STONEHAM — The Susan L. Curtis Charitable Foundation, which operates Camp Susan Curtis (CSC), has received a $1,500 grant from the Oxford County Fund of the Maine Community Foundation to develop critical 21st century competencies, necessary for success in school and life, for 500 low-income Maine children each summer, including more than 100 from Oxford County.

CSC’s tuition-free experiential leadership and life skills summer programming facilitates development of “deeper learning” through competencies such as critical thinking and problem-solving (cognitive) and communication and collaboration (interpersonal) that help children acquire knowledge in school, then apply it as adults in higher education and the workforce.

In accepting the award, Executive Director Melissa Cilley cited collaborative efforts that include a service learning/internship partnership with the University of Southern Maine Art Department, diversity outreach through Catholic Charities Maine and “Make It Happen” of the Multilingual and Multicultural Center in the Portland public schools, as well as CSC Online, a pilot program with USM and others, designed to bring CSC programming, support and role modeling yearround to low-income Maine children.

Literacy, wellness, arts, environmental,and financial responsibility programming at CSC further help bridge the achievement gap for low-income Maine children by stemming summer learning loss.

The Susan L. Curtis Charitable Foundation and the Maine Community Foundation are statewide organizations. For more information, contact CSC at 774-1552 or www.susancurtisfoundation.org or MCF at 1-877-700-6800or www.mainecf.org.

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