Winslow teen wins preliminary round of video competition

Ely Yang, left, a student at Winslow High School, and Allen Rancourt, president of Kennebec Federal Savings. (Photo courtesy of Dave Carew)

Advances to national competition

Ely Yang, a 17-year-old senior at Winslow High School, also studying videography at Mid-Maine Technical Center in Waterville, has been selected by Kennebec Federal Savings as the winner of the preliminary round of the “Lights, Camera, Save!” video competition, sponsored by the American Bankers Association. The competition, open to those between 13 and 18 years of age, solicits original short videos from teens nationwide; each video must promote the value of saving money and using money wisely among teens.

Ely worked with his MMTC teammates, Joseph Damon and George Bailey, to create the video. Ely’s teacher at MMTC, who made his team aware of the “Lights, Camera, Save!” competition, is Dave Boardman, Mass Media Communications Instructor.

Ely submitted his video to Kennebec Federal Savings, a participating financial institution for the “Lights, Camera, Save!” video competition. Kennebec Federal Savings selected Ely’s video to advance to the national competition and awarded Ely a new GoPro camera at a ceremony held in Waterville on January 4.

Ely’s video now advances to the national competition, where the first, second and third place winners will be announced by the American Bankers Association Foundation on February 27. The top three national winners will receive cash prizes of $5,000, $2,500, and $1,000 respectively, to fund their savings goals. Each winner’s school also will receive a scholarship for a teacher to attend the Jump$tart National Educator Conference.

Click on the video below to view the winning entry, or please visit: https://vimeo.com/304195544.

Dave Carew is a freelance book editor / publicist / copywriter. He can be reached at (615) 540-7457.

Fundraiser planned for Jacob Seigars

Jacob Seigars, of Palermo, will go through a second round of treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia. (Contributed photo)

To undergo leukemia treatment for second time

Submitted by Jane Golden

A spaghetti supper fundraiser, which will include 50/50 tickets and a silent auction, for Jacob Seigars, will take place on Saturday, February 2, between 4:30 and 7 p.m., at the Erskine Academy cafeteria, in South China, as he battles leukemia for the second time around. The fundraiser is sponsored by the Erskine girls basketball team.

The community is invited to come out and support Jacob Seigars, who is fighting his second round of Leukemia. Jacob is a 14-year-old teen from Palermo and China. He attended China schools from kindergarten until September 2017, then Palermo School from October 2017 to January 2018. He’s an all-star athlete who is especially talented on the basketball court and the soccer field. Jacob has a million dollar smile and always keeps his family and friends laughing with his jokes. He is so kind to everyone around him: holding doors open for others and usually the first to offer a helping hand wherever it’s needed. He missed his first day of high school and hasn’t yet been able to play in a high school sports game or attend a high school dance.

He was first diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia on January 15, 2018. He spent five out of the first seven months of 2018 in the hospital between Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital. In his first battle he had three rounds of various chemotherapies, blood transfusions, a PICC line put in and taken out, a central line put in and taken out, a ventilator while intubated, a feeding tube, countless bone marrow biopsies and lumbar punctures and a bone marrow transplant with marrow donated by his big brother Shawn.

He has been recovering from his bone marrow transplant at home since July 2018, and everyone believed he had fought and beaten his Leukemia. But on January 2, 2019, it was learned that Jacob had relapsed and he has to fight Leukemia for a second time. Since his diagnosis he has had another bone marrow biopsy, two lumbar punctures, started a new course of chemotherapy and had a new central line placed.

All money donated will go directly to Jacob’s family and will be used for gas, tolls, hotels, food while traveling to the hospital and any uncovered medical expenses.

If you can’t make the dinner but would like to donate either money or a silent auction item, please feel free to contact Jane Golden at janedickgolden@hotmail.com.

Common Ground: Win a $10 Gift Certificate! (January 10, 2019)

Identify the men in these three photos, and tell us what they have in common. You could win a $10 gift certificate to Retail Therapy boutique, 11 KMD Plaza, Kennedy Memorial Dr., Waterville, next to the Dairy Queen!* Email your answer to townline@fairpoint.net or through our Contact page.

