Elsa Sanborn

2006 New England RPC Volunteer of the Year

The 2006 New England RPC Volunteer of the Year is Elsa Sanborn, who has served as treasurer of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club (MATC) for a total of more than 20 years. MATC’s finances are more complex than most volunteer organizations as the club publishes the guidebook to the A.T. in Maine, maintains its own seasonal Trail crew, and employs ridgerunners and caretakers. The club has maintained a balanced budget during her tenure and was able to build a substantial reserve fund. When the club took on the task of fighting the Redington Wind Farm in 2006, which required spending large sums of money and tracking hundreds of individual donations, Sanborn managed those added responsibilities as well as her usual duties, which are as vital to the success of the Club as the work of any “Mainetainer” or crew member.