Volunteers are needed to held get the grounds ready and clean out dormitories.

BRYANT POND – The Maine Conservation School is asking area neighbors, alumni, friends and those who would like to get to know the school and its camp programs to join school staff from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, and help open the campus for the summer.

The school depends on sponsors and friends as it works to keep its school and camp programs affordable and accessible for Maine families. School staff need help erecting tents, cleaning trails, washing canoes and opening dormitories. Volunteers (and their families) will be treated to lunch and the opportunity to take an afternoon skills class in orienteering (map and compass). For more information on the school’s Spring Volunteer Day contact Heather at 665-2068.

The school has a 46-year history as Maine’s oldest conservation education program. For years this school has combined the fun of traditional summer camp life with the discoveries of conservation education and the value of practical outdoor skills.

Thousands of young people have learned how to take care of themselves in survival situations, studied Maine’s wildlife and its management, been introduced to fishing, archery, map and compass skills. They’ve learned how to handle canoes and save their buddies with canoe-over-canoe rescues, and they build emergency shelters that keep out the weather. There are eight different types of camp programs that keep staff and campers busy. Some families choose programs that offer hunter and gun safety training; other families choose camps that focus on forest exploration and outdoor discovery activities.

Three new programs have joined the traditional summer camp options. This summer will be school’s second year of offering an intensive Junior Maine Guide School. Offered for teens ages 14 to 18, the program is four weeks of outdoor living combined with skills training that ends with a certification program.

Woods Survival Camp where young people spend a week living in shelters they build themselves is a popular summer program for repeat campers. Activities include shelter building, primitive and modern fire building, backcountry cooking, the uses of wild plants, tool making, knife safety and carving, water purification, rope making, animal tracking, tree identification, and silent stalking.

In addition to offering summer camps and onsite programs for public schools, the camp also offers teacher workshops sponsored by the Safari Club’s American Wilderness Leadership Institute. The Maine chapter offers 10 full scholarships for teachers who spend the week working on outdoor-based curriculum, practicing outdoor skills, and attending seminars and field trips on wildlife and forest management. Other adult programs include courses that prepare people to take the Registered Maine Guide test, nature drawing and journaling, and active outdoor Elderhostel programs.