Support Schooner Landing Employees After Fire

Dear Schooner Landing Community — The old crowd, the new crowd, the families from afar, and our beloved locals,

Thank you for being patient over the last few days while we have been working through the steps forward after a catastrophe such as this occurs. As most of you know, the restaurant set fire in the early morning hours of September 1st. Nobody was hurt, but the main structure of Schooner Landing has burned down, along with what feels like a lot of heart and spirit.

We were hesitant to create a GoFundMe because our community support has been so generous already and we have Schoonerfest planned for September 22nd. However, we realize that there are many people who don't live here year-round that would like to help and be a part of it and we thank you for that. This GoFundMe is for the benefit of our 50+ employees out of work.

In many ways, we feel very blessed to share this experience with all of you. What made Schooner Landing so special had a lot less to do with the wood that burned and more to do with all of us, all of you. People are what make a place great, and Schooner had 30 years of wonderful people sharing all the things that a life on, or even a visit to, the coast of Maine has to offer.

The love for this place is real. It stretches across the world and through time. Over the past four days, we are reminded of why we are committed to our business in the first place. Our community is incredible; the support is multifaceted and overwhelmingly inspiring. Local restaurants and stores, tradesmen, musicians, farmers — all reaching out, taking care of us — bringing us coffee, food, vegetables, offering skills or labor — already planning the next era alongside us. What a wonderful feeling of hope in such shocking times.

We are so incredibly lucky and grateful to have our marina and docks remain after first responders and firefighters from multiple different towns coordinated the act of controlling a fire that proved difficult due to strong prevailing winds. Their efforts and success are really what is going to give us a shot moving forward. Thank you to Chief Warlick, Chief Roberts, and every coinciding department member that was involved in protecting us.

We still see a bright future for Schooner Landing, and as we move forward, we will keep the community up to date with plans. For the time being, our focus is aiding the 50+ employees who are out of work. So we’re having a party on the 22nd to raise some funds for the employees, shed some tears, and dance to some music as we say goodbye to a wonderful era. At this time, we also thank Tim, Tamara, and Eben at the Damariscotta River Grill, who will be donating 10% of their Happy Hour Sales (at the bar, 3:00-5:30) to Schooner Landing Employees from each day leading up to the 22nd.

We are still here, we thank you and we love you,

Caleb, Meg, Scott, Steven, and the rest of the Schooner Family