POLAND – Founders of the Omni Learning Institute introduced their innovative teacher-training venture Sunday afternoon at a reception at the spectacular new three-level Cliffside Lodge.

The new $2 million post-and-beam lodge is located at OMNI Camp, a nonprofit organization on 280 acres at Worthley Pond off Route 121 in Poland. OMNI is an acronym for Open Minds, New Ideas.

C. Garland “Gar” Roper, executive director, greeted several dozen benefactors and advocates for the program, which will offer weekend retreats for Maine teachers. Its objective is to help them achieve improved student performance that encourages lifelong learning, as well as to give teachers a renewed sense of satisfaction in their work.

Roper and his wife, Betsy, are OMNI founders, and they have recently been joined in the project by their daughter, Jane. She is administrative director of the Omni Learning Institute.

OMNI Camp is on grounds which became the Samantha Smith Peace Camp in 1989. That facility also was operated by the Ropers.

Gar Roper told the reception guests, “This building is a wonderful thing. We wanted to create this kind of a building so that it would be a space for many inspired events. We are attempting to create a grass-roots awareness here in Maine of some wonderful things that can happen. Most important is the teacher training institute that’s been founded here.”

Between 15 and 30 teachers at each weekend retreat will “meet together, share their ideas and try to find ways to block the burnout that often occurs because there are so many demands on teachers,” he said.

The reception guests were entertained by guitar and hammered dulcimer music beside a crackling fire in a large stone fireplace. Visitors touring the large building looked down on the grand meeting room space from surrounding balconies.

West-facing windows of the three-story Cliffside Lodge offered spectacular views of mountain vistas through the highest branches of trees that just reached a cliff’s top. Large outdoor balconies on the second and third levels are ringed with massive log railings.

Cliffside Lodge also includes several breakout rooms, bedroom space and a kitchen. Some workshop participants will stay in the lodge and others will have accommodations in a nearby camp-owned farmhouse and a bunkhouse.

The lower level of the lodge is mostly open space that is used for many arts activities by the youth and teen campers at summer sessions of OMNI Camp.

“We have a wonderfully enthusiastic reception from Auburn school system for our first workshop in January,” Roper told the group. “They have arranged for substitute teachers so several teachers can come and spend a weekend with us.”

Katy Grondin, principal of Sherwood Heights School in Auburn and head of the city’s elementary school principals association, told Roper that at least 15 Auburn teachers would be going to the institute’s first session in late January, along with other teachers from Poland, Mechanic Falls, Raymond and Bridgton.

The new Cliffside Lodge was made possible by funds from the estate of Roper’s late mother, Margaret Farquhar Roper. In a tribute to his late mother, who had been a first grade teacher, Roper said, “From her I learned the value of words and the infinite potential of human learning when it is supported by steadfast belief and patience.”

The lodge’s grand meeting room has been named for Roper’s mother.

Several corporations and individuals also have contributed, including the Rockefeller Foundation, which provided a matching grant.

Site preparation began last January. The post and beam construction was done by John Libby and Co. of Freeport. Libby said the building was completed in 25 weeks.

Roger Beaulieu, owner of Beaulieu Industries, Poland, did the road and other site work, and Tozier Builders provided other work. Financing was provided by Key Bank.

Jay and Karen Stager, who have been influential forces in revitalizing Maine’s camping industry in recent decades, were among the reception guests. Jay Stager praised Roper’s efforts to provide teacher retreats in the Lewiston-Auburn area. He said it is one of only two or three such ventures in Maine.

Roper said early corporate support is funding some scholarships. Corporate donations are being sought, and Roper said he expects that Hasbro and Campbell’s soon will be among major supporters.

In the meantime, a grass-roots effort to raise awareness of the institute is under way. Roper said his daughter emphasized the importance of one-to-one sponsorship, with individual teachers being encouraged to find a single local business that is willing to provide the $450 for a teacher’s weekend retreat.

Jane Roper said, “We plan to have eight or ten retreat weekends each year between October and April.”

She said teachers who want to learn more about the Omni Learning Institute and how to attend a retreat are encouraged to call her at 577-6129 or to get in touch by e-mail at [email protected].

C. Garland Roper received a Ph.D. in education and psychology from Teachers College at Columbia University and he spent 12 years working with elementary students and teachers in Connecticut. Since 1988, Roper has become a nationally known marketing consultant for clients including Hasbro, Disney, Mattel and Crayola.

His work for the child-oriented companies played a role in his philosophy for the Omni Learning Institute. He said he recognized that these large corporations aimed at all children and did not compartmentalize them. Similarly, the institute seeks to show teachers how to bring each child up to his or her potential. The institute will show teachers how to maximize productivity and minimize stress.

In addition to the summer youth camps, the facility offers corporate training programs.

Roper said the new Cliffside Lodge is open for rental use by local organizations or individuals for meetings, parties, weddings or other events.