Ocean Point summer residents and Boothbay Region Land Trust members Mike and Nancy Henderek share their love of the region and its natural environment with family members near, far and in the past.

“There are five generations at this point with connections to Ocean Point,” Nancy Henderek said. Henderek and her sister, Susan Evans, comprise the third generation of their family to live in family cottages at Ocean Point.

Their grandfather, Robert Partridge, an Augusta banker, traveled regularly to Boothbay at the turn of the 20th century to camp, fish and hunt. When he married Cora Pearl Presson, also of Augusta, they built one of the first summer cottages near the Ocean Point Inn overlooking Card Cove and Negro Island.

Robert and Cora’s daughter, Rebecca Partridge, married Weston Figgins and the young couple eventually bought their own cottage near Grimes Cove.

“My parents came to Ocean Point all the married summers of their lives,” Nancy Henderek said.

She and her sister were raised primarily in Bethesda, Md., but for the “Partridge Figgins” sisters, summers always meant Maine, the great outdoors and a community of friends.

“Growing up, we got to know many of the people we have remained friends with for all these many years. It is a home-feeling community even though we are summer residents,” Nancy Henderek said.

Adding to the home-feeling is the reunion of family members every year. Nancy Henderek resides in Texas most of the year and her sister Susan Evans lives in Massachusetts. But when Nancy Henderek is in summer residence at the Partridge cottage on Card Cove and Susan Evans resides at the Figgins cottage on Grimes Cove, they once again have a living experience together.

Over the years, the sisters’ children and grandchildren, their husbands’ families, and friends have also come to consider Ocean Point home away from home.

Mike Henderek is a newcomer, who has only been coming to Boothbay for 42 years, but he, too, feels the tug of the region. “Ocean Point gives us a constant reference to connect with family and friends. Now, our children and grandchildren all come to Ocean Point,” he said.

While in Maine, the Hendereks and Evans families like to swim, canoe, hike and take in all the natural environment offers. They are members of the Boothbay Region Land Trust, as was their father Wes Figgins, who died in 2010 at the age of 92.

“We really use the Land Trust trails and we have passed that tradition on to our grandchildren and nephews and nieces,” Nancy Henderek said. The Hendereks said they count Damariscove Island among their favorite places. They also love Ovens Mouth and Linekin Preserve trails, and were excited for the new Ocean Point Preserve.

“These trails make for wonderful adventures that are physically oriented,” Nancy Henderek said.

Nancy recalls fondly her childhood memories of walking with her parents, taking picnics along the Point’s rocky shore and swimming in the cold Maine ocean waters. “Even before there were Land Trust trails, we would walk all the time together. That was something very special to all of us,” Nancy Henderek said.

Supporting the Land Trust is important to the Hendereks and Evans families in its own right, but it is also a tradition started with their father, Wes Figgins.

“He was in his 80s when the Land Trust was set up and was a loyal contributor to it. He knew it would be good for the region and he was happy to see land being preserved,” Mike Henderek said.

What the Hendereks, Evans, Figgins and Partridges all have in common, beyond strong family ties, is a love of the outdoors.

The Boothbay Region Land Trust would not exist without the support and generosity of its members. March is membership drive month at the Land Trust. To renew your membership or to join the Land Trust, visit them on the web at www.bbrlt.org, stop in their office on Townsend Avenue, or send your contribution to BRLT, P.O. Box 183, Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538.

Sue Mello can be reached at 207-844-4629 or sumello@boothbayregister.com.