The Outdoor School for All Maine Students program launched last week at The Ecology School in Saco, hosting seventh-grade students from Sanford Middle School for a three-day outdoor learning program.

Drew Dumsch, president and CEO of The Ecology School, said the school’s goal is to provide outdoor learning to 14,000 students a year.

“Our goal is that every kid in Maine gets to come to an outdoor school program,” Dumsch said.

Outdoor School for All Maine Students is an initiative that allows Maine schools to send their students to overnight programs at outdoor schools across Maine.

Over the past few years, The Ecology School worked to partner with eight outdoor schools across Maine, including the Chewonki Foundation and Kieve Wavus Education, to bring outdoor learning to all Maine students.

Located at River Bend Farm in Saco, The Ecology School hosted the first of the overnights last week, offering a three-day, two-night program where students learned about conservation, farming, ecology and sustainability, all while engaging in hands-on, fun activities.

“We’re talking about things that are important to Maine’s economy and Maine’s identity,” Dumsch said. “It’s something you don’t really get inside the classroom.”

The impact programs like the Outdoor School for All Maine Students can have on students is “magical,” Dumsch said.

For many students, the program is “the spark” that inspires them to want to learn more about science.

“It’s like a launchpad,” Dumsch said. “We’re putting tools in their hands. Science should be fun.”

The Ecology School was founded by Dumsch and a couple of colleagues in 1998 and has been working with other schools for many years. The Outdoor School for All program expanded that connection.

Outdoor School for All Maine Students was established by bipartisan legislation sponsored by Sen. Rick Bennett and signed into law by Gov. Janet Mills, aiming to increase access to outdoor learning programs.

According to Dumsch, the bill received almost unanimous support from both the House and the Senate.

“In these challenging times, getting bipartisan thumbs up across the board is pretty remarkable,” Dumsch said.

The program is managed by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, which organizes grants to certified outdoor learning centers, and is primarily being funded by nearly $500,000 in private donations.

The program’s current goal is to raise at least $1 million through private donations to continue hosting students at outdoor schools across the state.

“That’s what the demand is from schools already,” Dumsch said. “We’re getting tons of schools calling and saying ‘OK, we’re ready to come.’”

For those unfamiliar with outdoor school, a $1 million price tag could seem overwhelming and like an impossible task, Dumsch said.

But the state of Oregon has been working with its Outdoor School for All for over a decade, with 81 percent of the state’s middle school students attending an outdoor school program in 2019.

“It happened in Oregon, so why not Maine?” Dumsch said. “We’re excited about it.”