Thursday, May 24, 2007 Seacoastonline.com - York Weekly
May 23, 2007 
Charlie Ek, Executive Director of Kittery Trading Post Outdoor Academy holds a plaque given to him in recognition of his support of the "Families Together Program." Amy Root-Donle photo / SMG
By Caitlin Hayes
yorkweekly@seacoastonline.com
May 23, 2007 6:00 AM
YORK As executive director of Kittery Trading Post's expanding and successful outdoor academy, and a 2007 recipient of a statewide award, Charlie Ek only claims this in the way of credit: "I know a lot about maps."
But the rapid growth and success of the Kittery Trading Post Outdoor Academy (KODA) a partnership between the store and local school districts that brings kids outdoors belies Ek's humility.
"We're very fortunate in York to have this commitment from him," said nominator and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Scipione.
Ek will be one of five educators in the state to receive a Commissioner's Recognition Award for his work with socially or academically at-risk students. Ek and Scipione will attend a ceremony Thursday.
The Programs
The KODA programs focus on three goals: environmental education, service learning, and straight-up outdoor recreation.
"Part of it is just to get kids outside and moving around," Ek said.
Instruction in orienteering, bouldering, snowshoeing, kayaking; trips to historic sites and nature preserves; and lessons on the environment, ecosystems, geology, and mapping technology are all featured in KODA programs.
And "the lessons are integrated in the classroom," Ek said.
The most recent York school projects include mapping out trails at the McFeely preserve with York High School students, and exploring vernal pools with York Middle School students.
In addition to the physical benefits, the programs develop skills in leadership, teambuilding, and self-esteem. The program "gives kids confidence," Ek said.
"It allows the kids to speak up," he said. "It gives them the chance to do something that may be successful."
That "they transfer that confidence to other parts of their lives," said Ek, is the main goal with all kids, but especially with "at-risk" youth, who may not feel successful in the traditional classroom.
In the popular orienteering programs, Ek described Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a computer mapping system, as a technological "hook" for kids but also a chance for them to understand their places within the physical world.
From the bird's-eye vantage the GIS systems provide, he said, "we start to see connections that we never saw before."
Navigating the outdoors also builds a much needed sense of teamwork. Kids have to reach consensus and "have to agree on where they are, where they need to get to, and how they'll get there."
All of these skills are transferred in Ek's contribution to the "Families Together" program, a series of events hosted by the York School Department and KODA that "gets parents actively involved," Ek said. The two programs celebrated the first year of their partnership on Monday at Mt. Agamenticus.
The Topography of a Life
On a map, the path of Charlie Ek's career would lead out and around and back to where he started. As a junior in high school, Ek remembers teaching eighth graders about earth science in a mentor program, but it wasn't until much later that he returned to this path that has opened up the outdoors for students in southern Maine and New Hampshire.
Ek majored in geography and Scandinavian languages at the University of Minnesota and while his studies did not immediately correspond to his career path, he found love in both majors; He met his wife in Scandinavian languages, and he sparked a lifelong fascination with maps in geography.
But it wasn't until later in his life that the geography would really come in handy. For 24 years, Ek worked as an insurance underwriter and broker, a corporate risk manager, and as an attorney.
Navigating the outdoors was a cherished hobby that Ek sought outside business hours. He taught adult orienteering classes intermittently and always gravitated toward places rich with natural beauty. He grew up enjoying the outdoors, he said, in Minnesota, and he's lived in Anchorage, Alaska, and in Washington state. He and his wife moved to New Hampshire in 2001.
But in 2004, Ek veered off his career path. His job as an insurance broker ended, and he turned to the camping department at Kittery Trading Post as a foray into his passion.
And, he said, "this [position] just developed it was serendipity."
"There was a real need in this area," Ek said. "Students weren't being introduced to the outdoors."
The first planning meeting for KODA was in April 2005 and the programs were approved by Kittery Trading Post President Kevin Adams in August of that year.
Since then, the programs have extended far beyond expectations. Ek has led programs in all of the York schools, and the list of other participating school districts includes the Berwicks, Kittery, Eliot, Biddeford, and Portsmouth, Rochester, and Milton, N.H.
"We're at capacity but we want to continue to expand it," Ek said. Part of Ek's summer will be spent researching and writing grant proposals for the program.
Despite the award and the program's success, Ek remains indefatigably humble.
"KODA exists because of many people," he said.
In reference to the award, he said that it's "good for the program to get the recognition."
He said, ever so appropriately, that "it puts us on the map."
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