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Publicity
SUMMARY
Permission has been granted the Berwick Boys Foundation to reprint “TWO
MILES OFF
MAINE” by Elisabeth Logan
Davis 1970 issue of YANKEE.
TWO MILES OFF MAINE
by Elisabeth Logan
Davis
“When I first heard of Berwick Boys Foundation, my
impression was one of puzzlement. It was hard for me to believe that a
group of boys were spending their summers on an island two miles off the
coast of Maine
and running a camp all by themselves. Nevertheless, I decided to find
out more about it, because I am a boy who lacks not only finances but a
definite decision about my future. What boy my age feels sure of
himself? “These were the words of Mike Barker who had finished two
summers at Camp Berwick.
A visit to the unique work camp automatically creates a
curiosity about its conception and its history. The idea for Berwick
Camp was in the minds of two young surgeons who were interning at
Roosevelt Hospital,
New York City. In summer, during their two weeks’ vacation they began a
search for a permanent place where they could relax in peace and quiet.
“There is nothing like an island,” said Dr. Walter Wichern. “I found
that out one summer on Forbes Island where I worked with a professor of
anatomy who was making a study of the antlers of deer.”
To find an island the two surgeons began scanning newspaper
advertisements as real estate listings were too expensive. At long last
they saw: Dyer
Island off the coast of Maine, owned by the Seaboard Paper Company.
Pulpwood supply has been cut. Will sell the 1000 acres.”
Correspondence flew back and forth until the young doctors, who were
making a combined income of $50 a week, agreed to pay monthly $25 each
on a five-year lease toward buying their dream island.
It was there on
Dyer Island that Dr.
Wichern, now Chief of Surgery,
Roosevelt
Hospital
and Dr. Meredith Berry, a directing head of
Goddard
Memorial
Hospital,
Brockton, Massachusetts began nailing down their multiplying ideas.
Dr.
Berry
was already interested in the Big Brother movement, which is normal to
him because of his parents, who were teachers, often brought to their
home difficult boys and helped them.
The two doctors became interested in a problem boy who
habitually ran away from home. Wisely they decided to put him on their
island for the summer. Dr.
Berry went up on
week-ends to check on him and reported to his partner, “He is doing what
every boy dreams of, pitting himself against wilderness. He fishes from
our row boat and is learning to peel bark from the trees he has cut for
his cabin.”
The doctors were jubilant over their first experiment with
a “Little Brother.” Putting their heads and hearts together, the
question was, “Why keep the island just for our own peace and quiet?
Let’s give it to deserving boys, rich and poor alike, who need help in
growing up.” In 1949 they hammered so effectively on their idea that 10
boys from the
Boston
area and some from New York were brought to Dyer Island for summer
camping. The project was financed mainly by doctors at Roosevelt
Hospital and other deeply concerned individuals. Camp Berwick was a
sensible place for boys who could develop through hard physical
exertion, special counseling, and few dull moments.
These boys were rally explorers coming to a totally
undeveloped camp on an island furnished only with an abandoned lobster
fisherman’s shack. Fortunately, in the decade and a half since the
cutting of the valuable pulpwood, another stand of trees had grown up
which was available to the newcomers. There was plenty of sand and
rock, and a power boat to bring cement and roofing from the mainland.
With these supplies, with grit and determination and plenty of strong
back muscles, the campers built a large substantial cabin. This was the
start of Camp
Berwick, the name a combination of Drs. Berry and Wichern.
Often new ideas come to the surface, requiring new
equipment. When a truck is needed, two boys, undaunted, built one at
home out of old automobile parts. Sometimes the camp is used in winter
by small groups of boys led by Dr.
Berry.
At Thanksgiving a crew goes up to cut Christmas trees. One winter, 1500
were ferried across to the mainland and then trucked to headquarters in
Brockton and sold. A nature group of boys planted seedlings of pine and
spruce for future generations.
An after-camp project for older boys is picking blueberries
on the mainland, where they can make a good sum of money for their
college expenses.
Another broadening
experience is provided when Dr. Berry takes some Berwick boys to the
island during the winter and spring vacations and teaches them how to
hunt deer and duck. Living amid low temperatures amid icy and stormy
weather is an exercise in endurance and real adventure.
Ingenuity was shown when, for instance a heavy tractor was
acquired. Two scows were tied together to make a platform ferry to
bring it from the mainland. All kinds of equipment is floated across the
two-mile stretch of ocean from the Berwick dock at Milbridge.
Another demonstration of creativeness is the island’s
buildings, which were planned and erected by the campers. Those
completed include a marine shop and equipment for repairing tractors and
other machinery, bath house with showers, sleeping cabins, infirmary, a
dining hall with kitchen annex, and an electric power plant. Other
projects undertaken over the past 20 years were two rock-ballasted
piers. They are sturdy enough and high enough to deal with 20-foot
tides and rough seas. Also built was an air strip for small planes, and
a swimming pool.
The leader, George Hoffman, now says, “I look back thrilled
at our success. We worked long hours, dividing the time, sometimes 36
or 48 hours straight, and in perfect unison. Everything else seems easy
after that experience.”
