Trekkers Receives Donation from Camden National Bank

Trekkers’ 9th Grade Team Patagonia students were joined by Joanne Campbell, Executive Vice President from Camden National Bank (4th from the right) during a recent “Short Treks” outing at Oakland Park Bowling.

Thomaston, Maine - Trekkers, a local youth mentoring organization, was recently awarded a grant from Camden National Bank in support of the Short Treks program. In a new initiative, Trekkers is incorporating a series of local Short Trek experiences for each student cohort from its six-year program. The Short Treks are intended to provide additional opportunities for students to learn and reinforce their active outdoor skills, to complete additional community service projects in the local area and to give students more time to bond as a group, helping them prepare for their program-culminating educational expeditions. The Short Treks activities and outings are tailored to each group, providing experiences that will collectively bolster the team’s strengths and build resilience in individual students.

The 2014-15 Short Treks activities have included a wide variety of activities, all of which align well with the five educational components that Trekkers uses in core programming: community service, cultural awareness, environmental stewardship, adventure-based education and wilderness exploration. Since the program year began last September, students and their mentors have completed community service projects at Camp Kieve, Hospitality House, and Habitat for Humanity, in addition to volunteering in a soup kitchen and an English Second Language Center in Lewiston. Some Trekkers groups camped and hiked in State Parks this year, while others participated in cultural exchanges or completed physical challenges like climbing walls or ropes courses. Throughout the local treks, all the students increased their cohesiveness and communication skills through ongoing discussion, reflection, journaling and consensus decision making.

Because there are now more than 200 students from six different communities in Trekkers, the Short Treks experiences go a long way to help the young people in the program get to know one another through the ongoing interactions. Rather than merely meeting for planning meetings every couple of weeks throughout the school year, this year, students have been able to engage in Short Treks activities that bring them together and strengthen their connections with their group and their adult mentors.

Speaking of the program and the grant support, Executive Director Don Carpenter stated, “Everyone at Trekkers is so grateful to Camden National Bank for their continued support of our students. This grant will help us provide more meaningful local expeditionary learning opportunities to area youth through the Short Treks program. But, more importantly, it will help us build stronger bonds between students and mentors and provide a stronger sense of community within each of our student groups. Camden National Bank shares our devotion to young people and our goal of building life skills and resiliency in local youth. They invest in the future of our community by supporting programs such as Trekkers. We cannot thank them enough for this generous gift.”

Since 1994, Trekkers has connected young people with caring adults through expeditionary learning, community service and adventure based education. Now in the fifth year of an incremental expansion plan, Trekkers works with 7th through 12th grade students from the six communities that make up Regional School Unit #13.

To learn more about Trekkers outdoor-based mentoring program, please contact the Trekkers office: (207) 594-5095 or visit www.trekkers.org.