 |
President's Column: Indestructible Influences
At our annual meeting this year,
Friends of Acadia honored several
volunteers and partners for their out-standing
contributions. Our highest honor,
the Marianne Edwards Award, was given to
Dianna K. Emory, chairman of the Friends of
Acadia board of directors from 20022007.
Dianna's contributions to Friends and Acadia
National Park define commitment and passion,
and we are grateful to her. In passing
the chair, she and the board selected another
talented and dedicated leader in Lili Pew,
as her first "Chairman's Letter" engagingly
demonstrates.
Volunteers are notoriously dedicated to
Friends and the park. This year Friends,
and Acadia, lost a great volunteer. George
Buck, a long time volunteer crew leader,
died in February. He was admired and
respected by his fellow crew leaders and all
who worked with him. George and his
wife, Anna, were two of the first volunteers
worked with when I joined the Friends
staff. His pleasure in being outdoors,
working in Acadia, and sharing the joy of
the park with friends was infectious.
George and Anna were original members
of the Downeast Outing Club (DOC),
which formed in 1982 and dedicated volunteer
time to Acadia. Fellow DOC member
Marianne Edwards was a Friends of
Acadia founder. Obviously, Acadia inspires
great work, given generously. Anna lives in
Orono, but continued to make the trek
down to Mount Desert Island this summer
to volunteer in Acadia with friends.
Some day volunteers, among others, will
have another way to get to Acadia. This
year, Friends will purchase 369 acres at
Crippens Creek in Trenton for the future
Acadia Gateway Center, a project involving
many partners including the Maine
Department of Transportation, the National
Park Service, Downeast Transportation,
and others.
The Acadia Gateway Center is the third
phase of the propane-powered Island
Explorer bus system, and is needed to
ensure the long-term effectiveness of this
popular system. At this writing the Island
Explorer buses are still in operation, but
already we know they have broken ridership
records this summer. More than
300,000 riders took the Island Explorer
this summer, a 7 percent increase over last
year. You can learn more about the plans
for the Acadia Gateway Center on page 11.
As we look to the future, Friends recognizes
that we have unique opportunities to
engage youth in the outdoors. We run successful
programs that promote youth activities
outdoors and benefit Acadia including
the volunteer, Acadia Youth Conservation
Corps, and Ridge Runner programs. This
summer, our second annual Family Fun
Day was held at at Sieur de Monts and
brought more than 500 kids and adults
into the park to just have fun climbing
walls, riding ponies, kayaking, meeting
Max the Horse, watching rocks move, and
much more.
In addition, Friends hired a No Child
Left Inside intern, Vassar Pierce, this summer
to coordinate statewide efforts that
provide opportunities to get kids outdoors.
Our goal is to ensure that as many children
as we and our partners can reach have an
opportunity to experience the bounty of
Maine's natural areas.
Rachel Carson wrote: "If I had influence
with the good fairy who is supposed to
preside over the christening of all children,
I should ask that her gift to each
child in the world be a sense of wonder so
indestructible that it would last throughout
life."
We cannot preside over the christening,
but we can nurture that sense of wonder in
our children throughout their lives. We all
want our children to be healthy and
happy‹and many of us remember the
magic of our first camping trip, or the personal
accomplishment of reaching a mountain
summit, or the quiet moments -
sometimes so necessary - sitting along the
shore of a pond or the ocean. Our children
need these experiences, too.
We are grateful to our members for supporting
a brighter future for Acadia.
- Marla S. O'Byrne, President
|
|
 |
|
|
