Kieve-Wavus Education Inc

Wavus Camp for girls is a wilderness tripping camp with a robust traditional summer camp program. 561 campers were in the 2024 camp program across our sessions (two 26-day and two 10-day). Founded in 1922, the Wavus Foundation merged with Kieve Affective Education to form Kieve Wavus Education in 2005, with Wavus Camp reopening as Kieve's sister camp and program in 2006. Campers ranging from 8-17 years old learn and grow through fun and explorative traditional activities on campus and increasingly challenging wilderness trips, ranging from two to 22 days, that foster independence and build resilience. (Wavus Camp continued) Led by largely college-aged counselors, campers build skills and lasting connections that empower them to go back and positively affect their communities by spreading the values of kindness, respect, and environmental stewardship.

The Leadership School (TLS) is a teacher education program that cultivates career educators who learn by providing experiential outdoor education programs to thousands of Maine students each year. TLS is a Maine Department of Education (DOE) non-traditional, limited-purpose private school (grades 1-12), guided by our environmental stewardship and experiential approach to social-emotional learning (EASEL) curricula. At TLS, our teaching fellows spend their fall and spring terms leading overnight Outdoor School programs for Maine students and teachers on our Kieve campus, and their winter terms in residency at local, Midcoast Maine public schools. (Leadership School & KWE Events continued) Through a partnership with the University of Southern Maine, a TLS Fellow can earn their professional DOE teaching certification with all coursework and student teaching credit hours paid for by KWE. In 2024, TLS served approximately 6,353 students across 77 programs on campus and at our local schools.KWE Events incorporates the wide range of programs led across our campuses and in our community, above and beyond TLS, Kieve, and Wavus. Each year, KWE hosts dozens of events - from wellness retreats for humanitarian and mission-based groups ranging from veterans to families fighting cancer, to board meetings, team-building programs, and more. Our campuses feature cozy lakeside cottages, as well as the Kennedy Learning Center, a 16-bedroom event center at our Kieve campus, where alumni and people aligned with our mission can come together to learn, grow, and benefit from this transformational place. This work also incorporates the Lincoln County Food Initiative, where, during the 20 weeks of winter in Maine, members of our operations team combine their efforts to serve our neighbors in need. This program evolved from a community-wide initiative at the peak of the COVID pandemic. It leverages local partnerships and KWE's industrial kitchens and talented full-time cooks to procure local ingredients and produce more than 6,000 delicious, pre-made meals to our five local pantries, helping sustain our neighbors facing food insecurity during the hardest time of the year.