePage and military officials converged on Camp William Hinds in Raymond on Tuesday for a briefing on the progress the military has been making at the Boy Scout camp over the past three years through the Innovative Readiness Training program (IRT). With projects like replacing the walking bridge over the Tenney River and building a new 20,000 square foot dining hall, the IRT troops come from the Marines, Navy, Air Force and Maine Air Guard reserves for two weeks at a time. Each group that arrives at camp has a specialty that they train on by doing projects set up by the IRT program manager. 

“This camp serves 1 million residents in Maine and is used to serve thousands who visit beautiful Camp Hinds,” said Pine Tree Council Scout Executive Eric Tarbox. “This program and the Assistant Secretary of Defense enabled us to do what we never could have done before.” The camp serves more than 5,000 Scouts in the State of Maine. 

The IRT program began in 1993 to give the military personnel real world experience training, according to Capt. Miles Shepard the civil engineer project manager for the IRT program. The engineering and construction units come for experience with construction, electrical, HVAC, pavement, communications, transportation, bussing to site and back, and food services. 

Camp Hinds is the only Scout council in the nation to have this opportunity, Tarbox told the group gathered. 

 

Working together with all branches of the military helps each group learn to do things better, to improve while teaching each other, said Capt. Kevin Wolff. Wolff outlined the projects completed or started last year which include a new access road, which will keep delivery trucks off the main camp road once the dining hall is completed, put a new dormer on the Messier Training Center, built the Tenney Bridge, built many staff cabins and poured the concrete for the dining hall.

Not only are the working at Camp Hinds, but they are also working for area towns, including Raymond and Casco.   

“Everything the military is doing is phenomenal,” said Lynne Teague, Pine Tree Council commissioner.

This year the units began by remodeling and upgrading the facilities at the medical lodge thanks in part to a design donation from the Stinson family from Sebago Technics, making it a four season building with new flooring, lighting and waterlines. They continued work on the range berms, put in a leach field, which required a lot of hand shoveling as well as dug water lines and communication lines throughout the camp. “They utilize their skills that leave a legacy behind for the Boy Scouts,” Wolff said. 

The IRT is in its seventh out of eight weeks of work this summer. The Boy Scouts will continue the progress after they depart, as well as the Air Reserve, which will take over the project management for next summer. 

 

The invited guests on Tuesday were given a tour of the new dining facility, still under construction, and the existing structure that has been in use since the late 1950s. 

“This is just great. I’m so impressed,” said Governor LePage. “With all branches of government contributing, it’s amazing that they pick up where the others left off. This is the right thing for the right place for the future of our state, the future of our children and the future of our country.”

“It’s very important to show our donors and the leadership from the Pentagon the dual benefit of training our young men and women to serve our country around the world and to see the legacy their leaving for generations for Scouts. By seeing their hard work and contributions in person, they’re able to take pride in their investment in the youth of our country,” said Tarbox. 

The new four season dining hall and Bill and Jackie Thornton STEM center under the dining hall will be able to be used year round and rented out to organizations needing the space. “The sky’s the limit,” said Eagle Scout and board member Horace Horton about the rental potential. 

 

The initial plan was for the dining hall to be used in the summer. However it was determined that it was less expensive to insulate and put in the better sprinkler system making it a year round facility, said Tarbox. 

“I’m looking forward to spending some time in it, said Jake Decrow of Trask-Decrow Machinery who donated the industrial pump to move wastewater from the new facility. His son is a Scout.

The shooting ranges at Camp Hinds are “The finest ranges that any of us know about. They are safe and the best designed,” said Tarbox. The NRA specific ranges were created by RJ Grondin & Sons using ballistic sand and all safety precautions. “This is a better complex than our high adventure complexes,” Tarbox added. 

“It’s impressive,” said Rep. Mike McClellan. “It makes me think what a great job Raymond Select Board is doing. Raymond is a great place to raise a family.” 

“I don’t know of any other places like this,” Tarbox said. Boy Scouts come here from all over the northeast for aquatics, shooting, the challenging outdoor personal experience low elements rope course built by Rotarians and to build fires. “It’s a whole camp. We are the Boy Scouts,” said Tarbox.