A nature trail behind Memorial Middle School in South Portland will be named in honor of the beloved teacher who made it possible.

This week the city’s Board of Education agreed to name the path, which is used by the cross-country team and the Eco-Explorers program, among many others, for Greg Carter, who died unexpectedly in February 2014.

Kathryn Germani, assistant superintendent of schools, told the Current that, “(Carter) was an avid outdoorsman and a true steward of the environment,” which is one of the many reasons an ad hoc committee agreed unanimously to name the walking path after him.

Germani said that while Carter was a teacher at Mahoney Middle School he and a group of students worked with the city to clean up the stream that runs between Mahoney and Brown Elementary.

Then, when he went across town to teach at Memorial Middle, Carter and Andrew Gelman, another sixth-grade teacher, “worked together with students to clear the path behind Memorial and connect it with the Skillin (Elementary) pathway,” Germani said.

She added, “They brought in fill and essentially made the path usable. Once the path was finished (Carter) used it to take students, who had never experienced a Maine winter, snowshoeing.”

Germani was a member of the naming committee, which also included Megan Welter, the principal at Memorial Middle, Kate Porter, Jackie Morin, Kaleisha Towle, Emma Ivy and Max Gailey, along with now-retired Superintendent Suzanne Godin.

In a memo provided to the school board prior to its meeting Monday, Godin said, “Overwhelmingly, the consensus was that the path should be named in memory of Greg Carter. Greg … spent many hours building and maintaining the nature trail.”

The memo concluded, “In closing, we recommend naming the (walking path) the Greg Carter Walking Path as Mr. Carter is the first person that comes to mind when talking about the path.”

Germani said Carter started his teaching career at the Jordan-Small Middle School in Raymond and came to South Portland in 2008 to teach eighth-grade science and math at Mahoney Middle. Due to enrollment needs, Carter then moved to Memorial where he taught the sixth-grade science and math curriculum.

She said it was the three students on the naming committee – Kaleisha Towle, Emma Ivy and Max Gailey – that really made the case for naming the nature trail in Carter’s honor.

Germani said that according to the students, Carter “was open to everybody (and) took time to know each of his students. He saw potential in kids and recognized areas they might be interested in. (His) teaching style was hands-on. He would often let us control our own learning and decide what we wanted to explore. He (also) took time to explain why.”

She knew Carter well and said she always “found him to be passionate about science and passionate about helping kids learn to love science. I saw many students that would never have thought of ‘doing science’ outside of the class step up to help him with his environmental projects.”

Welter, Memorial Middle’s principal, said Carter first began working on the walking path in the fall of 2013. Building the trail was a project of the Eco-Explorers Club and the goal was to expand an existing trail from Skillin School to include the wooded area behind Memorial, she said.

Welter said naming the nature trail in honor of Carter makes sense because, “as one of our Eco-Explorers advisers, Mr. Carter inspired and taught our kids. He (also) shared with them his love of the outdoors.”

In addition, she said, “Because of his involvement designing and building the trail, naming the trail for him was a natural way to recognize the impact he has had on our school and our students.”

Welter said the walking trail is not only used by members of the school community, but by the larger community for hiking and biking, as well. And, she said, the Eco-Explorers Club continues to maintain the path.

Although the South Portland Land Trust maintains a variety of public trails in town, it’s the Portland Trails group that has worked with the Eco-Explorers for the last three years, helping to design and construct the path. That’s why the group has offered to put up the official trail sign, according to Welter.

Overall, she said, “The students at Memorial were deeply touched by Greg Carter. Many of the eighth graders who will be heading to high school next year reflected that Mr. Carter was their favorite teacher – the one who had the greatest impact on them as people and as learners. He continues to be missed.”

Greg Carter, a teacher at Memorial Middle School in South Portland, worked with students to create a nature trail that will now be named in his honor. Courtesy photo

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