Darcy Stillman Rock Climbing in the Appalachian Mountains

Darcy Stillman is a physical education teacher at Mount Desert Island High School. She grew up in Somesville and attended the high school where she now works. As a PE teacher she seeks to provide her students with as much opportunity as possible to see themselves in a positive light, both physically and mentally.

Recognizing the appeal of rock climbing, she has been exploring various funding opportunities to construct a climbing wall at the high school. To successfully teach the sport, she realized that she would have to become more familiar with it herself.




That’s where an Astor Incentive Award came in. The Astor Incentive Awards Fund, established at the Maine Community Foundation in 1984 through an endowment from the Vincent Astor Foundation, benefits staff employed by Mount Desert Elementary School, the Northeast Harbor Library and Mount Desert High School who are interested in developing professional skills.

Stillman applied for and received funding to attend an eight-day Outward Bound trip in the Appalachian Mountains in Western North Carolina during April vacation in 2003.

“The whole trip was empowering, liberating, motivating, replenishing, revealing, invigorating, exhausting and challenging,” Stillman wrote in a report to the Astor Grant advisory committee.

The course involved team building, communication, leadership training and environmental stewardship. Participants were taught how to climb and rappel, with special emphasis on equipment usage and safety.

The Astor Incentive Awards program seeks to help improve the quality, productivity and effectiveness of education in the Town of Mount Desert.

Awards of up to $10,000 enable school/library personnel to pursue projects that will broaden their experience or education, or otherwise contribute to their skills or to the curriculum of the school.

By testing her own limits, Stillman is more prepared to teach her students important lessons related to self-esteem and taking on new challenges. Where there’s a wall, there’s a way—to climb it.

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