Support Us
Your support helps us continue our work
Facilities supply donations
- washer and dryer (used machines are fine)
- shingles to re-roof cabins, forest green, three-tab shingles
- heat pumps for The Maine at Blueberry Cove and to replace woodstoves in our sleeping cabins at Tanglewood
- winterization materials such as plastic shrink wrap for windows and insulating materials
- materials to repair benches and picnic tables
- Program supply donations
- books (youth chapter books)
- solar powered or battery-powered fairy lights/inflatable lights
- craft yarn, embroidery floss, hemp twine, and elastic thread
- plastic and wooden beads
- tempera, watercolor, or acrylic paint and paper pads
- finished plywood for murals
- sports equipment like soccer balls and frisbees
- bulk toothbrushes, travel toothpaste, travel soaps, mini-shampoo, bandages, and other personal toiletries
Volunteer
- Facility support: The Tanglewood and Blueberry Cove facilities always need help with carpentry and painting projects or repairing benches and picnic tables (this can be done on-site or people can take them home to work on!)
- Gardening: There’s a need for help planting, weeding, hoeing, harvesting and teaching at the gardens at Tanglewood and Blueberry Cove.
- Trail Work: Help maintain and develop our hiking and skiing trails by raking, clearing downed or overhanging branches.
- Artists: Create a display for either site, or teach your skills to campers.
- Guest Presenters: Share your knowledge of natural history, arts, music, cultures etc. at summer camp or special events.
- Program planning and development: Volunteers can serve on committees to help design new programs and create long-range plans.
- Board of Directors: Tanglewood’s financial and program oversight is the responsibility of a dedicated board of volunteers.
For more information or to volunteer, please contact us at 207.789.5868 or email at extension.tanglewood4h@maine.edu.
Over 60% of Tanglewood and Blueberry Cove’s summer campers and 100% of schools receive tuition assistance or camp scholarships from sponsors.
To fulfill our mission of affordable nature-based education, we provide financial aid for Maine families and school groups. Each year, thanks to the generous support of people like you — camper parents, alumni, and friends of Tanglewood and Blueberry Cove — hundreds of Maine campers and school children can experience outdoor adventures, lessons, and life skills at Tanglewood and Blueberry Cove.
Our programs touch hearts and minds, teaching values of teamwork, leadership, respect, and a love of the natural world — all of which prepare our young people to be tomorrow’s responsible citizens and community leaders. Only with your support will we be able to continue to offer these valuable experiences to all Maine youth, experiences that can change their lives forever.
Please support our work to enable more children to have experiences that enrich their connections to our natural world and nurture options for wellness and health.
Become a Sponsor
Sponsors play a huge role in making it possible for as many Maine youth as possible to receive outdoor education that helps children care for our woods, waters, and wildlife. Each year kind support from businesses, individuals and organizations subsidize program costs to Maine schools by around 70% and provide scholarships for over 70 Maine campers.
At a time when public schools lack budgetary funds for learning opportunities outside the classroom, we feel providing this support is especially important to enable our youth opportunities to connect with our natural world.
Our school programs immerse over 2000 Maine students each year in a variety of discovery-oriented learning adventures in the outdoors. Students often learn best when actively engaged in the natural world, their hands deep in soil, seaweed, scat — even spider webs.
Our summer camps and trips combine immersion in the outdoor world with the joys of camp, providing life-long memories and friendships — incredible experiences that we believe all Maine children should have access to. In these times of family budgets being pushed to the limits, sponsorship is more important than ever.
Please contact us at 207.789.5868 or by email at extension.tanglewood4h@maine.edu about becoming a sponsor.
All our programs meet an urgent need to connect our young people with the natural world, its health and wellness opportunities and our responsibilities to care for it. The future of our treasured resource assets, natural ecosystems, and outdoor experiences depends on our children.
How Gifts are Used
The majority of financial gifts raised go towards our scholarship funds, enabling more Maine youth and schools access to our programs. Gifts also help us to provide excellent teaching and summer camp supplies or maintain and improve our facilities so they can be enjoyed by future generations.
Can I Specify How My Gift is Used?
If you would like to specify how your gift is used, the following are different designation areas:
General Support:
Help provide unrestricted funds to Tanglewood and Blueberry Cove, ensuring our organization provides the best support for our programs and those we serve.
Facility Improvements:
Our invaluable programs require adequate facilities, and they all require routine maintenance and upgrades to remain safe and comfortable. Donating to Facility Improvements at each site ensures we can continue to make the best better.
Scholarships:
Contribute to the scholarship fund to help low-income Maine families and youth at risk of poverty attend summer camp programs.
Open Air Classroom Program:
Tanglewood’s school programs serve nearly 2,000 Maine schoolchildren annually, but since many public schools lack the necessary funds to cover tuition costs, the program has an annual budget deficit. Donating to this highly praised program helps schools benefit from enriching experiences outside of the classroom that also helps teachers meet state educational standards.