You may also mail your answer to The Town Line, PO Box 89, South China, ME 04358. (To be eligible for the drawing, you must email or snail mail your answer to us — please don’t leave a comment!)

*Should there be more than one correct answer, a random drawing will be held to determine the winner.

Erskine tops school spirit challenge, again

Erskine Academy students celebrate by showing off their trophy for winning the School Spirit Challenge Tournament of Champions by raising a record-breaking 196,969 pounds of food. (Contributed photo)

Beginning in September, Erskine Academy, in South China, committed to a challenging mission to once again to collect food and funds to support the Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine (GSFB) by participating in WGME13/Fox23’s School Spirit Challenge Tournament of Champions. The School Spirit Challenge (SSC) is a friendly competition between schools to show school pride and spirit, all while helping the community, according to a news release from Erskine Academy Headmaster Michael McQuarrie.

The program is designed to promote the school community and good stewardship with students of high schools in central and southern Maine through an eight-week food drive to benefit the Good Shepherd Food Bank and local food pantries.

This was the second time Erskine participated in the School Spirit Challenge, the first being two years ago, an event which they won handily over the other participating schools thanks to the efforts of many students, parents, alumni, businesses, and friends.

In 2016, Erskine was the School Spirit Champion for having raised nearly 85,000 pounds of food, an amount exceeding the total raised by the second and third finishers combined. Given this accomplishment, the school entered this tournament of champions with confidence. However, since the other competing high schools, also past champions, were all south of Erskine and have larger school enrollments, the collection goal was set at an ambitious 100,000 pounds of food.

Always up for a challenge and a worthy cause, the campaign was kicked off during the school’s homecoming in September. In attendance were WGME 13 anchor Jeff Peterson and representatives from the GSFB and the sponsors of this year’s SSC. The morning kicked off with students arriving at 5:30 a.m. for a tailgate breakfast served in exchange for their food donations.

The campaign continued until November 2 and was a bigger success than the academy ever imagined. The Erskine community pulled together collecting food and monetary donations and supporting the many activities to support the Challenge. Events included “Fill the Bus” with returnable containers, the Fly Like an Eagle 5K Run/Walk, Trivia Night, Trunk or Treat, Open Mic Night, and a dodgeball tournament. Off-campus activities included an EA Parents Food Drive Challenge. An online appeal went out on social media, and many generous donors gave through the Good Shepherd Food Bank’s virtual food drive.

Though initiated by Erskine’s students and faculty, they led what was a broader community campaign, supported substantially by many area businesses and organizations. The academy is grateful to its partners including Albison’s Printing, Augusta Emblem Club #233, B & B Septic Service, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, Borislow Insurance, Brian Reay Plumbing & Heating, Central Maine Pyrotechnics, Darling’s Ice Cream For A Cause, Dutil Enterprises, Fieldstone Quickstop, G & E Roofing, Glidden Construction & Foundations, Harvest Time Natural Foods, Hussey’s General Store, Jackson’s Lawn Service, Kempton Tobey & Son, Kennebec Savings Bank, Knowles Mechanical, Legacy Home Improvements, M.A. Haskell Fuel, MC Disposal, Mid-State Machine Products, Natanis Golf Course, O’Connor GMC-Buick-Chevrolet-Cadillac, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Tobey’s Grocery Store, TRICORP Federal Credit Union, William H. Brewer & Co., and United Insurance Agency. Erskine’s Student Council representatives will soon visit key contributors as part of their “Gratitude Tour.”

Erskine Academy won the competition handily by far exceeding its goal. Erskine raised a record-breaking 196,969.25 pounds of food for The Good Shepherd Food Bank, which is over twice the amount that any of the 60-plus competing schools has raised in the five years and ten seasons of this competition.

