“I’ve come to realize that I know of no other place like it.”

That’s what Amber Lambke says about Pine Tree Camp.

“To think that we have this in central Maine on a beautiful pond in a beautiful setting is really special,” said Amber. “I’ve been so pleased to see the infrastructure improvements and how it continues to get more and more accessible. It shows people care about Pine Tree Camp as a resource and are committed to sustaining it.”

Amber worked as a counselor at Pine Tree Camp in the early 1990s before going on to become a speech language pathologist and, later, founder of Maine Grains in Skowhegan, which she founded with fellow Pine Tree Camp alumni, Mike Scholz.

Mike not only was a counselor at Pine Tree Camp, his parents worked there when he was a boy so he spent many of his childhood summers on North Pond.

“One of the best things about being involved in Pine Tree Camp at a young age was to grow up and be friends with kids with disabilities who would come to camp and, no matter what, to see them as a kid just like me with the same thoughts, ambitions, desires and need for friendship,” said Mike. “That was very valuable to me. There’s no place better than Pine Tree Camp.”

Amber agreed.

“It gave me building blocks and instilled in me the ability to observe and see people at their core and be able to look past the physical self,” she said. “As a proud introvert, Pine Tree Camp forced me to get outside of yourself a little bit. Camp is for the campers and that’s what life is all about.”

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