There once was a beautiful girl who touched many hearts in the communities where she grew up. She died way too young, but in her short 17 years she did something remarkable. She not only helped tie together old rivals Camden and Rockland in a positive new way, she brought a school in the Bahamas into this growing relationship, connecting diverse places in a renewed focus on the shared ecology of the Atlantic Ocean.

Since her death in 2011, the legacy of Aleisha Sonksen has only endured — and strengthened — and this evening, as the Class of 2013 files through the gymnasium of Camden Hills Regional High School to receive their diplomas, she will be honored, and the initiative she was part of, recognized.

"We share the ocean," said Chris Maxey, director of the Island School and the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas. "I really have a lot of hope with this momentum of kids caring for the planet."

Maxey is delivering the commencement address at Camden Hills tonight. He flew up from the Bahamas Thursday, and will speak to the parents, friends, faculty and students of Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport, linking further these Maine communities with a like-minded scientific community in the Caribbean. At the core of its success is a growing network of educators — biology teacher Ken Vencile at Camden Hills and his colleague, John Hagin at Oceanside High School in Rockland, who travel back and forth to the Bahamas to get better acquainted with the Island School's intentional community and curriculum. The Island School and Institute is considered to be among the world's few unique living marine research environments.

Students from Oceanside and Medomak Valley high school are raising money this summer to go to the Island School.

Their goal is $12,000 and they are collecting bottles, holding a dance auction and a carwash, parking cars at the Blues Festival, and you may seem them at the Friday night Arts Walk in downtown Rockland.

Help them out at Cape Eleuthera Island Exepdition, or visit their Facebook page.

In August, 18 Midcoast students — 12 from Camden Hills, five from Oceanside and one from Medomak Valley High School — are climbing onto a plane on the fourth annual expedition of Midcoast students to the Bahamas to participate in primary research with marine biologists. They will work as a team, earn high school credit and become part of a sustainable community.

And then there is Aleisha's Fund, the endowment established to help more students get to the Island School to study the marine sciences, in a hands-on laboratory of the ocean. That endowment, just $8,000 shy of its $50,000 goal, intends to give scholarships over the years to students who have a strong desire to study marine science and the environment.

At the Island School, students conduct research in the mangroves, exploring habitats of bonefish, study conch, or they go further out to sea, tracking sea turtles. They learn about the fishing industry and consequences of over-fishing, pose hypotheses and set about proving or rejecting them.

Aleisha Sonksen was to join the Camden Hills group last August on the educational trip to the Island School, but she died in June 2011 in a horrific car crash in Owls Head. The classes of 2012 in Rockland and Camden, the two communities in which she grew up and created so many friendships, were devastated. As Rockland, Owls Head, Thomaston, Camden, Appleton, Hope, Lincolnville, Rockport, and more learned about her death, hundreds — more than 500 — assembled for her service. There, it became apparent that the community was much more connected, and artificial lines between the towns could fall away.

Aleisha had a knack for melting those lines, and making friends everywhere with her serene kindness.

"I didn't realize all that until all those people showed up," said her father, Marlowe Sonksen. "They were drawn to her because she wanted to give. She was so excited about going to the Island School. The close bonding of Camden and Rockland students, that's what she would have liked. That's it. That's a great thing to give back to the kids who will go there in years ahead."

Classmates of Aleisha also knew that, and two years later, they remember her as "extradordinarily nice," a "beautiful personality" and "poised and positive."

"She was seriously really kind," said one classmate, recalling Aleisha on a recent June evening.

The Island School was founded in 1998 by Pam and Chris Maxey with the original goal of conserving wild marine life of South Eleuthera by providing alternative food sources and jobs. They were granted 18 acres of land on which an intentional community of teachers and learners established a school and a science research facility.

The mission there is "to discover sustainable solutions to real world problems," according to the school.

"We explore the framework of Eleuthera’s cultural and environmental landscape through student-centered academics, outdoor programs that support personal growth and leadership development, and outreach programs that practice a project-based approach to local collaboration," the school says on its website. "The Island School experience culminates in the beginning of a lifelong educational journey, with more self-confident students leaving as engaged global citizens, empowered to be active leaders of their generation."

This experiential learning, and in an unfamiliar location for so many students, is what has educators excited. It also has captured the imagination of Aleisha's mother, Joyce Burnham, who is helping the five Oceanside and one Medomak Valley high school students raise money this spring to go on the August expedition.

"Cape Eleuthera's hands-on learning is great for kids, some especially learn a lot better this way," she said. "I like the whole idea of kids seeing something different than just Maine. Many kids have not seen a lot of the world. I want to see them get into the water, snorkeling, researching."

With her interests in marine science, architecture and math, Aleisha had wanted to go to the Island School. She had attended elementary school in Owls Head and Thomaston, middle school in Rockland, Rockland High School and then Camden Hills. She had been selected as one of the 12 students to attend the Cape Eleuthera Research Expedition in August 2011.

"She had grown up all those years in SAD 5, and when she moved to Camden, she had made friends in both places," said Joyce. "And she got the kids to not be so segregated. They are only 10 to 20 minutes from each other. They have a lot in common, and once they get to the Bahamas, they will figure it out."

Aleisha's Fund was established shortly after her death so that other "deserving students could have the opportunity that she had so eagerly anticipated," according to the fund's founders.

Camden Hills Senior Class President Alex Crans said the Class of 2013 asked Maxey to be their graduation speaker because some of the students got to know him well last summer, at Cape Eleuthera. He is admired by the students for his energy, said Crans.

"He is vivacious, and excited about life," he said. "He was a Navy SEAL and a teacher in New Jersey. We thought he would have a lot of interesting things to bring."

Maxey said his address to the class will simply be about "thinking about how to live well. About getting out in the world and exploring. About doing great things with small actions, what they can start doing as they walk off the stage. This is a big honor, to speak to them."

He also honors Aleisha, and the linking of communities across the waters.

"Her memory and her bridge-building has inspired others," he said.

Crans said he attended her wake in 2011.

"I remember seeing all those people showing up, people who loved and cared for her," he said. "We want to honor her, and have donations made to her fund."

Aleisha's mother knows this is what her daughter would appreciate.

"She had a great way of being with people and making them feel at ease," said Joyce.

I asked Joyce what Aleisha might think of her mother helping to expand the opportunities of the Island School into the local communities.

"She'd probably be rolling her eyes and saying, 'Mom, just what you need... one more thing to get involved with.' But as the years go by, others will have an understanding about Aleisha's Fund."

To donate to Aleisha's Fund, send a check to United Mid-Coast Charities, Aleisha's Fund, P.O. Box 205, Camden, ME 04843, or call 236-2299.

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Editorial Director Lynda Clancy can be reached by email at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com or by calling 207-706-6657.