For the past 70 years, Pine Tree Camp in central Maine has been a haven for people with disabilities. It’s a place for children and adults to come together, enjoy the wilderness, laugh, build friendships, forget their day-to-day worries and go adventuring on the water and through the woods.
But the biggest gift Pine Tree Camp offers to people is best described by longtime camper Kelley Handy, 22, of Raymond, who has attended the camp with her service dog, Misty, since she was 14 years old.
“It’s a place where I don’t feel disabled,” Handy said while sitting at a picnic table with her friend Torie Queally, 21, of Brunswick. The two met at camp about six years ago and have been fast friends ever since. Both young women have cerebral palsy and use powered wheelchairs to get around. Queally can’t speak, so she uses a device on an iPad to communicate. The two stay in touch year-round, often spending hours at a time on Skype.
“We all have our own issues, like anyone,” Handy said referring to her fellow campers. “But we’re all in the same boat — or wheelchair, if you will.”
Located on the scenic shore of North Pond in Rome, Pine Tree Camp is much like any other summer camp, with a spacious cafeteria, an arts and crafts building, recreational fields, a boat launch, a playground and cabins for sleeping. It’s all wheelchair accessible, including state-of-the-art outhouses, a gigantic tree house (reached by ramp) and a network of nature trails.
“All year, we look forward to this one week,” Handy said. “Because it’s that one week that we don’t think about anything, just when the next activity is or what’s for lunch, you know?”
In operation since 1945, Pine Tree Camp began by offering programs to children with disabilities. But over the decades, the camp has expanded its programming to people of all ages and a wide range of disabilities, from the common developmental disorder of autism to rare physical disabilities such as spina bifida.
Today, nearly 700 campers attend the summer programs and nearly 1,000 additional campers attend retreats in the spring and fall. The camp has never turned away a camper who couldn’t pay full tuition. To make up the difference, the Pine Tree Society, which runs the camp, has an annual $1 million fundraising goal.
In the future, programming will continue to expand, thanks to a recent $6.6 million fundraising campaign that has funded the replacement of all camper cabins, wellness center and dining hall. The new buildings are more spacious, comfortable and accessible.
“The new cabins were really a huge success,” Pine Tree camp director Dawn Willard-Robinson said. “It was just really important for us to not only make it safer and healthier for everybody to be in the camper cabins during the summertime, but the goal is to really expand what we’re doing recreationally here to go through all four seasons.”
The new buildings are winterized. And the fundraising campaign, which began in 2008, also paid for the installment of a new water and septic system. For the first time in history, the campus is year-round facility and will be offering programs in the winter.
“In the future, I’d love to see us run [programs] every week of the year,” Willard-Robinson said. “This is a really exciting time to be here, to see all the changes.”
The successful campaign also funded a revamp of the camp’s waterfront area, where three wheelchair-accessible pontoon boats are anchored to new, wide metal docks.
On July 10, two brothers from Hope — James and Harold Oldenburg, ages 72 and 71, respectively — joined a group of fellow campers to take a ride on the boats. The brothers have been attending Pine Tree Camp since the early ’70s, and their favorite activity is boating.
Water-related activities are always popular at the summer camp sessions for children and adults. Later that day, wheelchairs, crutches and a walking cane were abandoned on the shore as a group of campers and camp counsellors launched onto the pond in kayaks and disappeared around the bend to explore a nearby stream.
“We’re a typical summer camp; we just adapt our activities,” Greg King, program manager for the camp, said. “It’s pretty easy to adapt. At the end of the day, foam and duct tape go a long way.”
King is working with Project Adventure to build an accessible outdoor challenge course on campus. If everything goes as planned, construction will begin this fall.
“I’m really excited that it’s going to expand our programming quite a bit,” King said.
King’s goal, when it comes to expanding camp activities, is to enable campers to be as independent as possible. For example, this fall, the camp is installing a launch system that will assist people in their transition from wheelchair to kayak.
At the camp’s archery range, Aaron Nau, 41, of Brunswick used a wooden stand on July 10 to support a bow while he aimed for the target. Nau has cerebral palsy, which affects his ability to control his movements. He also is deaf.
“This is my favorite place to be,” Nau said using sign language. “These are my best friends. It’s like a family.”
Nau has been attending camp for 30 years, and he always looks forward to the traditional overnight tent out, when camp counselors lead a group of campers to a remote tent site by the shore. There they sleep under the stars, cook over campfire, share stories and sing songs.
“It really opened my eyes,” King said. “This group of campers has a crazy amount of joy coming down the hill on the first day of camp. They’re all smiles. Everyone is excited to be here, whether it’s their first year or their 40th year. They’re coming home for a week.”
Capture the flag, basketball, swimming and adaptive dancing — they’re all on the list of summer activities enjoyed at Pine Tree, King said. And in the winter, Nordic skiing, ice fishing and other cold-weather activities will take their place.
“If there’s something that we want to do, then the staff makes it possible,” Handy said, emphasizing her words with her hands. “There’s nothing they don’t try.”
Meanwhile, on the lawn nearby, a large group of campers participated in an adaptive dance program. Everyone either sat in a chair or wheelchair, following the instructor’s movements to the classic Hall & Oates song “You Make My Dreams Come True.”
“All the time I hear the words, ‘No, you can’t do that,’” she added. “Those words don’t exist here. They just don’t.”
To learn more about Pine Tree Camp, visit the Pine Tree Society website at pinetreesociety.org.