On Friday, May 31st we celebrated S.E.A. FAIR 2024 at Camden-Rockport Middle School. As these photographs by Chris Bryant show – we had a great time!
After a delicious lunch for presenters provided by French & Brawn and Hannaford, S.E.A. Board members, volunteers, and representatives of First National Bank and First National Wealth Management welcomed students and faculty from CRMS, Hope Elementary, Seaside Village Pre-School, and members of the community. Where else can you go to see such a variety of exhibits and speak with representatives of organizations that are working to steward our environment?
Have you ever seen a minke whale skeleton, baleen and an eyeball? The Dorr
Museum at College of the Atlantic brought them to S.E.A. FAIR. You could discover mud bugs with Seaside Village Pre-School, spread your wings as a Piping Plover with Maine Audubon, hold a lobster with the Lobster Institute, learn about invasive plants with Merryspring Nature Center, Wild Ones of Midcoast Maine, and Knox County Soil and Water Conservation District, visit the Children’s Coastal Museum to learn about treating an oil spill, and the Belfast Coast Guard Rescue….to dip oil from water in a mock spill and learn about marine safety.
Do you want to help make a plan for Climate Action? You could with Camden CAN! Take a hike – or learn about preserving land? Talk with people from Coastal Mountain Land Trust and Georges River Land Trust. Learn about research on the Megunticook River? Visit with Megunticook River Citizens Advisory Commission. Meet a rock crab and hold a hermit crab? Go to the S.E.A. Mobile Marine Tank. Take home a cedar tree seedling? Stop by the Maine Forest Service table. What can you learn from Hurricane Island about wastewater and from the Maine Rural Water Association about how pollutants travel through groundwater, or from Chewonki Camp about the animals and birds with which we share this environment? Lots! Want to explore further – consider Chewonki Camp and Tanglewood. Want a closer look? Go to the Herring Gut Coastal Science Center table and check out their microscope. For more fun, play games and enjoy activities with an environmental educator from Roots n Shoots Nature-Based After School Program. Finish up by listening to a story read by Amy Hand from Camden Public Library. In short – there was a lot going on!
Many students, teachers, and visitors also got to tour the Educate Mobile Biolab, which got rave reviews!
As a student from CRES reported: I loved S.E.A. FAIR! Some of the things I learned about:
1. Chewonki- Learning about the eagle feathers and that you need a permit to own one.
2. The oil leaks/spills in the ocean. When the boat tankers lose all their oil, it goes to the bottom of the ocean and makes the animals on the bottom very sick and they die as a result.
3. I had the opportunity to see a whale skeleton.
4. My pre-school teacher was there showing mud bugs in their natural habitat Mrs. Janessa!
Adelyn Pearson-von Saltza
CRES Third Grade
Age 9
Thank you everyone who helped make S.E.A. FAIR 2024 a great success, which includes our sponsors First National Bank and First National Wealth Management, all our presenters and everyone who came to the fair.
Read the Article on the Pen Bay Pilot!
With a lot of help from our friends at First National and and First National Bank Wealth Management. The Big Check for S.E.A. FAIR 2024, May 31st at CRMS. From Left to right:
First Row: Michelle Curtis, First National Bank Vice President, Business Development and Community Development Officer, Sarah Doudera, S.E.A Board Member, Leland and Atlas Doudera, Collectors of Hermit Crabs for the S.E.A. Mobile Marine Tank and S.E.A. PARK Aquarium.
Second Row, Barbara Lawrence , S.E.A. President, Chelsea Hachey, Amanda Simmons, and Kari Farris, Tellers Extraordinaire, Wayne Ruesswick, S.E.A. Vice President, and Amanda Fisher, Assistant Branch Manager. (Missing because she took the photograph, but essential — Necole Janczura, Business Development Officer for First National Bank Wealth Management).