About this accomplishment, Headmaster McQuarrie says, “The School Spirit Challenge was for a great cause, and through it, our community engaged in collective problem-solving and activism as we made a significant difference, at least for a time, in the fight against hunger in Maine. We demonstrated, and others witnessed, the dynamism of EA’s values—stewardship, leadership, and relationships—at work. The work ethic, inspiration, and idealism of our young people, in particular, are humbling and heartening.”

In the coming weeks, the school will continue to recognize and thank the many individuals, including alumni from across the country, businesses, and organizations for their generosity and goodwill that aided the effort, strengthened the school community, and fed many hungry people in Maine.

Give Us Your Best Shot! Week of January 10, 2019

To submit a photo for The Town Line’s “Give Us Your Best Shot!” section, please visit our contact page or email us at townline@fairpoint.net!

ODD COUPLE: Pat Clark, of Palermo, captured this photo of a blue jay and downy woodpecker at a feeding station.

 

LOOKS GOOD: Michael Bilinsky, of China Village, photographed this red-bellied woodpecker at a feeder.

 

WORKING ON A TAN?: Rick and Cindy Denico, of Vassalboro, snapped these ducks sunning themselves last summer.

CMYHA Tier III Squirt travel team

Members of the Central Maine Youth Hockey Association Squirt Tier III travel team include, front, left to right, Cody Sack, Caleb Morgan. Second row, Kash Pollard, Joshua Hitchings, Chase Sack, Peyton Gifford, Parker Doucette. Third row, William Owen Beale Tate, Grady Tibbetts, William Flood, Baylon Walther, Nolan Dow. Back, coaches Peter Sack, Peter Tibbetts and Kevin Pollard. (Photo by Central Maine Photography staff)

CMYHA Tier IV Squirt travel team

Members of the Central Maine Youth Hockey Association Squirt Tier IV travel team include, front, left to right, Liam Hague and Corey Scott Jr., Second row, Conner Mushero, Lucas Churchill, Gavin Mushero, Caden Giroux, Chloe Scott and Kadence Fogg. Third row, Callum Goldsmith, Madelyn Martin, Lucas Fisher, Abigail Webb, Landen Parker and Johnathan Smith. Back, coaches Josh Giroux, Arthur Churchill and Ryan Parker. (Photo by Central Maine Photography staff)

CMYHA Tier III Peewee travel hockey team

Members of the Central Maine Youth Hockey Association PeeWee Tier III travel team include, front, left to right, Mason Capeless and Hunter Hallee. Second row, Hunter Hart Guertin, Blake Small, Dusty Bearce, Denny Martin, Cameron Dostie, Garret Card and Austin Gould. Third row, Will Bourgeois, Tatum Doucette, Grant Walther, Ben Foster, Kaylyn Bourque and Alexa Caccamo. Back, coaches Dan Bourgeois, Dennis Martin and Ryan Hallee. (Photo by Central Maine Photography staff)

FOR YOUR HEALTH: Four Retirement Readiness Fixes For Baby Boomers

(NAPSI)—The Stanford Center on Longevity’s 2018 “Sightlines Report” found that baby boomers have accumulated less household wealth and carry more debt in comparison to previous generations of American retirees.

The report found that overall household asset balances—and retirement savings in particular—are lower for boomers than for the elderly Americans born before them. In addition, baby boomers are carrying more debt compared to older generations, with one in three holding a debt burden exceeding 50 percent of their total wealth.

With approximately 10,000 Americans turning 65 each day, the news that baby boomers are less ready to retire than those generations who have come before them is disconcerting by itself, but it is especially worrisome in light of rising retirement expenses they will face.

“Given that boomers will likely live longer and rack up higher lifetime medical costs than prior generations, the inevitable conclusion is that boomers will face some tough challenges during their retirement years,” according to CBS MoneyWatch.

