MEGHAN AND NATHAN DEVEAU stand on a cleared piece of land in Lisbon on Thursday, where they hope to open a program for at-risk children.
For years it has been Nathan and Meghan Deveau’s dream: a place for at-risk children — including those labeled as “troubled” or outcasts — to not only heal, but to learn the skills and values needed to become successful citizens in society.
Standing at the end of the roughly cleared road stretching from Ferry Road and looking through a muddy area and then up a long incline to a clearing, Nathan Deveau can see the center’s future building in his mind on a knoll.
“I see kind of a barn shape, an allglass front when you’re driving up, so you can see kids actually doing stuff,” he said. “And when parents are walking around, having these kids doing outside sculptures and having an opening when people can come,” to check out the center.
He and his wife, a paralegal by day, have talked about having the kids paint a mural on the backside of the building.
Nathan is program director and his wife is president of the Kanuwodi Art Retreat, a nonprofit mentoring program for at-risk children. “Kanuwodi” is the pronunciation of a series of Cherokee symbols meaning “to heal,” a fitting choice as Nate is Cherokee Indian.
The retreat will offer programs to “allow children from abusive, neglectful and/or otherwise challenging home environments to express themselves through construction methods such as art, agriculture and community service and instill pride in themselves, a sense of community and the hope and skills necessary to change their own paths,” a pamphlet about the retreat states.
The nonprofit organization uses a Native American-based philosophy known as the “Circle of Courage,” which promote four core values: belonging, mastery, independence and generosity.
The Deveaus operate the nonprofit from their Lisbon Falls home, which limits the current offerings to art functions.
Nathan’s longtime mentor recently gave them the eight-acre parcel off Ferry Road that they envision as the new home for Kanuwodi. But first, they need to raise around $100,000 to pay for the initial infrastructure and center construction.
As the Deveaus apply for grants and seek donations, they are working to get the word out about who they are and what they hope to accomplish. Nathan, who grew up just outside of Woodstock, Vt., came to Maine to attend the Maine College of Art, where he earned a BFA in sculpture.
The couple bought a house in Lisbon in 2003.
“I’ve been through all sorts of kinds of abuse,” Nathan said, adding that his brother, Mark, also was abused. “He was the one who taught me how to draw, to express myself.”
Nathan’s former Little League coach, Hank Smith of Woodstock, Vt., took Nathan under his wing as he did many children who needed a helping hand. Smith purchased the Ferry Road land as the site of Nathan’s dream project.
Nathan didn’t know his own father, and his former stepfather was an abusive alcoholic, he said. Smith supported the now 34- year- old through college and made sure he had the needed art supplies. He’s always been one of Nathan’s biggest clients, commissioning furniture and helping Nathan in his work using recycled materials.
In 1997, during his first year at art college, Nathan based his art on his childhood experiences. While therapeutic for him, the works made some other students and teachers uncomfortable.
“ But the reality is, you doing that work actually helped other students at MECA come forward and start their own healing process,” Megan told Nathan.
The programs they plan for the art retreat would help young people, but not exclusively.
“ I would take anybody,” Nathan said. “My neighbor asked me if I would take veterans who come home. … I’m not going to turn anybody away, because I know how it feels to be turned away.”
“ The basis for this, for you,” Meghan said to Nathan, “was the fact that you had so many people step up and mentor and guide you, who didn’t have to take that on. And so it makes a difference. It really does.”
Meghan explained there are those who “don’t understand the reason why he was getting in trouble, and being a mischievous kid,” derived from the challenges and abuses he experienced in his life, not because he was inherently a bad kid.
“A lot of kids get that label, and so we’re trying to give them a place where they’re not seen that way,” she said. “And they’re not treated that way, in an environment that they can grow and go on to do better things.”
Meghan said Kanuwodi’s program would include community service component to help elderly and disabled people with tasks such as raking leaves and shoveling snow.
“As a teenager I was in trouble, and getting someone like that to say, ‘ Thanks, you’re a hard worker,’ it feels good,” Nathan said.
“ It gives them a sense of worth and importance and a feeling that they’re contributing,” Meghan said.
“And someday they can pass that knowledge,” to someone else, Nathan added.
“ When you help one person, there’s just no limit as to how many people are affected after that,” Meghan said.
Nathan has created many artworks for other charities, organizations like the Habitat for Humanity, because it makes him feel good, he said.
To actually follow his dream and be able to help people with this center would make him feel not only really good, but “complete.”
The center
The next challenge will be to build a road to the portion of the property the Deveaus envision as the learning center. A logger who volunteered to clear the trees took longer than expected and left a mass of brush the Deveaus have been trying to clear by hand or with a small tractor they borrowed.
The delay put them behind on the road construction, and caused them to lose a donation of gravel for the road.
The first contractor who responded to Meghan’s calls for help was Doug Tourtelotte of Bowdoinham, who recently spent three hours on the site with his equipment clearing stumps and pushing the mass of brush to the side, doing more work than the couple was able to do themselves all summer.
Tourtelotte’s kindness brought tears to Nathan’s eyes that day, as he noted every little accomplishment like this represents a huge gift to the Deveaus. It is an example of what they hope will be more to come. To volunteer in any capacity, call Meghan Deveau at 689-8675 or Nathan Deveau at 689-8598.
Kanuwodi Art Retreat is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information or to donate, visit www.kanuwodi.org. To mail donations, send checks out to Kanuwodi Art Retreat, 712 Lisbon St., Lisbon Falls, ME 04252.
Trails already run behind the property the Deveaus plan to use for Kanuwodi. They plan to add an organic garden and, someday, livestock.
Caring for the land and farm animals will be a keystone component for Kanuwodi.
Nathan learned about farming from his grandfather. It meant getting up early at 5:30 a.m. to start farm chores all through high school. His grandfather told him that if a person can respect an animal, he or she can respect anyone.
The next challenge will be to build a road to the portion of the property the Deveaus envision as the learning center. A logger who volunteered to clear the trees took longer than expected and left a mass of brush the Deveaus have been trying to clear by hand or with a small tractor they borrowed.
The delay put them behind on the road construction, and caused them to lose a donation of gravel for the road.
The first contractor who responded to Meghan’s calls for help was Doug Tourtelotte of Bowdoinham, who recently spent three hours on the site with his equipment clearing stumps and pushing the mass of brush to the side, doing more work than the couple was able to do themselves all summer.
Tourtelotte’s kindness brought tears to Nathan’s eyes that day, as he noted every little accomplishment like this represents a huge gift to the Deveaus. It is an example of what they hope will be more to come. To volunteer in any capacity, call Meghan Deveau at 689-8675 or Nathan Deveau at 689-8598.
Kanuwodi Art Retreat is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information or to donate, visit www.kanuwodi.org. To mail donations, send checks out to Kanuwodi Art Retreat, 712 Lisbon St., Lisbon Falls, ME 04252.
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