Girl Scouts, Housing, and Legacy of Friendship Dominate Friends of Acadia Annual Meeting
BAR HARBOR—The Friends of Acadia held its annual meeting on Wednesday, July 5, which celebrated the power of friends and connection to make change while also focusing on increased involvement and education of young people and the need for housing.
It was also a celebration of the organization’s members, the staff at Acadia National Park and volunteers for both. Staff and board members catalogued accomplishments and the agency’s impact throughout the year, but the most poignant moment came when Vice President of Development and Donor Relations Lisa Horsch Clark presented Girl Scout Troop #760 the excellence in volunteer award, and then after remarks, the Girl Scouts quickly got the crowd in the Bar Harbor Club to sing, “Make new friends and keep the old; one is silver and the other is gold.”
The song is a riff off the poem by Welsh (and eventually Pennsylvanian and then Welsh again) composer Joseph Parry, who had a rags-to-riches life story, creating six operas, dozens of songs, anthems, and three oratorios before his death.
The reward acknowledges the troop’s focus on friendship, kindness, love for the earth, and the people and animals on it. The scouts participate in the Friends of Acadia roadside cleanup year after year.
“The first time I did it, I was wow, this is boring,” said one scout, but the more she worked on it and the more she learned, and the more she loved the event.
“Our troop is like our family and the park is our home,” one said.
STILES’ REMARKS AND FOA IMPACT
President and CEO Eric Stiles wove in the theme of friendship and love of Acadia National Park throughout the event. On June 30, it was Stiles’ year anniversary at Friends of Acadia. “And boy, did I win the lottery.”
His first vacation on the island was decades ago. “When this (the job) came open, man did I come running.” He said he knew it was special when he first visited, but now?
“I was only scratching the surface.” Part of the community and park’s specialness, he said is the embodiment of compassion to self and others, devotion to park, sense of place, and sense of purpose that is in the friends of the park.
“The park is embedded in our DNA. The only place that might approximate it is the Adirondacks,” he said.
“This is community that moves forward with immense solutions,” he said. It’s full of the people who rehabilitate the trails and roads, and create the endowment for the organization.
“We can be proud of the past, but as our incoming chair says, excellence isn’t a place of rest,” Stiles said.
KEVIN SCHNEIDER AND JACK KELLEY AND IMPACT
Stiles called Park Superintendent Kevin Schneider, America’s greatest superintendent and said, “He’s a person who doesn’t say no; he kind of asks how.”
Schneider began by sharing his personal story of how he fell in love with nature as a 17-year-old, volunteer in the Cascades. He was placed there after being accepted into the Student Conservation Association, which places young adults in volunteer positions across the country.
During his month in the Cascades backcountry, he said, “We didn’t see a road. We didn’t see a car. We didn’t plug into an electrical outlet for an entire month.” That, he said, was all it took. A conservationist was born.
Acadia Youth Conservation Corps and similar programs that are supported by Friends of Acadia are what makes the nonprofit’s work so important, he said. He then mentioned a new program which brings traditionally underrepresented young adults to Acadia.
He also spoke about the need for affordable housing and a labor shortage.
The FOA impact report says, “In 2022, Acadia National Park attempted to hire 165 seasonal positions and could only fill 116, including only about half of the needed trail crew. This was in large part due to lack of affordable housing, which has now become a crisis on Mount Desert Island.”
Under past Board Chair Jack Kelley, the park and FOA have made incredibly strides in housing, Stiles said.
Kelley received the Marianne Edwards Distinguished Service Award, joined the board in 2010, and went through multiple positions before becoming chair, and his leadership helped advance strategic initiatives and fostered great teamwork, creating a sticky glue that helped keep the organization’s parts together. He received a standing ovation.
“I have not done the hard work,” Kelley said. “The people on the staff, the park, the volunteers—they’ve done all the hard work.”
Edwards was one of the first donors and incorporators for FOA back in 1986. She donated $50 and received a national Point of Light Award from President Ronald Reagan. Friends of Acadia is a part of that legacy, Kelley said.
Vice President of Conservation Stephanie Clement also addressed numerous elements of FOA’s impact.
