Wilds of Alaska beckon for arts student from Lynn

LYNN – Lynn native Melissa Campbell didn’t seek out an exotic internship, but when she found the perfect summer gig, she did not hesitate to pack her bags for Alaska.A cinema major at Denison University in Ohio, Campbell graduated from Lynn English High School in 2012. After doing some nonprofit work at the university, Campbell said she got it in her head that she might like doing development work for a nonprofit, so she looked for an internship.”I Googled art, youth and dance and hit the trifecta,” she said.The fact that the job was Sitka Fine Arts Camp in Sitka, Alaska, only made it more attractive, she said.Tucked at the base of glacially-carved mountains, Sitka faces the Pacific Ocean on Baranof Island. It’s located on the outer coast of Alaska’s Inside Passage and lies at the heart of the largest temperate rainforest in the world, the Tongass National Forest.Campbell said she had no idea there was a rainforest in Alaska until she got to Sitka.As an intern, Campbell said she did everything during the eight and half weeks she was at the camp, from laundry to organizing a silent auction.The camp caters young artists from elementary school age to college and offers some adult programs as well. Campbell took part in organizing a silent auction for one of the camp’s larger fundraisers, which included everything from seeking in kind donations to actually running the event. It was a lot of responsibility, she said.”I also did a capital campaign to save one of the buildings,” she added, casually. “I raised about $23,000.”The camp is made up of a number of nationally recognized historic buildings. Campbell said her focus was raising money for exterior work on what is known as The Laundry Building.”It’s now a performance space for kids, especially the rock bands, the poetry (slams) and chamber music,” she said adding that the work, “was pretty cool.”Although she knew nothing about how to run a capital campaign or a silent auction, she said a weeklong orientation and a very good leadership team gave her the tools and the confidence to jump in. She called the camp directors really efficient people that guided them while still giving them free range to run with ideas.As much fun as she had Campbell admits she got a little homesick, particularly in the beginning and especially for New England summer weather.”It was supposed to be 60-70 degrees, but it was colder, it was around 50 degrees,” she said.But she grew to love the camp and the island.Campbell said she got to climb a mountain that had a spectacular view of nearly the entire island, but one of best views came from the most unlikely of places.”One of the most gorgeous views (of mountains) was from the parking lot of the supermarket and McDonald’s,” she said.She also grew to love her fellow interns, of which there were nine, the people involved in the camp. They encouraged the kids to follow their passions and valued simple things like taking time to reflect on everything that was happening, which she found important, she said.Campbell had no regrets giving up a summer of hot beach days for Alaskan dampness, but she did learn one lesson.”I’m not as into development as I thought I was,” she said with a laugh.While she plans to stick with her cinema major and hopes to make documentaries one day, she is not giving up on nonprofit work altogether.”I want to take a few gap years before graduate school and do something like AmeriCorps or Fulbright,” she said. “Then I’ll make documentaries and maybe be a festival programmer.”