Financial planning experts offer a few possible retirement readiness fixes to help baby boomers address a shortfall in available cash:

  • Pay down debt—For those boomers in the pre-retirement or early-retirement stage, do what you can to reduce your debt load. Every penny not going to debt is a penny going toward funding your retirement lifestyle.
  • Consider returning to the workforce—If you are physically able, think about options for working a little later in your life or perhaps returning to the workforce in a part-time job. A few years of additional income can make a huge difference down the line.
  • Adjust your standard of living—Be prepared to make some modifications to your lifestyle in order to reduce your monthly expense budget. You may be surprised how much minor purchases, such as a daily gourmet coffee, can add up to on an annual basis.
  • Be smart about your available resources—Can you afford to defer Social Security for a bit longer in order to maximize the cash benefit? Do you own a home that has equity you can put to work for you with a reverse mortgage? Are there other financial resources you can draw down, such as an old savings account or a life insurance policy you may have socked away?

“Many seniors are surprised to learn that one potential asset for generating immediate cash is a life insurance policy,” said Darwin M. Bayston, CFA, president and chief executive officer of the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA), a nonprofit organization that educates seniors about alternatives to lapsing or surrendering a life insurance policy. “A life insurance policy is considered your personal property and—as such—you have the right to sell that policy anytime you like.”

When a consumer sells a policy in a “life settlement” transaction, the policy owner receives a cash payment and the purchaser of the policy assumes all future premium payments—then receives the death benefit upon the death of the insured. Candidates for life settlements are typically aged 70 years or older, with a life insurance policy that has a death benefit of at least $100,000.

To learn more about life settlements and whether you could be eligible for a free review of your life insurance policy, visit www.LISA.org or call the LISA office at 888-902-6639.

SCORES & OUTDOORS: Red fox population growing in our area

Photos on this page by Jayne Winters of South China

Roland D. Halleeby Roland D. Hallee

A week ago, Jayne Winters, of South China, sent along some excellent photos of a red fox that has been visiting her property recently.

The photos were remarkable and deserved some attention. It’s been a while since we visited with red foxes in our area, of which there are an abundance.

The red fox is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora. They are present across the entire Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, North America and Eurasia. It is listed of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Since its introduction to Australia, it has been found to be a nuisance to native mammals and bird populations. Thus, it has been listed as among the top 100 worst invasive species in the world.

Red foxes are usually together in pairs or small groups consisting of families, such as a mated pair and their young, or a male with several females having kinship ties.

They are somewhat shy and don’t like human interaction. Therefore, they will generally leave an area of increased activity. Two years ago, at camp, a family of red foxes had made its home under an outbuilding during the winter. Once humans moved in for the summer, the red foxes vacated their den and moved on elsewhere.

They either establish stable home ranges within particular areas or are itinerant with no fixed housing. They use their urine to mark their territory. Outside the breeding season, most red foxes favor living in the open, in densely vegetated areas, though they may enter burrows to escape bad weather. They often dig their dens on hill or mountain slopes, ravines, bluffs, steep banks of water bodies, ditches, depressions, gutters, in rock clefts and neglected human environments.

The red fox primarily feed on small rodents, though it may also target rabbits, game birds, reptiles and invertebrates. Fruit and vegetable matter is also sometimes eaten. Although the red fox tends to kill smaller predators, they are vulnerable to attack from larger predators, such as wolves, coyotes, and medium-sized felines.

They prefer to hunt in the early morning hours before sunrise and late evening. Although they typically forage alone, they may aggregate in resource-rich environments. Losses of poultry and penned game birds can be substantial if you have red foxes foraging in the area.

Their winter fur is dense, soft, silky and relatively long. For the northern foxes, the fur is very long, dense and fluffy, but is shorter.

Red foxes have binocular vision, but their sight reacts mainly to movement. Their auditory perception is acute, being able to hear black grouse changing roosts at 600 paces, the flight of crows at three-tenths of a mile and squeaking mice about 330 feet. Their sense of smell is good, but weaker than that of dogs.

In recent years, I have noticed an increase in the sightings of red foxes in the area, particularly in the Cross Hill area of Vassalboro, near our camp. They have been heard howling during the late night hours. Their cries can be associated with that of an injured small dog.

Like any other wild animal, they should not be approached if spotted. They have been known to carry rabies. Cute and cuddly looking, leave them alone.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

Name the six NFL teams to win the Super Bowl as a wild card team.

Answer can be found here.