Per the FOA impact statement, “Addressing the Seasonal Workforce Housing Challenge”
“In 2022, Acadia National Park attempted to hire 165 seasonal positions and could only fill 116, including only about half of the needed trail crew. This was in large part due to lack of affordable housing, which has now become a crisis on Mount Desert Island.
“Friends of Acadia is working with the National Park Service and other partners to provide affordable seasonal workforce housing by developing a seasonal workforce housing strategy with a goal to provide the 130 new beds needed for the park and partners.
“This will help advance our strategic priorities and ensure that the park is able to protect park resources and provide for visitor enjoyment. It also helps makes jobs in Acadia accessible to all. Most graduates today leave college with an immense amount of debt and can’t afford expensive housing costs as they enter the workforce. Providing safe, affordable seasonal housing will reduce this barrier.
“The ways in which Friends of Acadia has been asked to help support the park have grown and evolved over the years. We are encouraged by how Friends of Acadia members and partners are already responding with support and ideas to address the housing crisis. Thank you!”
OTHER AWARDS AND MENTIONS
Along with the Girl Scout troop and Kelley, Ann Kozak also received an award. Hers was the Acadia Inspiration Award and Horsch called her a force, writing books and articles, and working at the Wild Gardens of Acadia and the College of the Atlantic.
Kozak was also a long-time reporter for the Mount Desert Islander and Bar Harbor Times. At the podium, she talked about how past leaders of Friends of Acadia and the park allowed her to write stories and also support the Wild Gardens of Acadia.
Acadia staff members, Rebecca Cole-Will (for her Wabanaki nation work) and Keith Johnson, director of facilities, also received mentions during the remarks.
INCOMING CHAIR BILL EACHO
William Eacho spoke as the organization’s new chair saying that the organization has to continue to address the congestion challenges.” He added that the Island Explorer’s thirty busses and the Gateway Center were important components to dealing with that congestion.
“That’s going to make a difference. Getting people onto the bus will make a difference,” he said.
He briefly mentioned other options such as possibilities at Hulls Cove for transportation system use and more reservation systems like the one to access the road on Cadillac Mountain, which he called successful.
“We have to find ways to build resiliencies in the park,” he said.
He added that a diversity of the workforce will help make the park more welcoming, and also spoke of making the park more accessible to people with limited mobility. And also working more with the Wabanaki Nation.
The speakers applauded the dent already made in the need for seasonal housing for park employees, which is estimated as being about 130 beds in the next decade or less. They’ve added rooms to existing ANP houses, acquired commercial sites (so that they don’t displace others in single family homes), will have 56 beds at Harden Farm, and a project on Jordan Pond brings them to halfway of that need. They also expect to have ten RV pads for workers.
The housing need and lack of labor isn’t exclusive to Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island. Mount Rainer was closed down this winter because of a lack of staff. However, the group applauded FOA and ANP’s work toward making concrete solutions toward addressing the park’s housing needs.
FRIENDS OF ACADIA
According to its website, “Our mission includes the park’s surrounding communities. This commitment to work toward the protection of Acadia, both inside and out of its boundaries, reflects the interwoven character of the park. Founded in 1986, Friends of Acadia is a leading example of citizen stewardship at national parks, and a place where personal connections to the park are translated into a remarkable collective impact. We bring people together and find solutions to benefit Acadia now and for all time.”
All images not captioned otherwise are via the Friends of Acadia’s Impact Report.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Learn more about the housing challenges faces by seasonal staff.
Learn more about Friends of Acadia’s efforts to expand equitable programming and accessible visitor experiences to new communities exploring Acadia National Park.
Read more about Acadia’s Trails on the National Historic Register.
Read more about the retirement of longtime Trail Crew Foreman Gary Stellpflug.
Learn more about Friends of Acadia’s support for Acadia’s trails and carriage roads.
Read more about possible car-free itineraries using the Island Explorer bus service.
Read more about the Acadia Youth Conservation Corps of 2022.
Learn more about how Friends of Acadia supports building Tomorrow’s Stewards.
Learn more about the Great Meadow Wetland climate-smart restoration work.
Check out a 2018 housing study conducted by the Island Housing Trust