Founding Stories: Martha Taylor
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!
“I really believe in the school.”
Martha Taylor grew up visiting the shores of Saco Bay with her family, traveling from their home in Berlin, New Hampshire to enjoy time on the beach each summer. By the mid-1950s, when Martha was a teen, her father decided to purchase a small lot and build a family cottage on Island View Avenue, just a few blocks from The Ecology School’s original Ferry Beach campus.
At 81 years old, Martha now lives on that property today, retired from an ambitious career drawing circuitry for an engineering company that sold electrical designs to the U.S. space program. “I put a couple cracks up there for the rest of the ladies,” she says.
Over the past 15 years, this impressive neighbor has also become a good friend and generous supporter of The Ecology School. What began as an annual donation of $100 (always hand delivered to our office with a large smile and friendly conversation) has now accumulated to more than $30,000 — including $18,000 toward the Martha L. Taylor Dorm Room that’s currently under construction at River Bend Farm. “I really believe in the school,” she says. “I think it’s wonderful.”
Drew and Martha at a July 2018 barbecue at River Bend Farm.
She was excited to learn that River Bend Farm would be The Ecology School’s new home, having spent an afternoon there years ago with friends, sipping lemonade on the back porch overlooking the Saco River. “I knew how gorgeous that location was,” she says.
An avid composter, she has long been thoughtful of and interested in caring for the environment. But, more than anything, she says her desire to support The Ecology School stems from the friendships she forged with Drew and other staff members during her time as a neighbor. Over the years, she has become an active member of the The Ecology School community, helping our Board stuff envelopes, attending Lunch and Learns in the dining hall, and sitting in on City Council meetings in support of the River Bend Farm project.
With her background in engineering and an affinity for architecture, she eagerly awaits updates on the construction of the dormitories and is excited to see it all come together. She fondly describes Drew as genuine and honest to the core, and the project as, “a mirror of his finest attributes.”
“He should be so proud,” she says.
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.