A Maine Camp for Deaf Children Carries On After an Unthinkable Loss

As the three girls drew closer to their Maine summer camp one morning in August, text messages pinged between their separate cars as they tracked each other’s progress toward their destination.

Maya Fitts, 16, reported that she was only 17 minutes away. Autumn Laughlin, 11, chimed in; her E.T.A. was almost exactly the same. Soon they would turn onto a dirt road that led through a forest of tall pines, rolling slowly down a steep hill until the shining surface of North Pond popped into view. The third friend, Ingrid Hagenbuch, 11, was delayed by a stop to buy a bathing suit.

They had looked forward to this reunion since last August, and every minute mattered. Their weeklong overnight camp in Rome, Maine, Pine Tree Camp’s Dirigo Experience, is the only one in the state exclusively for children who are Deaf or hard of hearing. For some of the 22 campers from around the state — many of whom are the only Deaf or hard-of-hearing students in their small rural schools — it would be the only time all year they spent with peers who were like them in this way.

“I’m finally home,” said Jayson Seal, 13, describing how he felt when he arrived. Like several other people interviewed for this article, he spoke through an American Sign Language interpreter.

His father, Joshua Seal, created the Dirigo Experience two years ago, determined to provide his four young children, and others across Maine, with an experience he never had as a Deaf child growing up there: a traditional summer camp adventure alongside Deaf and hard-of-hearing peers. The name comes from Maine’s state motto, Latin for “I lead.”