The campaign to raise funding for our River Bend Farm project brings forth the opportunity for special people to be honored by family and friends through gifts in their name. Founding Stories is a series that spotlights the heartfelt stories of people and businesses whose life’s mission or business promise is to preserve our natural resources and promote conservation through educational programming. In several instances, our supporters have been inspired to raise funds from friends and family in honor of someone they hold dear. We look forward to this opportunity to share the intimate and inspired purpose of many gifts with our community!

A longtime resident of Saco’s Ferry Beach neighborhood, Guy Huntley has fostered a relationship with The Ecology School for decades. His grandmother first bought property on Ferry Beach in the mid-1950s, and other members of the family later purchased three additional cottages in the neighborhood that Guy helped manage as rentals. He remembers helping a few of his neighbors plant grass in their yards one summer day in the late 1990s and Drew, teaching in Ocean Park at the time, offered to recruit a few students to assist with the project. A longstanding friendship blossomed from there.

Guy, now 82 years old, has since engrained himself in the The Ecology School community, occasionally popping in for meals with students in the dining hall, dropping into the office to chat with (or sometimes even prank) the admin team, and renting out one of his family’s cottages to The Ecology School at the original Ferry Beach campus.

“I treat myself as being part of the family,” says Guy, who worked in the Army Reserve for 29 years and so affectionately goes by the nickname Colonel within the The Ecology School community. "Everything they do is just really great,” he says.

Guy has championed the River Bend Farm project since its inception, attending City Hall meetings and writing letters to the newspaper in support of the move. Now, he and his wife Robin have generously donated $30,000 toward the project. Together with donations from two other couples in their family (Dee and Tom Brown, and Nolan and Kathy Stokes), this gift will sponsor the Floyd J. Huntley Hallway, named after Guy’s grandfather.

Drew recommended this particular dormitory hallway for the family’s gift because it will be a place where students gather to receive instructions, Robin says. Given Guy’s military background, “Drew saw that as something that suited him to a T.”

An avid environmentalist herself, Robin feels strongly that young people should have the opportunity to learn how to care for the environment, and views The Ecology School as a wonderful haven for that learning. “It’s amazing how kids pick this up,” she says. “They just absorb all of this and somehow inherently understand how helpful it’s all going to be.”

With a grandson who attended The Ecology School programming as a child, she knows that students don’t just keep that information to themselves — they share it with loved ones. And that gives her a sense of hope for the next generation of environmental stewards. “The way it expands like that is wonderful,” she says.

Guy agrees, and is eager to see the River Bend Farm project come to fruition. Even with the move up the road, he still pays visits to his friends on the The Ecology School campus. “The thing they are doing is absolutely the first of its kind,” he says. “It needs to be supported.”

If you would like to learn more about the Capital Campaign and naming opportunities at River Bend Farm, please contact Development Director, Bryan Matluk at (207) 283-9951 or bryan@theecologyschool.org.

Founding Stories: Guy and Robin Huntley

The Ecology School transforms how people think about science, food, the environment, and themselves through joyful, hands-on learning for all ages.