“I don’t know if you are a fly fisherman,” says Bob Hamer, Maine Guide, photographer, fly fisherman, and part of the team who takes wounded veterans fly fishing in Maine every summer as part of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, “but fly fishing isn’t really about fishing. It’s about the moment. It’s almost meditation. Each of these guys brings his own baggage, but when their minds are on fly fishing, they’re off their problems. Even if it’s only for a few days.”

For 14 summers, Hamer and his friend Dan Legere, who owns Maine Guide Fly Shop and Guide Service in Greenville, Maine, have arranged the expedition for the nonprofit organization, which engages these military service veterans in learning about and practicing the sport. The Greenville trip was the very first expedition Healing Waters undertook, with three wounded combat soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center (now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center), back in 2005.

“Dan arranges the fishing part,” explains Hamer. “I handle the logistics. And then I go along to take photographs,” so the veterans have proof that they’re not telling fish tales.

On July 17-20, seven Healing Waters participants and two counselors came to Maine from Vermont and Massachusetts. “Greenville rolls out the red carpet,” says Legere. Local restaurants provide meals. This year, Indian Hill Trading Post put on a cookout, Kelly’s Landing provided dinner on Moosehead Lake, and the Kokadjo Store served breakfast. The local American Legion Post prepared a barbecue for the last night. The group stayed at the Kokadjo Sporting Camps on First Roach Pond. 

One day they fished at the Kennebec River’s East Outlet. The next day, Sarah Sindo, site manager at Chewonki’s Big Eddy Cabins and Campground on the West Branch of the Penobscot River, greeted the group bright and early. They spent the morning “fishing the eddy,” she says, had lunch on the lawn, and then boarded drift boats to fish as they floated down to Salmon Deadwater. 

“They are always such a great group,” says Sindo. “Always in great spirits, excited to be fishing on the river…Photo time is interesting because there is always a jokester in the group.” 

This year, luck was with them. “They all caught fish during the day on dry flies,” Sindo says.

Legere and Hamer created the very first Healing Waters Fly Fishing expedition–the trip to Maine–after bumping into sportsman Ed Nicholson at an outdoors show in Washington, D.C. Legere had guided Nicholson in Maine, and he got excited when Nicholson told him about the organization he was founding. “He had the idea that learning to tie a fly and cast could help in wounded veterans’ rehabilitation,” recalls Legere. “It would develop hand/eye coordination and get them out of rehab”–and into the peace of the wilderness. 

Healing Waters has grown to be a nationwide program with more than 200 chapters rooted in military hospitals, Veterans Affairs medical centers and clinics, and Warrior Transition Units. Summer fishing days are just one part of the program; during the rest of the year, the veterans who have chosen to participate learn to tie flies and build rods with staff from Trout Unlimited, a fly fishing, and natural resource conservation organization. 

Like Sindo, Legere and Hamer say the Healing Waters trip is a special part of summer, and they are quick to point out that it wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of local people. “Everything is free for the vets,” says Hamer. “It’s all donated.” “The veterans are always amazed and so appreciative of the generosity of the Greenville people,” Legere notes. “Everyone has such a wonderful time.” 

All Photos courtesy of Bob Hamer and Healing Waters Fly Fishing.

Learn more about Big Eddy Campground and Cabins

Step through the double doors of Chewonki’s Center of Environmental Education and follow the trail markers to Katahdin. Katahdin: Maine’s highest mountain! It is the subject of legends among generations of native peoples and Chewonki folk.

Thanks to Gordon Hall III (Boys Camp staff 1951-1953; Chewonki trustee 1972-present; chair of the board 1997-2004; past participant in more than 20 Chewonki wilderness expeditions with friends and family; former member of the Committee on Trustees and Advisors and the Maine Coast Semester Advisory Committee) and Paul Crowell (Boys Camp 1977, 1978; Thoreau Wilderness Trip 1980; Boys Camp staff 1981-1984 and 1986; Foundation Advisor 2000-present), we now have our own little Katahdin right here at Chewonki. At a fundraising auction for Friends of Baxter State Park last fall, Crowell and Hall bought a three-dimensional, painted fiberglass model of the mountain showing all the peaks, cirques, and trails. It stood on display at the park’s Roaring Brook ranger station for decades; people tracing the trails with their fingers wore the paint off some of the most popular routes.

Crowell and Hall then gave the model to Chewonki in honor of James Whittlesey Crowell (b. 1925-d. 2014; Boys Camp staff 1971; Chewonki wilderness expeditioner 2005), an adventurer, teacher, and outdoorsman who loved Katahdin and was Gordy Hall’s close friend (they climbed the mountain together) and Paul Crowell’s beloved uncle.   Penobscot Nation historian James Francis shared his people’s perspective on “the great mountain” with us for a small exhibition accompanying the model. Also included are photographs and writings that reveal Katahdin’s important place in Chewonki culture. If you are at Chewonki this summer, be sure to make your way to the entrance hall of the Center of Environmental Education to see this venerable model for yourself. Our big thanks to Gordy Hall and Paul Crowell for their generosity.

