The following e-newsletter went out to donors and supporters last week, reprinted here for the benefit of those not on our email list!
Gestures of Support Continue to Roll In: We write with the third installment in our regular series of e-newsletters to keep you updated on Penikese during this interim period. In the last month Penikese Nation has rallied with countless gestures of support ranging from phone calls and emails of encouragement to monetary donations and offers of volunteer assistance. Your generous responses affirm the success of our efforts to get out the message that Penikese is alive, growing and changing, and will soon be back to serving boys in need on Penikese Island.
A School and Board Galvanized to Action: As such challenges often do, recent events have galvanized the school’s Board and other volunteers, its senior management and extended community of well-wishers into focused action, resulting in the pursuit of many exciting new business directions. The most imminent and promising of these reflects collaboration between Marc Hauser, our new Director of Program Development, and Helen Reuter, Director of Special Education. Inspired by the unlimited potential of the school’s natural learning and therapeutic environment, Marc and Helen are currently working on rolling out a new summer program for boys 14-17 to commence mid-June. Stay tuned for more details as they unfold.
A School Changing and Growing: This new summer program and other similar initiatives represent the first of several steps towards restarting year-round island operations, recasting Penikese to promote shorter placements and incorporate new discoveries in mind science and the latest clinical and educational assessments and interventions. Although buffeted by recent events and market conditions beyond our control, our intention is to reclaim our accustomed lead and influence in treatment and education excellence.
The Island Sitting Project: Many have asked how we are managing to take care of the island, its facilities and denizens during this time of reduced staffing. Our answer has been to revive the once time-honored practice of island sitting. The response to our initial call for volunteers has been enthusiastic and pleasantly overwhelming, enough for Board member and former island staffer Laurie Raymond to jump in and take over coordination. Currently we have island sitters booked through all or at least part of every week through mid-May when the MassWildlife ornithologists can take over if needed. If all goes well, shortly after that the summer program commences and Penikese island life returns to normal once again. With Penikese providing transportation via the M/V Richard S. Edwards and a simple manual of operations for keeping the lamps lit and stoves burning, sitters need only feed the animals and split their fair share of wood to earn their keep in our rustic island paradise.
Wish list items: We all know the weather for outdoor work hasn’t been the greatest in recent weeks, and early spring on Penikese can be plenty raw. Nevertheless we intend to accomplish some needed island maintenance and repair during this rare opportunity with no students on the island. Projects include finishing covering the schoolhouse walls with shiplap pine, replacing sections of hardwood flooring in the house, finishing the shingling around the replacement windows in the upstairs dormitory, and tearing down and rebuilding the old farrowing pen and surrounding ledgerboard fencing. Accordingly, wish list items include ledgerboard, cinderblock and mortar for the pig pen project, shingling stock (clear white cedar), and shiplap pine. Local lumberyard credits work well, and folks wishing to support these and other projects-to-be-named can always donate online by visiting our web site here.
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