Summer Program
SUMMARY
The summer activities take place
during the six to eight week camping season on Dyer Island, off the
coast of Milbridge, Maine. This 750 acre island, "Down East" from Bar
Harbor, is owned entirely by the Berwick Boys Foundation and is an
excellent location for a boys' camp of this type. The Island has a
beautiful stand of virgin timber and several natural harbors, making it
very conducive to a rugged way of life at camp.
SUMMER
The
summer program is run by boys, for boys. Island rules and regulations
are formulated and enforced by the boys themselves, primarily by the
Boys Council, composed of several boys who have been at camp for one
summer or more. Work projects are divided between a number of crews
including cooks, boat crews, woods crew, engineers, construction crew
and carpentry crew. Each crew specializes in a particular skill and
each crew member learns that craft.
The first year a boys is at
camp he spends the majority of his time learning how the Island is run
and becoming adept at the job that interests him most. A boy's second
or third summer might be spent as a crew leader in charge of five or six
younger boys and responsible for the duties of that crew. The Boy
Director is a young man who has been with the program for several years
and who is totally responsible for the coordination of crews, projects,
and summer activities in general. As a boys spends several summers at
Berwick he receives more and more responsibility and learns how to work
with and help his associates.
One Third of a boy's time on
the Island is spent working with a crew on a community project, such as
the hauling of supplies from the mainland by boat or the construction of
a camp building. These projects are for the good of the community as a
whole and give each boy the feeling that he is contributing towards a
project which will benefit everyone.
Another Third of a boy's
time is spent working in small groups, or individually, on a project
which holds special interest and which the boy has chosen to do. These
projects include the construction of individual cabins and special
projects in line with a boy's interests.
The Last Third of island
life is instructive recreation, including sailing, swimming, boating,
fishing, and educational trips. The division of the time into thirds
affords the boys contact with many aspects of island life.
For more information,
click on a link below:
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