Staff

After a year of searching for the perfect summer camp, Sumner first set foot on PIC for the 2000 summer as a nine-year-old. He quickly fell in love with Pine Island, returning for the next six summers as a camper. Sumner’s first year on staff was as a fly-fishing instructor in 2009, and his summers have been spent at Pine Island ever since.

After teaching fly-fishing, Sumner became one of Pine Island’s Expedition Camp directors and then served as assistant director from 2014 through 2018. In 2019, Sumner transitioned into the role of Director. He is Pine Island’s sixth director in nearly 120 years. Sumner brings much to this role: a deep love of camping and the outdoors, seemingly endless patience with boys and staff, proven leadership skills, a lively and slightly mischievous sense of humor, a love of reading and ideas, and a deep appreciation of all the traditions and quirks that make Pine Island unique and so valuable. In short, Pine Island is lucky to have handed the helm to such an able and thoughtful person.

Sumner studied at St. Lawrence University, earning his B.S. in Environmental Geology and serving as a leader of the outing club. He currently resides in Burlington, Vermont during the off-season.

Alex first came to Pine Island as a camper in 2006, returning as an Expedition Camper, an LTIP, a kayaking instructor, and a driver across a total of six summers. His favorite parts of camp were trips, loud and boisterous dining hall chants, quiet afternoons reading on the steps of Honk Hall, kayaking during Boats Out, and the King’s Game–and he could always be found strumming a tune on the guitar during Campfire.

During his time away from PIC, Alex worked at Camp Uncommon, a Change Summer organization that specializes in expanding camp access to children from under-resourced communities. Over seven summers, Alex was an Outdoor Adventure counselor, a Head Counselor, an Assistant Director, and a Director Fellow. Alex was also an educator for nearly ten years, teaching the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th grades in Baltimore and Boston before transitioning to instructional leadership and teacher coaching in Freeport, Maine. Alex has now returned to Pine Island’s year-round team as the Incoming Director and is very excited for the opportunity to learn alongside Sumner before taking the reins in 2025.

Alex studied at Dickinson College, earning B.A. degrees in Political Science and French and serving as the president of the men’s a cappella group, The Octals (a skill that translates nicely to PIC campfires). He also has an M.S. in Education from Johns Hopkins University. Alex currently resides in Portland, Maine during the off-season with his fiancée, Emily, their dog, Scout, and their cat, Bean.

Ben Swan was born during the 1955 camp season, and he has been connected with Pine Island in some capacity ever since. He spent his childhood at Pine Island, was a camper and then a counselor, and he ran the Pine Island Whitehead program for one summer. He continued as a member of Pine Island Camp’s board of directors, returning to the staff in 1988 as assistant director. He assumed the post of director in 1990 and served in that capacity for thirty years. Since handing the helm to Sumner Ford, Ben has become Pine Island’s executive director and continues to work on program development at Whitehead Light Station and fundraising.

Ben’s family’s involvement with Pine Island Camp dates to 1908, when his grandfather purchased the fledgling institution, and he was the third generation of his family to serve as Pine Island’s director. Ben has a B.A. in English from Washington & Lee University and an M.A. in English from the University of Virginia. He was a teacher at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia for several years before returning to Maine to work for Pine Island.

Sarah joined Pine Island Camp in the fall of 2009 and soon became an indispensable member of the Pine Island team. She keeps the camp community informed with monthly newsletters, communicates with current and prospective camp families throughout the year, and performs numerous tasks to ensure camp runs smoothly. Sarah has a B.A. in American Studies from the University of New England. Like many Pine Islanders, she has a lifelong love of the outdoors. She leads backpacking, bikepacking, and Nordic ski trips for the Maine Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club. Sarah also writes about her outdoor adventures. Her work appears in the print and online publications of a variety of organizations, including Adventure Cycling Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Eastern Mountain Sports, and others. Sarah lives with her husband, Jason, in Durham, Maine, where they raised their sons, Caleb and Silas.

Long-time Pine Islander Lindsay Clarke took the reins of the Summer Manager position in 2021, a role previously filled by Emily Swan. Lindsay first joined the Pine Island community as a high schooler in Whitehead’s Light Keeper program in 1999 and then by filling in on the PIC kitchen crew during the 2000 season. After that, she was hooked and spent the next five summers from 2001-2005 as the head swimming instructor and a leader on hiking and canoeing trips. After serving as Assistant Director in 2007, Lindsay stepped away from the Pine Island community to focus on developing her career as a nonprofit leader and educator. For several years, she ran a nonprofit organization that partnered with local communities to promote education and economic development in Cameroon, and from 2007-2023 she taught middle and high school history at Waynflete School in Portland, Maine. Lindsay now works as a consultant for Bernuth & Williamson offering services in nonprofit management, growth, funding and impact. Lindsay, her daughter Sagan, her son Silas, and even their elderly cat Moxie all spend their falls, winters, and springs anxiously awaiting the return of the Pine Island season. When not at Pine Island, they live in Yarmouth, Maine.

Sam Hecklau grew up in the small town of Clinton in Upstate New York, where he spent much of his free time playing in the woods and creeks that ran behind his house – swimming, building forts, climbing trees, fishing, and generally enjoying what nature had to offer. Sam’s enjoyment and appreciation of the outdoors developed into a passion for activities such as hiking, camping, photography, sculpture, fly fishing, and skiing. It was also one of the factors that led him to attend St. Lawrence University. While at St. Lawrence, Sam studied geology and visual art and became a certified guide for the school’s Outdoor Program and a trip leader for the Outing Club. St. Lawrence is also where Sam met a fine gentleman from Woodstock, VT who shared his sense of adventure, a quick wit, and a love for pursuing creative ideas. Over the course of many shared skiing, fishing, canoeing, and camping outings with Sumner Ford, a lasting friendship developed.

Following his graduation from St. Lawrence and inspiration from Sumner, Sam spent his first summer at Pine Island in 2016. He returned in 2018 as the assistant director of Pine Island’s program at Whitehead Island. There he worked alongside 22-year veteran director Anne Stires, learning the details of the Whitehead program and skills of an outdoor educator. The winds and water of the Maine coast pulled Sam back to Whitehead in 2021, where he worked directly with Anne as the co-director of the program. That summer marked the transfer of decades of Whitehead knowledge and directorship from Anne to Sam.

During the rest of the year, Sam works as a place-based educator in Richmond, Vermont, where he spreads PIC values by imparting students with the importance of independence coupled with a concern for others, honesty, generosity, a sense of humor, and the ability to find all the joy life has to offer. His free time is spent recreating and traveling among the mountains, rivers, and lakes of the Northeast.