Ayla and Ashayla Brennan, DJ Hubbs, and Mia Pierce show off the new solar demonstration. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record

All day, as campers move in flocks from Scout Hall to the tennis courts, Harpswell Neck Physical Education Association summer camp director Deb Cornish zips around, ensuring the program moves along seamlessly. 

Cornish said the camp — which runs every July, Maine’s hottest month — always involves a degree of discomfort: saying goodbye to electronics and embracing the “natural world.”

To address the problem, HNPEA President David Chipman organized a group of volunteers to create a solar demonstration. Last week, the camp’s new fridge was up and running, powered by two solar panels and a battery to keep treats comfortably cool even at night.

The improvements cost nothing and will continue to be paid for by an endlessly renewable source: the sun.

HNPEA was founded in 1966 to combat juvenile delinquency. At that time, the nonprofit leased the property from the Elijah Kellogg Church next door for $1 a year, gutting the chicken coop to be used as an art center for campers. 

The inverter and battery for the solar demonstration are stored inside the HNPEA art center. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record

The handprints on the walls date back to the beginning, with more added each year as a tradition. Cornish said that was one thing that wouldn’t change.

The site includes tennis courts, a playground, basketball courts and swings. When not in use, the courts are open to the public at no cost. In the past, HNPEA has run round-robin tournaments and tennis clinics in collaboration with the Harpswell Recreation Department and the Harpswell Community School.

In fact, this year, the nonprofit reached its goal, raising $185,000 to replace the tennis courts. Chipman said the project will get underway soon, pointing to the weeds growing from the cracks of the cement. 

Last weekend, a team of volunteers replaced the camp’s roof using old metal from the side of the road. HNPEA cobbled together other spare materials—solar panels, inverters and batteries — and Agren Appliance donated a fridge to help create an off-the-grid solar demonstration project. 

“It’s not much,” Chipman said. “But to the kids, it is. It’s just an 1800-watt inverter, three batteries and two solar panels that power a fridge and two lights. We hope the community will swing by to see how easy it is to run a similar project.”

Solar-powered popsicles

Thanks to Agren Appliance, for the first year, the HNPEA summer day camp has a fridge to keep treats cool. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record

Given Chipman’s involvement as a selectman, he also serves as a liaison to the town’s bandstand committee at Mitchell Field. The committee for the solar-powered bandstand donated some old batteries, an inverter and a conduit to the fridge project. Community members donated solar panels and a charger.

Inside the art shed, the charger and inverter are tucked in a corner, hidden behind stability balls and backpacks.

“The energy from the solar panels goes through the charger, activating the batteries,” Chipman said. “The batteries provide 12 volts of power, which the inverter converts to 120 volts to power the fridge. The key is the batteries — storing up charge for a rainy day. Without it, you’d only get power when the sun is out.” 

‘I feel like they are all my kids’

After 25 years teaching at Bath public schools and 18 years leading the local Girl Scouts, Cornish has led the day camp since 1998. Most of her campers are kids of those she taught in the past.

“Sometimes I feel like the old woman that lived in the shoe,” said Cornish, referring to an old fairy tale. “I feel like they are all my kids.” 

Often, guests such as yoga instructors, woodworkers, beekeepers and members of Chewonki’s Natural History Program, visit and lead activities for the campers. This year, the kids made bee boxes (as seen here). Laura Sitterly / The Times Record

For 58 years, HNPEA has run the camp for kids from kindergarten through sixth grade. 

Taking advantage of Harpswell’s coastline and wooded trails, the program seeks to heighten children’s awareness of the environment with field trip adventures, including beach days at Mitchell Field and a narrated noontime Casco Bay cruise from Bailey Island to Potts Point. 

“When the kids get too old for camp, many come back to become junior counselors in training,” Cornish said. “They just don’t want to leave — I’ve even had some return after college to work on the payroll.” 

Ashayla Brennan and DJ Hrubbs are cousins from Massachusetts who spend their summers at their family cottage in Harpswell Neck. They are both training to be counselors.

When asked what keeps them returning to camp, they said it was the laid-back atmosphere and free play. 

Ayla Brennan, Ashayla’s sister, has been a camper for six years. She praised the camp’s new fridge and said that after playing outside on a hot day it’s nice to have an ice-cold water bottle to dump over her head. 

“The response to the demonstration has been unbelievable,” Cornish said. “Kids were fighting over who could be the first to switch the light on. They love the popsicles, and every year to wrap up the month, we do a barbecue — now, for the first time, we can store the meat in here.”