Environmental Education Grants
To qualify for these grants you must be an educational institute (school or library) and be within the Loon Echo Land Trust service area: Bridgton, Casco, Denmark, Harrison, Naples, Sebago or Raymond. The purpose of these grants is to help our future leaders learn more about the natural world. Please see below for application process.
Apply Here
Application Submission Deadline: February 26th, 11:59pm
Award Notification Date: March 4th, 2024
Grant Award Range: $50 – $300
Grant Reporting Required: Submission of a short report form and a “kids’ chronicle” from a student or participant.
Restrictions: Only one program will be funded at each school or library due to the limited amount of funding available.
Examples of Past Projects Funded
- Funding to bring Chewonki programs to schools/libraries
- Purchase of trail camera for students to learn about wildlife behavior & investigate habitats
- Costs associated with installation of outdoor StoryWalks
- Purchase of forestry instruments to be used in outdoor lessons
- Purchase of Maine Audubon Nature Explorer Backpacks
History
LELT’s Environmental Educational Grant program was developed as a memorial to local teachers, Helen Allen and Polly Bartlett. Helen Allen owned a beautiful hilltop farm on Quaker Ridge in Casco looking out to the western foothills and Mt. Washington. She was one of the first individuals to grant Loon Echo a conservation easement on her 60-acre property so that it would be protected in perpetuity. After her death at the age of 94, Helen Allen’s bequest to Loon Echo allowed LELT to create an endowed environmental education fund to support yearly programs in local schools and libraries.
Polly Bartlett was one of the original Board members of Loon Echo. A teacher at Sebago Elementary School, each year she treated her third graders to a winter walk at Maine Audubon. When she passed away in 2000 at the age of 48, the Trust created a fund in her memory to ensure that third graders at Sebago Elementary would always take their winter walk.
Kids' Chronicles
Each school or library selects a student or patron to write about their learning experience after attending an environmental education program funded by Loon Echo.
“I just want to thank you for the game camera. We saw so many amazing creatures! From what I remember, we saw red foxes, beavers, mice, squirrels and otters. We put the camera once on a tree and saw a beaver eating wood off of another tree. I can't wait to see how my little brother will react when he's in 5th grade. So thank you again for giving us the game camera. And I think the rest of the school will love it too.” Miles, Sebago Elementary School
“Thank you for giving us a wooded adventure!” Oskar, age 5, Bridgton Public Library
“At the hill, there were three telescopes set up and people shared their powerful binoculars. Seeing the moon and its shadow was great because it was so clear and vivid. We saw Saturn, Venus and more powerful stars, but they weren’t as clear. My group enjoyed using the star finders to locate different constellations. We ended the evening with a trip to get ice cream and talked about what we learned.” Lisa, Family Star Party at Casco Public Library
"We loved this! Four kids running through the forest looking for the next pages! What a fun experience!" - Valerie
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