With Newry lease, Maine Adaptive Sports & Recreation plans to expand programs

People on bikes ride through the woods past a cabin.

Photo / Courtesy Caity Grant Maine Adaptive participants enjoyed the property in Newry this fall.

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To meet growing demand for adaptive recreation, Maine Adaptive Sports & Recreation has leased Hurricane Island Outward Bound School’s 375-acre campus at 125 Outward Bound Road in the Oxford County town of Newry.

The goal is to transform the campus into a universally accessible, year-round base and launchpad for adaptive recreation programs. Terms of the lease were not disclosed.

The campus is four miles from Maine Adaptive’s winter programming hub at Sunday River Resort, also in Newry. The site includes administrative offices, lodging accommodations, trail access and ample room for Maine Adaptive’s growing fleet of adaptive sports equipment, such as handcycles, mountain bikes, kayaks and golf carts.

An aerial view shows buildings amidst colorful trees.

Photo / Courtesy Caity Grant

As demand for adaptive recreation rises, Maine Adaptive Sports & Recreation leased Hurricane Island Outward Bound School’s 375-acre campus in Newry for space, infrastructure and flexibility to expand year-round programming.

The lease came about as Hurricane Island consolidates its Maine-based operations to its facility on Wheeler Bay off the Knox County village of Port Clyde.

The campus served for more than 40 years as a base camp for Outward Bound programs, said Eric Denny, Hurricane Island Outward Bound School’s executive director.

The lease ensures the continued use of the campus as a hub for outdoor education, recreation and community engagement, according to a news release. Maine Adaptive assumed campus operations, relocating its administrative offices and expanding its year-round adaptive recreation programs at the site.

Outdoor recreation

Founded in 1964 as Outward Bound’s first sea-based school, Hurricane Island Outward Bound School is a nonprofit educational organization that serves people of all ages through challenging wilderness expeditions in Maine, the Bahamas and Central America. It is one of nine independent Outward Bound schools in the U.S. Outward Bound is a global nonprofit offering outdoor education and adventure programs. Its first U.S. program opened in 1962.

Hurricane Island Outward Bound School was founded in 1964. Today it has 1,400 participants per year and 15 full-time and 135 seasonal employees.

Maine Adaptive was founded in 1982 at Sunday River ski resort in Newry. It’s the state’s largest year-round adaptive recreation program, providing instruction and access to outdoor recreation for individuals with disabilities. With 11 staff and 324 volunteers, Maine Adaptive delivers over 2,500 lessons annually. In the last fiscal year, 459 individuals participated.

Growing adaptive demand

For nearly 40 years, Sunday River’s Sundance Lodge has been Maine Adaptive’s home base for winter and various program operations.

“As the organization has grown, however, our needs have expanded beyond what the lodge can support year-round,” Amy Bannon-Staats, Maine Adaptive’s co-executive director, told Maineboz.

In recent years, Maine Adaptive has supplemented the Sundance Lodge space with rented administrative offices in Bethel and a mobile program model using vehicles and equipment trailers to bring adaptive recreation to dozens of venues across the state.

Sundance Lodge remains a winter hub and a central gathering point for Maine Adaptive’s alpine programs, which now operate at Sunday River, Sugarloaf and Pleasant Mountain.

At the same time, Maine Adaptive has been exploring options for a larger, more functional facility for more than a decade.

“As our programs expanded and demand grew, it became increasingly clear that we needed a space that could support year-round operations, equipment storage, staff collaboration and long-term growth,” said Bannon-Staats.

Outward Bound growth

Enter Hurricane Island's Outward Bound campus nearby campus. Over the past decade, Hurricane Island has seen an increased interest in international and cross-cultural programs, as well as experiences that combine land and sea elements, said Kim Ratner, the marketing director.

“To better position us for the future, it made more sense for us to move programming out of the Newry base and focus our Maine operations out of our coastal base in Wheeler Bay,” Ratner said.

The organization has been in the midst of other transitions, investing in a partnership with Outward Bound Costa Rica and a shared basecamp in the Central American country’s district of Tres Ríos.

'Strong fit'

With Hurricane Island Outward Bound moving out of its Newry location, it quickly became evident that the campus was a strong fit for Maine Adaptive, said Bannon-Staats.

“The site meets all of our most urgent needs, while also unlocking possibilities we hadn’t yet imagined for the future,” said Bannon-Staats. “It offers the kind of space, infrastructure and potential that can significantly expand our impact and allow us to serve even more people with disabilities across Maine.”

On HIOBS’s part, the organization was looking at the long-term future of the Newry property, with the board “intentionally searching for a nonprofit partner that could carry forward the kind of educational, service-oriented, Maine-outdoors programming that’s been happening there for more than 40 years,” said Ratner.

Maine Adaptive stood out quickly.

“Their mission, their approach to inclusive outdoor access, and their organizational strength aligned well with what we hoped the site would continue to support,” Ratner said. “So the lease is essentially the result of a thoughtful match — making sure the property stays in active use by a partner who shares our values and can build on the legacy that already exists.”

Year-round programs

Maine Adaptive started occupying the facility Oct. 1. The 375-acre property includes a primary building with offices, a classroom, a dining hall, a commercial-grade kitchen with a walk-in refrigerator, bulk food storage and prep space, equipment lockers and storage; a passive bathhouse; one year-round cabin and multiple rustic, three-season cabins, including bunkhouses and duplexes; a trail network; a climbing tower; and access to western Maine hiking, rock climbing and winter sports.

As the demand for adaptive recreation continues to rise, the campus offers space, infrastructure and flexibility needed to expand year-round programming. The Newry campus opens opportunities for spring, summer and fall programming, including events, volunteer trainings and multi-day experiences. Maine Adaptive’s Sundance Lodge at Sunday River will remain the hub of its winter operations.

Even with the lease, HIOBS remains rooted in Maine, said Ratner.

“Wheeler Bay and our programming site on Burnt Island off Port Clyde give us a strong, connected hub for everything we offer in the state,” she said.

Flexible lease

Maine Adaptive is operating under a flexible lease framework that allows it to explore a long-term future on the campus, said Bannon-Staats.

“During this period, our board of directors and staff are working closely together to assess the full potential of the site, with the shared vision of transforming it into a universally accessible, year-round base and launchpad for our 11 adaptive recreation programs across Maine,” she said.

Most urgently, the leased site addresses two of Maine Adaptive’s biggest operational challenges: adequate equipment storage and a centralized administrative home for its growing staff.

“Prior to this relocation, all summer equipment — kayaks, mountain bikes, cycles, sports chairs, golf gear, and more — was stored in multiple trailers scattered across the state, making regular maintenance difficult and stretching staff capacity thin,” said Bannon-Staats. “The Newry facility brings everything under one roof, improving efficiency, safety and care for our expanding fleet of adaptive equipment.”

Another advantage is accessible, on-site lodging.

“The ability to house volunteers, interns and participants during programs will have a profound impact on our reach and effectiveness, especially as accessible lodging, parking and restrooms remain some of the biggest barriers to outdoor recreation for people with disabilities in Maine,” said Bannon-Staats. “This campus positions Maine Adaptive to grow, innovate and serve more people — year-round and statewide.”

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