Volunteer Profile: Chris Kuhni, Washington County Committee
Chris Kuhni can sum up her life in Washington County with just five words: “I am nothing but lucky.”
Her lucky streak started with a recruiter’s call in 1994. What, she asked, could tempt Kuhni to leave her job at a Pennsylvania women’s clinic? “Find me a job on the coast of Maine,” she replied on a lark.
“You can choose to vacation here for two weeks every year or you can choose to live here – the most beautiful place on earth,” Kuhni’s future boss told her. “That struck me. He was right,” Kuhni says. “I never looked back. This is where I belong.”
Kuhni, a women’s health nurse practitioner, moved to Milbridge and embraced community in the state she’d always viewed as Vacationland. In 2004 she founded the nonprofit Women’s Health Resource Library (WHRL), renamed Women for Healthy Rural Living in 2020.
She also has served several terms on MaineCF’s Washington County Committee, a volunteer team that reviews grant proposals, recommends grant awards, and helps build philanthropic resources. The Washington County Fund, launched with support from three local banks, celebrates its 35th anniversary this year.
WHRL focused its efforts on prevention, what Kuhni calls “prescriptions people need to thrive”: exercise classes, yoga, weight-loss support, parent-baby play groups, and wellness workshops. But over time, staff realized workshops on health topics often weren’t reaching their target audience in Washington County, which has Maine’s highest poverty rate.
“The most vulnerable women weren’t attending; they were working two jobs, or had no child care, no gas for the car. Or no car,” says Kuhni. “We couldn’t expect women struggling to put food on the table to come to a talk on heart health.”
The Milbridge center’s solution started from the ground up: volunteer-driven community gardens, with bilingual veggie identification signs, where folks could pick their organic vegetables for free, find fresh air, and connect with neighbors. Incredible Edible Milbridge, launched in 2013, also taught home gardening – lessons that gave residents an edge in recent months as economic uncertainty led to food insecurity. “Having established gardens already geared up for expansion meant we were ready right out of the gate when COVID-19 arrived,” says Kuhni. “Our gardens were more important than ever.” Wyman’s of Maine, the Milbridge-based blueberry producer, reached out early in the pandemic with one more step toward sustainability: funds for a greenhouse that will go up this spring. A MaineCF donor pitched in for site work costs.
“We were thrilled,” says Kuhni. “With a greenhouse, we can grow our own seedlings, extend our growing season, and have a weatherproof space for community gardening classes. It seems like the natural progression of Incredible Edible Milbridge.”
Exercise, a second priority of WHRL’s healthy living focus, included visions of a community park with walking trails and wide-open spaces. In 2015, the small organization found just the right spot with views of Narraguagus Bay – and just the right partner in Maine Coast Heritage Trust, which purchased the 4.6-acre plot. Milbridge Commons Wellness Park, opened in 2018, continues to grow with more community gardens and plans for a playground.
Kuhni also sees firsthand, through her clinical work at Milbridge Medical Center, the many challenges her neighbors face. She believes meeting basic needs, providing education of all types, and creating equitable economic opportunities are key.
Over the past two decades, Kuhni has seen Washington County become a uniquely diverse place to live with an influx of Latinx families.
“There are tremendous opportunities when communities can embrace and celebrate their diversity,” says Kuhni. “Beyond just being invited, don’t most of us want to feel welcomed, valued, and feel we have a voice? We all want to belong. I want that for everyone.”
Chris Kuhni at Milbridge Commons Wellness Park, where visitors will find gardens and a view of Narraguagus Bay. Photo Ashley Conti