Mike Barker found out all of this history indirectly. He
was introduced to the Berwick Boys Foundation by the president of the
local NAACP who lived in
Brockton. He said
that the Foundation was seeking a boy eager to go to college but who
needed financial help. “Soon I had an interview,” said Mike, “with the
camp director, George Hoffman, a medical student at
Tufts
Medical
College
in Boston. He amazed me with his poise and tact and he encouraged me to
participate in the Berwick program, saying that if I made good in the
summer camp and kept my marks in school, I would be given a scholarship
for college. All of this came true.”
Mike, like other boys, finds few rules and a relaxed
atmosphere at the camp, where a fellow may choose the kind of work he
likes to do. He may sign up for maritime projects and learn boat craft
and eventually become Harbor Master. He may participate as an engineer
and achieve the goal of being in charge of tractors, trucks, pumps, and
other machinery. If he joins the crew of lumbering operations, he would
eventually become the overseer. There is never any difficulty in
getting volunteers for camp cooks, one head cook is now a chef in
New York City. Mike,
in his last year at camp became manager of the kitchen crew. He
declared that it was a good chance to learn responsibility of leadership
and self-determination.
The ideas being constantly nailed down are due to the
constant concern of the two doctors who give money and a faith that
moves mountains. As the story of
Camp Berwick spreads,
friends in industry and the professions are continually providing many
things, such as stainless steel kitchen equipment. These work items
seem to entice the youngsters to a greater extent than their
conventional recreations such as baseball, tennis, and swimming. Work
becomes play when it is creative. Also donated by patients of the
doctors are motor boats, sail boats, a yacht, and a sloop. Instruction
is given on the art of handling them.
At the end-of-summer banquet, which parents and friends
attend and can enjoy the overnight accommodations, awards, and emblems
are given out. Scholarships are presented to boys who have “done their
thing” and kept their grades up in school. Each recipient rises and
pledges his word that, when he is financially able, he will help some
other boy attain his best, preferably through the Berwick Foundation.
This fund is envisioned as a self-perpetuating community of boys
operating as an incorporated foundation.
At the banquet also younger boys are presented lapel
emblems representing their special field. Recipients are chosen by the
group leaders and rated according to their progress in functioning under
the Berwick Characteristics: (1) Persistence and industry; (2) Altruism,
giving others a helping hand; (3) Sincerity and integrity – “his word is
good”. A further objective of the two doctors is to challenge the boys
to accept courageously whatever happens.
A Berwick Mariner Camp for still younger boys, ages eight
to fourteen, is now an added feature which is managed by veteran
Berwick boys on a fee basis to help support the entire project. These
young campers are encouraged to help with a small part of their expenses
by earning some money to bring to camp. One youngster brought little
chickens from his father’s chicken farm. In reporting his donation at
the annual banquet, he said; “I took care of them all summer long until
they were big and fat, then you know what became of them? “Well. . .
you et um.”
A new camper is often initiated by pranks on the way back
to his cabin after dark. Sometimes he sees moving black animals and
runs with fright, sure he has met a black bear; and he writes to his
mother to that effect, “there are black bears in the woods here,” only
to discover that they are the large, friendly
Newfoundland dogs,
camp mascots.
To add to the spookiness of the island, now and then a new
camper is scared half to death when someone drops from a limb of a tree
onto his shoulders as he walks the dark path at night. This stunt was
pulled on several occasions – until one victim turned out to be the
local minister.
“When at the age of 15 I first arrived at the Berwick dock
I found myself in the midst of strange and mud-covered boys carrying
lumber and rocks for a new building and kinda enjoying it. If my mother
could have seen what I was facing!” This was the beginning of George
Hoffman’s five years at Berwick where he was voted the hardest worker.
He became Camp
Directory, won a scholarship and is now a doctor.
What goals have the alumni reached because of the Berwick
experience and inspiration? One boy has completed a college course in
wildlife conservation; another is studying at the
Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston; several are becoming industrial engineers; one served six years
on a submarine. Among those who have chosen a profession are two
doctors, one minister, and an architect who selected that field after
spending two years at Berwick camps, cutting down trees and building his
own house including a fireplace. Anyone who completes his cabin may
come back and occupy it.
Many young campers are finding that the Berwick program is
an attempt to help boys become young men without losing their youth in
the process and with full appreciation of the maturing experiences which
are taking place. The final result is hopefully a wholesome young man,
aware of his assets and weaknesses, with confidence to use the former
fully and a desire to recognize and strengthen the latter.
The brisk weather on the
Maine coast makes the
boys hustle to keep warm; the isolation and ruggedness of the island
terrain gives campers a feeling of independence; dense fog and rough
waves under a boat manned by themselves stimulate a great interest in
the survival course. This is given to all ages with the warning.
“Don’t try to beat nature.”
Growth of the camp is always in the planning of the alumni
and the founders. Their next step is the building of a Memorial Chapel
for all faiths. The site has already been staked out with an enchanting
view from all angles, allowing indoor and outdoor services.
Mike, now using his scholarship in college says. “Berwick
is no longer a puzzle but a solution to group up in a big way."
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