“I have lasting memories of the many experiences I have had at Camp Susan Curtis. Camp helped me develop into a productive member of society.”
"Your program is terrific! Thank you for having my son there.”
“When I come to camp, all the stress, all the tension…everything from the outside world leaves my body. Its just about the woods and being at Camp Susan Curtis.”
"Thank you so much for offering this to kids who might not otherwise be able to have this experience.”
“Camp Susan Curtis gave me a resource deep within myself that I will draw on for the rest of my life.”
"I am grateful for the last five years. Because of your camp, my daughter’s outlook on life has broadened. Thank you so much for giving her the things I couldn’t have given her on my own.”
“ When I was a camper, there were counselors that helped me out, and I looked up to them. Today, I try to be that person for another kid.”
"At camp I found out that my life mattered and that I was important.”
“ I am grateful for the last five years. Because of your camp, my daughter’s outlook on life has broadened. Thank you so much for giving her the things I couldn’t have given her on my own.”
"I love camp at lot! I love playing soccer, hiking, swimming and fishing!”
Literacy & Financial Literacy
FINANCIAL LITERACY - The Key to Money Management provides opportunities to enhance the financial literacy skills of student-campers and counselors, age 13-24. Almost half our camp counselors have "graduated" from Susan Curtis programs, and of student-campers who are with us for four years and complete leadership training, 8 out of 10 enroll in college. The program will help prepare students to manage their money when they get to college. Nearly one-third of college students admit they were "not at all" or "not very well prepared" for managing their money on campus(1). Many graduating high school seniors have not learned how to use a credit card responsibly or the importance of participating in a 401(k) plan." (2)
Mentoring and Family Involvement - Professionals from Key Bank and Unum assist in the planning and implementation of this program. Key Bank personnel and other professionals will visit camp to have interactive learning sessions with the participants. A take-home packet includes books, materials on financial literacy, and games/tools that will help involve the entire family. Leadership teens and their families will receive materials on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (see the Mitchell Institute's Update on Barriers report).
Technology - Computers in each library will facilitate access to online financial literacy games and activities that make learning fun and relevant in today's technology-dependent society. Through resources such as JumpStart Reality Check programs on financial literacy and www.eun.org, which has computer games such as "Road Trip to Savings", "Setting your Goals" and "The Expense Station Game" as well as career and college choices information, student-campers will get to assume roles and make tough financial decisions.
Special thanks to TD Banknorth for providing bookmarks for our take-home bags, and a Summer Reading Program that ties together Literacy and Financial Literacy! For more information, visit www.tdbanknorth.com/summerreading/
LITERACY - The Camp Susan Curtis Reading Education and Development Program provides opportunities to enhance the literacy skills of students who are most in need, and helps fill the almost three-month long gap in reading instruction that occurs when Maine schools close for the summer. "Research shows that reading during school vacations allows children to maintain and improve reading skills achieved during the academic year. This is especially critical for new readers and for children who have difficulty reading." (ASHA). At both campuses libraries offer age- and interest-appropriate titles and a comfortable reading area. 
Technology - Computers at each campus facilitate access to online literacy games and activities, available through thinkfinity.org consortium partners like read/write/think.org, that make learning to read fun and relevant in today's technology-dependent society. The addition of online literacy training at our outdoor and arts education centers helps "ensure that...children from low-income households are not at a disadvantage in situations where technology is used in the school." It also helps "them to take advantage of the many opportunities that technology opens during the learning process." (ASHA)
Peer and Family Involvement - a take-home packet includes books, materials on literacy, and games/tools to involve the whole family. The cabin reading program is a team-building activity in which student-campers participate, using books they have chosen as a group, with campus libraries serving as resources.
(1) Per results of study commissioned by KeyBank and conducted by Harris Interactive.
(2) 2008 Charles Schwab Teens and Money Survey.