Handcrafted wooden signs will mark Land Trust trails thanks to the work of four active residents
Forty-seven handcrafted, hand-painted wooden signs will mark the wooded trails and open fields of the Scarborough Land Trust thanks to a group of energetic and talented residents at Piper Shores.
The handmade signs will be used to mark the nature trails at two properties owned and managed by the Scarborough Land Trust: the 220-acre Fuller Farm, which was purchased and protected in 2001; and the 35-acre Albert Sewell Woods, which was protected and donated to the Land Trust in 1996. Both properties are open to the public year-round and are used for walking, hiking, bird watching and recreating by Scarborough residents and beyond. Fuller Farm has the largest trail network of the Land Trust’s properties.
“The Scarborough Land Trust is delighted to partner with Piper Shores on such a wonderful project that makes use of the skills, talents and interests of the Piper Shores residents and that serves a very real need we had for signage,” said Kathy Mills, Executive Director of the Scarborough Land Trust. Mills explains the signs will serve an important need for visitors of the properties, who use maps to follow the trails but have not had the benefit of on-site signage.
“It really takes a village to do land conservation,” said Mills. “The Land Trust relies heavily on the time, talent, and generosity of volunteers.We could not be more grateful to the enthusiastic volunteers at the Piper Shores wood working shop.”
Piper Shores Marketing Director, Andrea C. Killiard was equally gratified. “It has been simply inspiring to watch these four residents take the project on with gusto and see it through to such impeccable completion,” said Killiard. “We extend our gratitude to John Peacock and Brad Wellman for their lettering, sizing and woodworking skills, and to Suzan Nixon and Karen Walker for their superior painting and artistic skills,” she said.
Piper Shores resident John Peacock, co-chair of the Woodshop Team, said the small group of woodshop members used templates to carefully mark the lettering and then employed a newly purchased plunge router to engrave each letter into the pine. The final touch was to paint each sign.
Peacock explains that the project took a total of 100 hours and was one of many projects that the Woodshop takes on for the Piper Shores community. “We do a lot of projects here for the residents,” said Peacock. “If a chair needs gluing or a tabletop needs repairing, we do that kind of work here. The residents pay for materials, but the labor is free.” Peacock, who has lived at Piper Shores for the last three years with his wife, moved from Round Pond, Maine, where he lived for 20 years. “I’ve always had a woodshop in my basement. I made furniture and this and that,” he says modestly.
Peacock says he has not visited Fuller Farm or the Albert Sewell Woods to view the new signs, but he plans to make a visit there soon. “It will be nice to see the signs in their new home,” he says.
“Piper Shores is continuously looking for projects that connect the residents to the greater community. We have such an amazing array of skills and expertise in our residents, and it is important that they continue to hone and share them,” states Killiard. “This project with the Land Trust is an incredible example of what partnerships can accomplish.”
