POLAND — Cops once frightened 13-year-old Isaiah Iadorola.

“They’re really tall,” said Isaiah, who lives in Buckfield. “They’re usually really loud. They have a lot of stuff. I just thought they were pretty scary.”

That’s changed.

Last weekend, Isaiah sat in the front passenger seat of a police cruiser as it drove the back roads from his home in Buckfield to an out-of the-way corner of Poland. At Camp POSTCARD (Police Officers Striving to Create and Reinforce Dreams), a rented complex of athletic fields and cabins beside Thompson Lake, the red-haired boy met police, corrections and probation officers. They played games, ate and talked.

By mid-week, Isaiah sat beside one of his counselors, Auburn police officer Shawn Carll, and laughed.

“I still think they’re big and loud,” Isaiah joked.

It’s the kind of hoped-for change that led to the creation of the camp 19 years ago.

Maine law enforcement groups and the Volunteers of America began renting Agassiz Village and inviting kids to come for the week free of charge. The youths, entering grades six or seven, are handpicked. Some may be at risk of getting into trouble or may simply be someone that an officer thinks might like a fun week.

This year, about 140 enrolled. Over the years, an estimated 2,800 Maine kids have visited.

“There are so many reasons why these kids are here,” said Lt. Rand Maker, a deputy with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and the camp’s co-director. “To me, what separates this camp from so many others is not so much the kids. It’s the counselors.”

Almost all are off-duty officers from across the state who donate their time.

“Your counselors, your leaders, your arts and crafts people, your waterfront people, they’re all tied to law enforcement,” Maker said. “We want these kids to see these officers as human beings.”

Too often, kids see the symbols of authority — uniforms, weapons and cars — and forget that they’re people. That’s especially true if the child or a family member has been in trouble.

“Officers want campers to see that they can be silly,” said Maker, who has been with the program for 16 years.

“I see kids and parents in the grocery store who still come up to me and talk about camp,” he said. “I’m convinced that the relationship I have built in my community and here makes it easier for other law enforcement officers when these people have to interact with them, whether it’s because of an accident or they’ve had a problem at their home. They’re more likely to look at that law enforcement officer as a human. They realize they’re not machines.”

At camp, the kids swim, canoe, climb a rock wall and play ball. On Wednesday, they learned about fingerprinting, watched officers work with their canine partners and played games in a Scarborough police cruiser.

A child climbed into the driver’s seat and buckled up. As fast as he could, he unbuckled, ran around the car and buckled again, signaling a nearby officer to stop his stopwatch with a blast of the car horn.

To one side, a pair of girls watched quietly.

Chelsea Baillargeon, 16, of Sangerville knows what the girls were going through. She was one of the frightened kids who came a few years ago. After coming twice as a camper, she returned this summer as a counselor-in-training.

“I was shy; really shy,” she said. But the counselors drew her out. By the end of her first week, she’d decided to be one of them. When camp was over, she maintained friendships with officers, even accompanying them on ride-alongs.

The high school junior now aims to become a state police trooper.

“I like helping out people,” she said. “I want to protect my community.”

She and another former camper, Hannah Sivet, 16, of Calais, have been talking with the kids about the officers.

“For a lot of the campers, it took a little bit to warm up to them,” Sivet said. “But now, they talk to them whenever they want to. They’re bubbly around them. For my girls, I think they’re really genuine about it.”

Not every child buys into Camp POSTCARD’s message.

“From my perspective, it’s easy to tell,” Baillargeon said. “We had one girl; she didn’t like it at all, and she ended up going home the first day. She wanted to do whatever she wanted. I think she made her own rules at home.”

Most of the kids seemed to be having a great time, she said.

For Isaiah, the week was going by too fast.

His favorite attraction is a kind of dodge ball game called gaga, played in a specially built octagonal court.

“I like to move around and be outside,” he said. “I get to make new friends and see people I know.”

On Friday, they all said goodbye.

That will be the final proof of the officers’ humanity, Maker said.

“When they go home, there will be a lot of tears here,” he said. “They’re not just tears from kids being sad. They’re going to miss these relationships. And it’s not just from the kids, if you know what I mean.”

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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