Hewnoaks Volk Family Center Celebrates Partnership with Camp Susan Curtis
Contact: Amos E. Orcutt, President/CEO, University of Maine Foundation (207) 581-5100
LOVELL — The University of Maine Foundation and the Susan L. Curtis Foundation announced the opening of the Camp Susan Curtis Arts Education Center at a Hewnoaks Volk Family Center reception in Lovell on Friday, July 27.
The Hewnoaks property, located along the banks of Kezar Lake, was bequeathed in 2006 to the University of Maine Foundation, for the benefit of the University of Maine, by Jessie Volk, wife of Wendell Volk, son of well-known American artist Douglas Volk.
The University of Maine Foundation leased the Hewnoaks Volk Center to Camp Susan Curtis to operate an Art Education Center, which provides educational programs in a summer camp format for disadvantaged Maine teenagers. The innovative approach involves utilizing various forms of art, history and the influence of Maine landscape on the young artists. In addition, the program encompasses various life and social skill lessons and is offered tuition-free to at-risk Maine teenagers. Since its establishment more than 35 years ago, Camp Susan Curtis has been dedicated to serving disadvantaged and at-risk youth of Maine with more than 12,000 Maine children attending camp sessions.
“The Art Education Center facility extends many of UMaine’s important missions–youth leadership and development, art education, and community engagement — to young people from all around our state,” says UMaine President Robert A. Kennedy
In 2007, the University of Maine Foundation established the Camp Susan Curtis Scholarship Fund as a result of the bequest from the Volk Family estate. The income from this fund will be used to provide scholarship assistance to UMaine undergraduate students who attended Camp Susan Curtis as youngsters.
Two University of Maine students, and a former student, are counselors at the Art Education Center. Steven Barter, who graduated from UMaine in 2007, is now a teacher in the Lewiston Maine School System. He is a fifth-year staff member for Camp Susan Curtis. Rachel Hasty, a sophomore secondary education major, is a second-year staff member. Bouranee Kim, the Camp Susan Curtis Theater director who is in her third year on the staf, is a first-year UMaine business major.
“We are happy to play a role in improving the future of Maine’s children and are looking forward to our continued partnership. We think Jessie Volk would be very pleased,” says Amos Orcutt, president and CEO of the University of Maine Foundation.
The University of Maine Foundation is an independent, non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization that manages over $185 million in private gifts and bequests, of which $150 million comprises over 1,000 individual endowments primarily for scholarships. Established in 1934, the Foundation exists to encourage gifts and bequests that nurture academic achievement, foster research and elevate intellectual pursuit at the University of Maine.