Thanks to a gift from the Libra Foundation, as many as 1,322 Bangor schoolchildren will get to enjoy something Maine is famous for throughout the country and around the world — summer camp.

The Libra Foundation is the legacy of the late philanthropist Elizabeth Noyce. The renewable $1.32 million grant announced Wednesday to United Way of Eastern Maine for this camp scholarship program is fully in keeping with the principal that guided Mrs. Noyce’s remarkable record of generosity — to provide assistance to education, health, arts, culture, human services, justice and environmental causes as close to the local level as possible.

This program, called The Opportunity to Shine (TOPS), will provide scholarships of up to $1,000 to very child in the third through sixth grades in the Bangor public schools. The scholarship can be used at any camp — sports, music, art, church, Y, residential or day — as long as it’s a Maine camp.

TOPS was launched last year in Lewiston, administered by the United Way of Androscoggin County. Although the availability of these scholarships was not announced until March, the trial run was extraordinarily successful — of the 1,200 pupils in the eligible age group, 900 applied and were accepted and more than 800 actually went to camp.

And the success went beyond the numbers. Foundation President Owen Wells recalls this from just one cabin at one camp last summer: A kid from an affluent family quietly and discretely gave camping gear to a poor kid who was doing without; that one cabin had kids from Maine, Florida and Germany, plus a counselor from Egypt. There’s a lot to be said for one program that can both open hearts and open eyes.

TOPS is also an example of how a good idea can grow. It started with a conversation Mr. Wells had with author Stephen King and Buzz Fitzgerald, former CEO of Bath Iron Works, about the positive impact summer camp had upon their lives. That led to Libra matching Mr. King’s $400,000 grant to the YMCA’s Camp Jordan and that led to a program that this summer will benefit more than 2,500 children in Lewiston and Bangor.

The best part, though, may be the criteria for receiving a TOPS scholarship. It’s not based upon financial need or grades — it’s based upon good citizenship and community service. Applicants must demonstrate some way they have contributed to their school and their community and their school and the United Way will provide special opportunities for them to do so. By stressing at this early age the importance of chipping in, TOPS ensures that these kids will come away from their summer camp experience with something of much greater value than a better jump shot or the ability to paddle a canoe.