SEBAGO LAKE – Nestled among the pine trees on the banks of Sebago Lake in South Casco is a popular vacation spot that has been serving up family fun for more than 40 years. With 775 acres to its name, and more amenities than most small towns, Point Sebago Resort truly is its own community.

Established as a campground by founder Larry Gould in 1970, the site expanded to roughly 25 travel-trailer rentals a few years later with a seasonal staff of 100. Today’s Point Sebago Resort dwarfs its humble beginnings, boasting nearly 30 times the number of available lots and three-and-a-half times the number of employees, with further expansion on the horizon.

“We have lots of different types of families that are here,” said Point Sebago’s general manager of 35 years, Don Toms. “We have some that are here on a weekly basis, some that are seasonal and some that actually buy vacation home properties that are here for spring, summer, fall and sometimes in the winter, too.”

The entire population of the town of Casco, according to the 2010 Census, was about 3,700. The population of Point Sebago is 2,500 to 3,000. So what is it that draws such a crowd? Plenty.

The resort features an 18-hole golf course, a mile-long sandy beach, live theater performances, a water play park, sporting facilities, zip line, arcade, restaurant, Tiki bar, fishing, and the resort’s 95-passenger boat, the Miss Margarita.

Or it could be the resort’s themed weekends that attract guests. If someone wants to get in touch with his or her inner pirate, pretend they are vacationing in the Caribbean or line dancing in a honky-tonk, then Point Sebago is the place to be.

Jeffre Jerome, a resident of Long Island, N.Y., who has vacationed on and off at the resort since its inception, said the theater productions are one of the main amenities that sets Point Sebago apart from other vacation destinations.

“I’ve been to 200-and-something campgrounds, and this is the best one,” Jerome said. “No one else has the [theater] shows, and everyone is always nice. Without a doubt they are always trying to make the place better. That’s what they strive for, making it better, and every year they try to make it better. It’s definitely community-minded.”

The person responsible for putting on the productions is Deb Doherty, who with the help of her husband, Tom Scannell, and their children have run the theater department since its creation 12 years ago.

Each year, Doherty and Scannell travel to New York City and Boston to attend auditions in search of theater majors to work at Point Sebago for the summer months. Four to eight students are hired and housed at the resort with the remaining roles in the shows filled by Maine locals.

“It takes us about six months to get ready for a show, but we literally get about half the rehearsal time of a normal theater to be able to put ours on,” Doherty said. “Once it is up and running, it is manageable. It’s just getting it up and running.”

Scannell said the fact they are able to host up to seven different shows in such a short amount of time is magic.

“It’s a hell of an education,” he said. “Most of the kids once they leave here are completely un-flappable.”

Jeremy Jordan, who recently had a role in the NBC show, “Smash,” and the movie, “Joyful Noise,” is one of several former Point Sebago performers who have gone on to have successful Broadway careers.

William Bellamy, who is performing at Point Sebago this summer, said his experience at the resort has been “amazing.”

“I live in the city and honestly I haven’t seen stars, and just being here is so beautiful,” he said. “I wake up inspired, because the sun wakes me up, and at night when I go to bed the moon is shining on my face and in the city you don’t see any of that stuff. I live in New York City in Manhattan, so it is a whole different point of view, and it’s beautiful.”

Scannell said most vacationers who come to the shows have never attended live theater before, but as the same families return to Point Sebago year after year the kids turn into theater aficionados.

“It is kind of like we are creating future audiences for our craft, and I think it’s a nice way of looking at it,” Scannell said. “That we’re promulgating an art form.”

‘Like a cruise’

Resort activities, like the plays, are part of a set agenda of events available each day of the week. Toms said he estimates the number of daily activities to be somewhere between 75-80.

“Every week it repeats itself. It’s sort of like a cruise ship; we sort of reset,” he said. “Most people, not everyone, but most people are here Saturday to Saturday, so Saturday is a turnover day and we will have over 250 new families arriving.”

Toms said while the resort does attract people from across the country, 65 percent of guests are from Massachusetts.

Kelly Orlando, who falls into the Massachusetts resident category, said she and her family have rented a place at Point Sebago for two-week allotments for the past six years.

“It’s a family resort,” she said. “It’s a blast, and it’s good for all ages.”

Point Sebago offers several different housing accommodations for guests; from park homes that measure 400 square feet to resort cottages measuring almost double that to 900-square-foot vacation homes. Campsite lots with RV and trailer hook-ups are also available.

“We have accommodations for tenters for $60 a night to a lodge that sleeps 26 people for $8,000 a week,” Toms said. “So there’s a wide variety of lodging options.”

Point Sebago is in the process of building more of the 900-square-foot model homes, which create mini-subdivisions within the resort. Top-end houses are listed in the $280,000 price range.

“For square footage it might be a little high,” Toms said. “But you are getting all of the amenities of Point Sebago and the availability of the boat slip and being a discounted golf member.”

Toms said last year they did not sell any of the new homes, but said this year five have already sold.

“I look at Point Sebago as sort of a microcosm of everything in the state of Maine,” he said. “From vacation home rentals to real-estate sales to golf, food and beverage, we sort of follow when the economy is doing good, we are doing good. Real estate has picked up this year, which it has everywhere in the state, and we’ve noticed it as well.”

It is not just vacationers benefiting from Point Sebago. It is impossible to mention the resort without also discussing the property adjacent to it, Camp Sunshine.

Started by the owners of Point Sebago in 1984, the camp was offered at the facility a few weeks a year for children with life-threatening diseases and their immediate families. Once demand for the camp increased, the Goulds donated 23 acres for a permanent year-round facility to be built. While Point Sebago and Camp Sunshine are no longer housed on the same grounds, they continue to work in tandem.

Corporate citizen

Casco Town Manager Dave Morton, described Point Sebago as a great corporate citizen that has always been good to governmental agencies and charitable organizations throughout the community.

“They are a major source of employment, particularly for high-schoolers and college students in the summer, but also they employ a fairly significant number of adults seasonally and year-round,” Morton said. “They have several different properties and when you total those all, I think they are our largest taxpayer, and I believe they’re our largest employer.”

Management at Chute’s Cafe?, located on Route 302 in South Casco, less than two miles from the resort, said Point Sebago is an “extremely beneficial” neighbor to have.

Sarah Aviles, the daughter of the Chute’s owner, said while she could not give an exact number, she estimated customers coming from the resort to comprise about 40 percent of Chute’s clientele.

The integral role Point Sebago plays in the Casco economy is hard to ignore. And with an exhaustive list of daily activities, the facility does everything in its power to make sure guests leave as happy campers.

“Everything is here,” Toms said. “Really it’s quite different than your typical campground or camping resort.”

Point Sebago Resort guests visit the Tiki bar beside the lagoon for a variety of drinks.As check-in time draws near on a Saturday afternoon, new arrivals line up and wait for their turn to enter the resort.Golf carts are the pedestrian-friendly method of transportation for gear and people inside the resort.Practice facilities near the golf course pro shop, including a putting green and driving range, allow for lessons or warm-ups.A variety of options exist for water transport, including kayaks, canoes, paddle and pontoon boats, which can be rented or serviced at the resort.A competitive game of ladder toss helps pass the time at the beach.