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Year-Round Impact
Making a Year-Round Impact on Education & the Community
- Building on the experiences and educational networks of the Belgrade Lakes Association (BLA), the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance (BRCA), Colby College, the Maine Congress of Lake Associations (COLA), and others, the Maine Lakes Resource Center will operate year-round and focus on developing engaging programs and activities for the local community and beyond.
- We will work with students and learners of all ages to:
- Capitalize on the proven education programs of COLA and the floating laboratory, the Melinda Ann, engaging individuals through hands-on, field-based learning throughout Maine;
- Provide a field station for lake research for Colby students and faculty in Belgrade Lakes Village;
- Display exhibits created by students and learners to draw individuals and families onto our site to learn about best practices in lakes conservation;
- Showcase best management practices developed by the BRCA Youth Conservation Corps;
- Promote LakeSmart in partnership with the Maine Congress of Lake Associations and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection;
- Develop other youth- and family-oriented events that promote healthy lands, healthy activities and the local culture shared by all;
- Partner with Colby College to enhance the EPSCOR sustainability education programs, featuring detailed classroom curricula and hands-on student activities for grades K-12;
- Develop other educational programs that meet Maine Learning Results;
- Create a remote portal (similar in concept to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute), where students and teachers can learn about water quality issues and engage in the science of improving a watershed;
- Provide rainy-day program options for summer youth camps;
- Serve as the nerve-center for all other BRCA programs using conserved lands in the area, such as Kennebec Highlands; these programs include hikes, bird-watching, nature scavenger hunts, geo-caching, letter-boxing, and other tactile-sensory programs for pre-kindergarten students and beyond;
- The Maine Lakes Resource Center is ideally situated; there are 47 schools within a half-hour radius of Belgrade Lakes and 200,000 Maine residents living within a 90-minute drive.
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