Scholarship Fund Named in Honor of Founding Member, Chuck Huntington
The Merrymeeting Audubon Board of Directors recently voted to name its scholarship program after Chuck Huntington, a professional ornithologist and long-time friend and mentor to birders around the world. Chuck, who passed away in January of 2017, was the founder of the Merrymeeting Chapter and an avid supporter of its camp scholarship programs.
The Chuck Huntington Scholarship Fund provides scholarships for chapter area teens and teachers to attend Hog Island Audubon Camp, and for younger students to attend the Univeristy of Maine 4-H summer camps at Tanglewood and Bryant Pond. All programs are in one week residential settings. We provide full and half scholarships to 25-30 students each year. Half scholarships range from $200-300, full scholarships from $595-$1295. Applications for scholarships are made available to area schools in February of each year, and are also available for downloading on this page beginning in January. For more information about our scholarships, please contact any of the following scholarship committee members: Bronda Niese, Chairperson – 406-2396, bniese04@comcast.net; Sue Sergeant – suegeosergeant@comcast.net, 442-8195; Ted Allen –beanallen79@gmail.com, 729-8661; Kathy Claerr – kclaerr1@comcast.net; Steve Spear – 353-8863, sspear32@gmail.com.
For more information regarding the camp programs we support, go to hogisland.audubon.org, or call 843 340-8673 and ask about programs for Teens or, if you are a teacher, Educator’s Week. For children ages 8 – 14, you can review the variety of programs available at Tanglewood 4-H Camp by accessing https://extension.umaine.edu/tanglewood, or by calling 207 789-5868. For Bryant Pond 4-H Camp, go to https://extension.umaine.edu/bryantpond or call 207 665-2068.
If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to our scholarship fund, please send your check to: The Chuck Huntington Scholarship Fund, c/o Steve Spear, 9 Livernois Drive, Topsham, ME 04086.
Teen and Teacher Hog Island Scholarships Awarded for 2018
Merrymeeting Audubon recently awarded a Chuck Huntington scholarship to Mt Ararat High School student Mathilde Eidsness. Mathilde, who has a keen interest in birds and biology, will be attending Hog Island Audubon Camp’s “Mountains to Sea Birding for Teens” program in June. She writes that she is “interested to see how art and science intersect; using my art to communicate what I learn.” She also believes that the Hog Island experience will better prepare her for this summer’s other adventure; beginning a 2018-2020 internship at the Biodiversity Research Institute in Portland.
Two area elementary school teachers have also been awarded Chuck Huntington scholarships to attend the teacher education program at Hog Island Audubon Camp entitled “Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week,” which will run from July 15 – 20. This experience is designed to help teachers who want to improve their environmental education curriculum. Marianne Warner is a 5th grade teacher at Williams-Cone School in Topsham, and Tina Wood is a Title 1 Reading and Math teacher at the Marcia Buker School in Richmond. Both teachers are looking forward to enriching their environmental education curriculum and bringing their summertime learning back into the classroom in the fall.
Thirty Area Elementary and Middle School Students Headed to 4-H camps
The summer of 2018 will be especially exciting for 30 students who have been awarded Chuck Huntington scholarships to attend camp this summer. The students, who reside in 12 towns in the greater Brunswick/Bath area, will all have week-long, residential experiences at Tanglewood and Bryant Pond 4-H camps. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we were able to say “yes” to every aspiring camper who applied!
