7830-R2_LSLA_2021_WinetrNewsletter_Web

One of Aimhi Lodge’s original cabins was auctioned off at the “Farewell to Aimhi” picnic and Annual Meeting on July 13 th 2013. Starting bid of

was owned and operated by generations of family. Friendships forged in a single week out of the year would go on to last a lifetime.”This was true of Tom and Bill, who reached out to me about their experiences at this special place. It was Tom’s goal to capture a bit of the past for his parents with the journey to bring Birches to its new home. A bit of history of the camaraderie between Tom and Bill is exhibited in this little note from Bill. “Here’s a picture of the two of us as kids in the 1960’s. Tom at the top, Bill “in the hole”. This was a (to us) epic hole that we dug right on the bathing beach at Aimhi, a few feet from the edge of the cabana. It got so deep we needed to bring one of the bunk bed ladders to climb down and keep digging. Tom calls the effort and this picture in particular, “The Great Escape”. When asked why anyone would want to escape from Aimhi he said “No, you’ve got it wrong, this is the other end of the tunnel - it’s where the escape takes you TO”. Here are Tom’s notes about the start of Birches journey posted on Facebook. Oct 20, 2014 “At a fund raising auction in July, 2013, I bought a small unweatherized cabin from Aimhi Lodge in North Windham, Maine on Little Sebago Lake. This was a family camp that we vacationed at as children and later on with my parents, siblings and the grandkids. Aimhi closed in 2006 after being run by four generations of the same family since 1919. The land has been subdivided and the lots are being sold. Most of the cabins are gone, but I was lucky enough to be able to salvage a part of a very sentimental and meaningful experience for

$500 with all furnishings included minus some staging items. The main cabin was 16 x 14, bath was 3 x9 and porch was 12 x10 Total square footage without the porch was 251 sq. ft. The final and winning bid was $650 with the winner being a former lifetime Aimhi summer visitor. It was exciting and very touching to see the joy in the winner, Tom Eyman’s email when informed. Birches went to Franconia, New Hampshire and here is the rest of the story. Tom and Aimhi lifetime friend, Bill Seixas recently collaborated on this article on the former Aimhi Lodge. “Once upon a time on the shores of Little Sebago Lake there was a place so magical to those who knew it that, although it ceased to exist a decade and a half ago, lives on vividly in their hearts, minds, senses and very beings. Aimhi Lodge was an idea as much as it was a physical place. When you drove through the birch gate with the Aimhi Lodge sign on it and down the dirt road, landing on the peninsula where through the pines you could glimpse the waters of the lake and the brown and green pine board lodge, you were arriving in another world - a world set apart from the go-go modern paced life. Your car was parked and idle for the week. There was no TV, which suited this TV-addicted child of the 1960s just fine. There was too much for a child to do at Aimhi to be stuck in front of a TV. You arrived with your family and quickly became part of a larger family. Many families returned the same week year after year and sometimes generation after generation. And just like these generations of guests, Aimhi

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