Pine Tree Society Blog
“She needed to trust somebody”
“I didn’t like the path I was going down. I wasn’t making good choices and I wanted a fresh life and people I could count on.” Julie is 42 years old and lives with intellectual disabilities. Since she decided to turn her life around, she’s never looked back. That’s...
Pine Tree Camp is never boring
In our lives when you spend time at a place long enough, you realize each place has its own distinct rhythm. Pine Tree Camp has always had a rhythm that you would never call normal. But it’s okay, normal is boring. Camp is a myriad of adjectives, but it’s never...
“I’d go back in a minute”
“I’d go back in a minute,” Joan McDonough just turned 83, and that’s how she feels about Pine Tree Camp. “It was home to me almost every summer.” She starting going in 1946, just one year after camp first opened, and went every year until 1951. “I had curvature of the...
Camp Communicate making things possible
14 years ago, Linda Bonnar, Director of Communication Pathways at Pine Tree Society, founded Camp Communicate, a retreat designed specifically for children who are non-verbal and who use computerized devices to communicate. Being the only one in school who uses a...
Ladan Iman
"Working here made me change my entire career path." 22-year-old Ladan Iman from Auburn has been working at Pine Tree Camp for the past four years. She started out as a counselor and has worked her way up to staff liaison, where she assists campers and their...
Accessible treehouse and nature trails
Wednesday, June 27th "I've never been in a treehouse until now." Pine Tree Camp gives people with disabilities the opportunity to immerse completely in nature. In 2010, Pine Tree Society partnered with The Treehouse Guys—a non-profit organization formally known as...
Marie Preston’s Spirit Lives On
Marie Preston was the second Executive Director of Pine Tree Society – or Easter Seals as it was known -- and was instrumental in establishing Pine Tree Camp in 1945. Her son, Jim Preston, was eight years old at the time and recalls that it was after the war that his...
Overnight Camping
June 21, 2018 "I wish I could stay here forever." "I wish I could make a friend." Every session campers have the opportunity to sign up for an overnight camping experience at the breathtaking southerly shore of North Pond. At the end of free swim, the campers and...
Pine Tree Society staff and Pine Tree Camp staff working together
Wednesday, June 13th After nearly two weeks of intense staff training, Pine Tree Camp officially opened its gates yesterday. Before the first session of Pine Tree Camp even begins, 60 staff and counselors from all over the world participate 13 jam-packed days of...