Seeds & Ripples: Supporting Community Culture

Mo Pate & Coleman Haskell | OSI Interns

Planting Seeds

Moving to Maine from suburban Connecticut was a culture shock. The first thing I noticed when driving north with all my belongings in the back of my Subaru Outback was the tips of all the pine trees that lined the interstate.

Before moving to Maine for college, I lived in New Fairfield, a town of about 14,000 people where cookie cutter houses lined the perfectly paved asphalt against a sea of perfectly manicured green grass. There was no wild within the landscape. The most exciting thing to do was to go shopping at the giant mall just off the highway, not play in the “woods.” I was in a community where the culture was shopping --and possessions were more valuable than nature and play. The culture of human powered outdoor recreation was very hidden within the narrative of my hometown. Maine was so enticing because of the numerous state and national parks, and opportunities for recreation.

Millinocket is a town I’ve passed through a time or two to head up to Baxter and hike Katahdin but had never really explored, this OSI internship seemed like a good opportunity to see what the region had to offer. I have been working with the Millinocket Memorial Library on a strategic budget plan for the operation of the Katahdin Gear Library. This work has allowed me to look at accessibility and culture through a critical lens. So far it has shown me that even though folks are able to access these outdoor spaces, it doesn’t necessarily mean there is a culture of participation in those human powered outdoor activities. Yes, we can put this gear library in place and allow the community to have access to gear, but can we change the culture and perspective on these outdoor sports?

We’ve been learning a lot about culture recently, thinking about what is culture?, can you change it?, and is it even right to try? A reading from Seth Godin called “People like us (do things like this),” mentions how “We can’t change the culture, but each of us has the opportunity to change a culture, our little pocket of the world.” Coming into this internship, I was a bit naive about coming into a rural Maine town from suburban Connecticut and being able to understand and relate to the community members. I thought everyone would be excited about outdoor recreation, and while I’ve connected with some people I could relate with I’ve also interacted with others that were skeptical about our intentions within the community. Reading through responses to an annual town survey, I could see a division between those that view outdoor recreation as a viable resource and industry and those that want a more traditional industry, like the mills used to provide.

After living in Millinocket for the past three months, it is apparent there is loads of potential within the community that is just waiting to be unlocked. As a team we interns have been running programs here throughout the summer. The youth seem super excited about paddling kayaks or canoes, riding mountain bikes, and just getting outside. Seeing kids and families participate week after week, enjoying themselves, it feels like we are watching a culture of human powered outdoor sports forming right in front of us.

And there is a new culture forming. Many in the community are open and excited to bring about more change where they live. While I may not have realized all the factors that go into shaping the culture of a community beyond it’s proximity to tall trees and mountains, I’m really looking forward to coming back to this community to see if the seeds we helped plant, such as blueprints for future gear library operations, youth programs, and trails, were able to support the efforts of those that live here to build a stronger culture of human-powered outdoor recreation in the Katahdin region.

Ripples

Hello! My name is Coleman and this summer I’m interning with OSI to try to and support a growing culture of active, outdoor recreation in the town of Millinocket, Maine. My life started on a little island off the coast of Maine called North Haven. Since my time on the island I’ve lived all over the coast of Maine. Something that I think every person and town can try to improve on is their sense of fellowship, even if it's just waving hello to your neighbor, every little connection feeds into the larger impact of our communities.

My career in outdoor sport started from a young age with fishing, canoeing, and hiking. Since being a young lad my range of outdoor sports has progressed in all manners including sailing, mountain biking, downhill skiing, and whitewater kayaking! All of these sports have brought me to new and unique places from powder topped mountains in Park City Utah, to deep canyons filled with whitewater in Tennessee. I would have never seen these captivating landscapes if not for being engaged in outdoor sports from a young age.

I had several goals I wanted to accomplish over the course of this summer, such as increasing my proficiency in whitewater kayaking and getting more comfortable on a mountain bike. My biggest hope for the summer, however, was that I could improve and refine my ability to teach all types of outdoor sports to whoever wants to learn.

So far I've had the opportunity to work directly with some of the kids in this awesome town, and to get them fired up about getting out on bikes and into boats, which has been a very rewarding experience but a big challenge at the same time. The first bike ride we did, some students were very new to riding so naturally we stuck to wide dirt roads and atv trails. With only three sessions of only two hours once a week, we had full participation ripping through the new singletrack trails.

This really goes to show how little it takes to have a huge impact on people and community. While it seems small, little ripples can lead to large waves in the future. Impacting and creating culture is no easy feat, but it's one that I and all the others working with us, value heavily.