Just past the one-year anniversary of a year like no other, I am excited to celebrate the plans we are making on Chewonki Neck for the return of campers and trippers this summer.  

I am so proud of staff leaders, and the teaching, administrative, technical, and facilities teams who have brought relentless creativity and resourcefulness to the work of delivering well-crafted and engaging programs in the course of the last year. 

Students in our local Waypoint program in RSU 1, day students in our elementary and middle school, and high school juniors in our residential semester program, all returned to in-person learning last September and have enjoyed healthy, active, rigorous, and joyful education all year long.

Thanks to the care and attention of our able professionals, and the confidence we have in the guiding principles of place-based, experiential programs, our students continue to study just as they always have, outdoors and engaged.

Having enjoyed Camp Chewonki@Home last August with our 9-year-old grandson and the virtual company of hundreds of families from across the country and world, I know firsthand how much fun can be had with an eager kid who wants to be outside and active, learning and having a good time. How exciting to know that in summer 2021, our boys camp and our new girls camp will be filled with children ready for adventures. 

COVID-19 will task us all for a while longer with protocols and precautions, but our summer and our school year will be replete with children enjoying new adventures and skills, new friends and familiar faces, great food, great stories, beautiful mornings and evenings, tales from the past, and hopes for the future.

I am ever grateful to the trustees and advisors who readily joined staff and President Willard Morgan this past year to sustain Chewonki and make it even better while facing the many challenges of program delivery and simultaneously maintaining the health of our students, each other, and the financial stability of the foundation.

And I am grateful to everyone in the Chewonki community who has generously supported our pandemic recovery fund, sustained their annual giving, and made an extra gift in this challenging time. Your generosity has made it possible for us to continue to meet and exceed our always high standards with a renewed focus on social justice that underpins all our work together.

I am honored to be part of this team.

Roseanne Saalfield
Chair of the Board