(Contributed photo)
HOULTON, Maine — For the past few years, Cameron Clark of Houlton has been honing his sculpting skills by creating custom-carved wooden sculptures in the shape of adorable black bears.
A graduate of 2016 from Houlton High School, Clark has become renowned for his chainsaw sculpting skills and strong work ethic — he also operates a summer lawn care business and has built picnic tables for a number of years.
Now Clark is putting his skills to use to help a local family in need with the creation of a one-of-a-kind “Ranger Crockett” bear in memory of Jeremiah Crockett, a forest ranger from Linneus who passed away Tuesday, April 4, after a long battle with a rare form of cancer.
The “Ranger Crockett” bear is carved to look like “Smokey the Bear,” with Crockett’s Ranger call numbers engraved on it. The sculpture will be raffled off at the trade show in Houlton this coming weekend with all proceeds benefiting the Crockett family. Tickets are $10 each. The drawing will be held Sunday, April 9.
The “Ranger Crockett” project was was designed and created by Clark, who got the idea for the fundraiser from longtime friend Ryan Tribou (Class of 2014), who graduated from high school with Crockett’s two sons, Phoenix and Elyjah.
“Throughout my two years in the forestry program through Region two in Houlton, Jeremiah made appearances quite frequently with his support for the program, and taking time to teach us about forest fire fighting,” Clark said. “Jeremiah is a well respected Ranger in northern Maine as well as a great member of our community and when I had the opportunity to support him and his family I was excited to do so.”
Clark said a conversation with Tribou, who is close to the Crockett family, led to the idea of doing a carving to support them.
“I thought about how I could make this carving unique and special to make it really stand out and that is when the “Smokey the Bear” idea came to mind as Smokey always walks in our Fourth of July parade next to a vehicle driven by Jeremiah,” Clark explained. “Adding in Jeremiah’s Ranger numbers in the belt buckle was an idea brought to me by the Tribou family and one that I was happy to add to the carving and make it that much more connected to Jeremiah and his family.”
Clark has been doing chainsaw carving for just over a year, and this piece, to date, has been the most meaningful for him.
“I am honored to be able to support Jeremiah and his family and excited to explain the special aspects of the carving to individuals at this weekend’s trade show,” he said.
Those interested in purchasing a ticket can contact Tribou at 694-1564 or visit Cam’s Chainsaw Carving Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ChainsawCam/ or purchasing tickets at the trade show, Saturday, April 8, and Sunday, April 9 at the Millar Civic Center.
