Many different experiences can be had working on our staff at Tanglewood. The positions we most commonly have open are seasonal environmental education instructors (spring, summer and fall), but we also occasionally seek kitchen and facilities help.

What is it like?
Tanglewood is an unmistakably beautiful place to work, nestled in the woods along the Ducktrap River between the coastal Maine towns of Camden and Belfast. Our community is a friendly one, for we recognize that every individual who works here plays an equally essential role in carrying out our mission. On staff at Tanglewood you will always be listened to. Also, everyone who works here will have the opportunity to play different roles from time to time; for example, our instructors often help out in the kitchen, or work with our facilities crew. And members of our facilities staff include an educational component to their work, which allows them to occasionally work with children. One thing anyone who works here will tell you is that no position at Tanglewood is easy! Our staff always works hard, but the important part is we feel good about what we do.

Housing
The cabins we live in are rustic, wooden cabins without electricity, although there is electricity in other buildings. Hilltop is our staff center, where staff can relax and listen to music or read or find some space to work on programming ideas and projects.

Food
The food we serve at Tanglewood is healthy and there is always a vegetarian option, sometimes a meat option. We try to serve as much food grown in our own garden as possible, and are always trying to include locally grown organic products as well. Our cooks are always open to suggestions, and we welcome guest cooks too!

Weather
The weather on the coast of Maine is not easy to predict! Summer can bring us right into the upper 90’s, leaving us spending as much of our free time as possible cooling off in the river, but there are also those damp, cool days too. Spring school programs start out chilly, but warm up substantially as we move into June. Fall is often beautiful, with brilliant foliage from our maples and birches. September usually cools quite quickly, leaving us firing up our wood stoves by the onset of October. Rain?? Well, it always seems to come when we least expect it, but it doesn’t rain here more often than in other New England areas. Winter turns our trails into x-c ski trails, so we like as much snow as we can get around here!

back to top

Summer Camp
Summer is a very special time of year for us. Every June we bring together a group of experienced environmental educators, actors, musicians, artists and more to create a great experience for hundreds of kids from Maine and elsewhere in the U.S. and the world. We emphasize environmental education, ecology, and waste reduction, but we also incorporate lots of laughter, good music and good times.

Our summer program is carried out by our largest staff of the year. This includes our year-round facilities crew, our head cook, an evening cook, our nurse, our camp directors, program coordinators, camp counselors, focus leaders, trip leaders and leadership staff. It’s about 45 people in all. Our cabins of eight campers are supervised by two staff; this way campers have two role models to relate to, and counselors get the support they need from their co-leaders. All our camp counselors and focus leaders supervise cabins at least most of the summer. It is important to know that our counselors are asked to be more than just cabin supervisors.  They are also teachers, supporting focus programs and leading educational activities every afternoon. Summer at Tanglewood is busy! Don’t expect loads of personal time. There are two hours of time off during the day, and there is one night off duty during the week. The one-week sessions begin Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m. and end on Friday afternoons. We have a two-week session as well, which runs through the weekend and on slightly different schedule. Our two-week session has traditionally been our most popular program both among staff and campers.

back to top

Fall/Spring School Programs
The seasons of fall and spring are seasons of change, and Tanglewood is the perfect place to teach and experience up close the natural movement and wonders of the earth and its inhabitants.

Teaching in our school programs is truly rewarding experience, but very different from summer. Our message for the kids is the same, but we go a little further toward the academic side when it comes to programming. Our teaching staff also is a more intimate group of 6 to 8, mostly consisting of college graduates with teaching experience. We teach kids from area schools a variety of curricula, ranging from human community and watershed ecology to forest and seashore ecology and more. Day programs are usually from about 9 AM to 2:30 PM. At the end of the day we meet to recap and discuss scheduling and clean program areas, finishing by about 4PM, sometimes earlier. Overnight programs are most often (but are not limited to) one night/ two day programs, beginning at around 9 AM the first day and ending sometime after lunch the next day. School program staff does not supervise cabins during overnights… we leave that to the schoolteachers and chaperones. Our programming is about 80% done in small study groups, and 20% in large groups. The small study groups usually range from 8-12 students in size, with one or more adult chaperones present, and one Tanglewood instructor. Our large group programming is often in the form of games, role-plays, and mealtime discussions.

back to top

Winter School Programs
Our winter programs are run by only a few staff members (usually 2 or 3), and we incorporate winter ecology and/or winter living skills into our regular curricula. The groups are smaller in size, but they still come for both day and overnight programs. The overnight groups stay in wood heated cabins. Our instructors both teach and cook during winter programs, but schoolteachers and chaperones still supervise cabins.

back to top

Recreation
Tanglewood is ten minutes from the tourist town of Camden, which offers some good food, shopping, pubs, and a nice town park overlooking the harbor. Going north from camp, 20 minutes away is Belfast, a slightly more working class town, but with just as much to offer. Belfast is also on the water, and has an impressive co-op food store. Tanglewood is located in Camden Hills State Park, which offers many great hikes and some excellent views. We are two hours from Maine’s hippest city of Portland, and under two hours from Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. The White Mountains. of New Hampshire are 4 hours away, Boston five, Quebec City and Burlington six.

back to top