When Chewonki became a non-profit in 1962, a charitable purpose became an essential piece of our organizational DNA. Since that time, we have served participants across an increasingly broad range of identities, backgrounds, and experience. Camp Chewonki welcomes campers from more than 15 nations each summer, Maine Coast Semester typically has students from more than 15 states, and we serve well over 15 communities in Maine with our Elementary School and Outdoor Classroom programs. Our broadest engagement comes from our traveling science educators, visiting hundreds of towns throughout the region each year.

However, we cannot meet the full promise of our mission by merely serving more people across a geographic area. We need a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment to foster educational growth and make sure that every student, camper, and staff member feels safe, welcome, and valued for who they are and what they bring to the community.

We learn from nature that diverse ecosystems are lively and robust while monolithic ones become stale and fragile. We will continue to broaden our community, ensuring that human diversity at Chewonki reflects the human diversity we see throughout our nation.

Our wonderful educators and staff strongly hold this view, and they have continuously pushed the organization to meet this promise in new and better ways.

For these reasons and more, in November 2018, the Chewonki board of trustees approved a formal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) statement to guide our work. Similar to our mission statement, our DEI statement is a guiding star we will always strive towards, pursuing the principles and directions set forth in its language.

Our DEI statement is the product of a task force of staff and board members, building on several years of staff activities and professional development. I am grateful for the effort and wisdom of the task force members below.

• Susan Feibelman, Head of Semester School
• Nancy Kennedy, Vice President for Camp Chewonki
• Shelly Gibson, Team Development Coordinator
• Lisa Beneman, Assistant Farm Manager
• Anne Leslie, Writer/Editor
• Emma Balazs, Traveling Natural History Programs Coordinator
• Rebecca Marvil, Trustee
• Roseanne Saalfield, Trustee, Chair (ex officio)
• Jeff Eberle, Trustee, Treasurer
• Davis Benedict, Trustee
• Jenn Gudebski, Advisor

While all organizations must do this work, I am particularly proud of the approach we are taking, which includes an emphasis on developing cultural proficiency for the whole community while holding up a mirror and a lens to examine ourselves and everything we do. In addition, I have charged our leadership team with the responsibility for implementing our DEI statement in every aspect of our work.

Chewonki cultivates a diverse body of effective citizen-leaders who improve their human and natural communities across a multitude of careers, disciplines, roles, and places. We will continue to broaden our community, welcoming new voices and new perspectives. You are very much part of this work, and I thank you for your continued support.

Warm regards,

Willard Morgan
President

Read Chewonki’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Statement

A familiar figure on Chewonki Neck and at Chewonki’s Big Eddy Cabins and Campground in the North Woods for nearly two decades, Don Lamson is setting off on a new adventure: retirement. We couldn’t be happier for him. We appreciate all the care he has given to Chewonki people and places. Luckily, his wife, Dot Lamson, plans to continue her summer involvement with Camp Chewonki for Girls, so we expect to keep in touch with Don.

Big Eddy is now in the very capable hands of Sarah Sindo, who has worked with Don for the past several summers and loves the spot as much as he does. She can keep an eye on him when he visits.

Here’s an excerpt from a 2017 Chewonki Chronicle article about Don:

“With his neatly trimmed beard, twinkling smile, and soft Maine accent, Don Lamson is the genuine article. A native of Wiscasset, Don spent his childhood hunting, fishing, and exploring the woods and waters of Maine. His knowledge and willingness to share it make him an important resource to guests at Big Eddy and Chewonki as a whole. Don knew about Chewonki growing up, but it wasn’t until he met his future wife, Dot, then our director of environmental education, that his relationship with the place began.

“Don became manager of Big Eddy in 2013 after 12 years at Chewonki and 24 before that as a shipfitter at Bath Iron Works. He has intimate knowledge of the North Woods,

can launch a conversation with just about anyone, and is handy with maps, tents, canoes, guns, chainsaws, fishing rods, and flat tires. He’s a natural fit for the job of managing Chewonki’s site on the shore of the Lower West Branch of the Penobscot River, near the famous pool where the river swirls and reorganizes after running the Ripogenus Gorge. Big Eddy is legendary among fishermen of landlocked salmon and brook trout, so Don, a fly fisherman himself, is in his natural habitat.”

Congratulations, Don! We wish you many long, warm, fulfilling days.