About

Kristine Millard

Kristine Millard

Kristine Snow Millard is a free-lance writer from Portland and a fan of all things summer, including camp. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of New Hampshire, a master’s degree (communications) and a law degree from Boston University, and, most recently, earned an MFA in creative writing from the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine. She is currently helping to edit The Art of Outdoor Living, a guidebook used for Junior Maine Guide candidates, and is a regular contributor to the Maine Summer Camps newsletter. She has also contributed to the American Camp Association New England newsletter. Kris has written regularly for Maine Women and My Generation, both publications of Current Publishing. She has written features for the Maine Sunday Telegram, and is also a free-lance grant writer. A parent, she is also deeply committed to the subject of emotional wellness, and has seen how camp can foster whole and healthy kids. She is working on a memoir about living with clinical depression, and an essay she has written on that topic is forthcoming in an anthology to be published by Talking Writing, an on-line literary magazine.  

Kris is writing a blog about summer camp because she has seen the difference that camp can make. For 15 summers, she and her husband, Jim, and their daughters, Greer and Ella, lived and worked at Camp O-AT-KA, a boys’ camp in Sebago. Kris filled a number of roles during that time, including stained glass instructor, camp photographer, and camp office employee. Playing among campers, eating at the Commons, and attending camp rituals like morning Password and evening programs like talent shows and drama productions, showed Kris and her family how camp can change lives. Maine boasts almost 200 camps, attended by more than 40,000 kids attend each summer. Every summer, camps provide about $4.5 million in financial aid to 12,500 Maine kids, and Maine camps employ more than 10,000 staff members each summer. Camp truly is a Maine industry.

Kris’s blog will cover camp from all angles. Kids from Maine, the U.S., and all over the globe, attend camp to enjoy the state’s beauty and outdoor living opportunities. Through camp they learn new skills, make lifelong friends, and come to understand themselves and their world. Readers of the Bangor Daily News will now get a weekly look at how this happens.