Meet Peyton Feener Clark!

In honor of our 50th anniversary in midcoast Maine, we interviewed 2013 Wayfinder graduate Peyton Feener Clark. Some of you may have heard Peyton speak at our 1st annual Finding Our Way live storytelling event in 2020. Here you can read more about Peyton and her considerable accomplishments during the ten years since she graduated, including her role as drummer for her award-winning rock band, Drive By Todd. We caught up with Peyton earlier this year.

WS: What have you been up to since graduation?
Peyton: I stayed at my internship job that I had through Wayfinder, where I got hired after I graduated and became the front end manager there for 8 years. I don’t think I would’ve ever had a job if not for the school. I volunteered at many places including the city of Rockland Energy Advisory Committee, the Knox Democratic headquarters, and the radio station WRFR. I was the 2016 Maine Sea Goddess Miss Congeniality for the Maine Lobster festival where I started serving on the coronation committee and still do to this day. I was the 2017 Maine Wild Blueberry Miss Congeniality for the Union Fair, where I later served as Assistant Pageant Director for a few years. I was the 2019 Miss Rockland for the Maine International Pageant where I won the community service award and the fashion award. I volunteer and foster sick cats from my local animal shelter Pope Memorial Humane Society. I’ve even held and organized fundraisers there to help support the Spay and Neuter Program. I joined the Owls Head Fire Department as an exterior firefighter and fire truck driver in 2018 and have been there ever since. I became a CNA and started working as a mental health tech in the PARC (Psychiatric and Addiction Recovery) Unit at Pen Bay Medical Center. I got married to my husband in August of 2020 and had 9 bridesmaids and 9 groomsmen during the height of covid. We had our first baby two years later when I was 10 days overdue and got induced on our two year wedding anniversary. His name is Ziggy Mercury Kevin Clark after David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and my late uncle Kevin and Randy’s dad Kevin. This whole time however, I have been rocking with my award-winning band Drive By Todd, and we are celebrating our ten year anniversary this year. The experiences and things we’ve accomplished are some of the proudest things I have ever done in my life. Drive by Todd has placed first place for the past three years as Best Band/Musician in Knox County in the Village Soup’s “Best of the Best People's Choice Awards.” We have gained a big following in the midcoast area. We have played on the television show 207 Maine on NBC’s News Center Maine, opened for the Rustic Overtones at the Camden Opera House, and have been featured on the national radio show The Bob & Sheri Show. We have been featured on Radio shows such as Greetings from Area Code 207 on Frank FM, Music from 207 on WCLZ, WRFF, and have been interviewed by a national podcast. Drive By Todd was also featured in newspaper articles in the Free Press and the Portland Press Herald. We most recently played at the All Roads Music Fest on the Colonial Theater Stage in Belfast, Maine and the historic Geno’s Rock Club in Portland, Maine. We have played all over the state and played hundreds of shows and fundraisers and have worked with multiple Grammy Award winners and produced multiple songs and music videos, and we are currently working on a new music video right now! 

WS: How did Wayfinder prepare you for life after graduation?
Peyton: Wayfinder got me set up with a job and I learned how to navigate the employment field.

WS: What was the most important thing you learned at Wayfinder?
Peyton: That we have an amazing community of people and we can lean on each other in times of need.

WS: Why did you choose Wayfinder Schools?
Peyton: Because I was having a lot of trouble in the big high school setting and was experiencing bullying and I wasn’t good at your “average” classroom learning.

WS: What was your favorite outing, expedition or field trip and why?
Peyton: When we went to New York and stayed in New Jersey.

WS: What was your favorite class, core skill or workshop and why?
Peyton: Sign language, because I still use it to this day and more people need to know it.   

WS: What was your favorite thing you learned to cook at Wayfinder and why?
Peyton: How to make my own pesto pasta from scratch because it’s my favorite food and I didn’t actually realize all the ingredients that go into it.

WS: What was your favorite book or poem you read at Wayfinder?
Peyton: “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” by Robert Frost.

WS: What do you miss about Wayfinder Schools?
Peyton: My classmates and my teachers.

WS: What is your favorite Wayfinder memory?
Peyton: When my teacher Amanda Wogaman spent extra one-on-one time with me at the playground at the school across the street because she realized I needed a little extra guidance. May she rest in peace.

WS: What would you like people to know about Wayfinder Schools?
Peyton: That it can CHANGE your whole entire life. I was on a really bad track to becoming a failure of an adult and the unconditional love and mentorship I received from my teachers taught me that I can be like them.

WS: What would you like people to know about you?
Peyton: That I was a kid in school that people were giving up on and had no hope for and many people thought I would turn out to be a loser. Now I am very successful and a prominent member of my community.

WS: Anything else you'd like to add?
Peyton: We REALLY need to bring back the Residential program. It literally saves lives and if there is anything I can do to help with that please let me know. We should also bring back Dancing with the Local Stars and you should hire me!