JG, Prospect
We’d go to Sears Island almost every day and Zeke, my four-year-old, would swing on the rope swing by the beach. He just loved it. One day we found that the swing had broken. Zeke was so sad. We went back to the house and I gathered some rope and a 2×6 board left over from building our house. I drilled some holes into the board, got some rope, went back over to the island, and my wife and I climbed up into the tree, swung the ropes around the limbs, and made a whole new swing for my kids and anybody who wanted to use it to enjoy. I have two children, Zeke and Max, who is nine.
Sears Island is a place to walk, hang out with the kids, and have a relaxing time outside—instead of trying to be at home with them wanting to watch TV, or whatever. It’s a good escape.
We’re originally from New Mexico. We wanted to be closer to the ocean so just three years ago we came up looking for property and fell in love with everything about Maine. I try to do as much as I can myself, so I built a tiny house on wheels with my wife, and that’s where we live.
Sears Island is so quiet and calm. There are no cars or motorcycles—but it’s really that it’s kept almost all natural. We’ve gone swimming there plenty of times, and walked around by the old farmhouse foundation, but we haven’t gone quite all the way to the other side because soon the little one says, I want to go to the swing! He always wants to be on that swing.
Max is home-schooled, so we also go to the island whenever he’s studying animals or forests. Not too long ago Max had to look at different types of evergreens, so we went there and talked about the different bark textures, how animals and trees coexist, how they help each other, and he gets to enjoy and learn from something that’s kept so natural.
It’s a great place for all to enjoy and I really would like to see it stay the same.
A project of volunteers who care deeply about Sears Island