The deadline for ordering fresh Vidalia onions is April 25. They will arrive in Palermo the evening of May 16, at the Palermo Community Center on Turner Ridge Rd. Volunteers will call you as soon as the onions are unloaded from the truck, and will give you directions if you need them. They will be available for pick up Thursday evening through Saturday.

To order these juicy spring beauties, please call Connie at 993-2294 or e-mail pwhitehawk@fairpoint.net. Be sure and give us your phone number, so we may confirm the order and let you know when the onions are available. To pre-pay, please send your check or money order for $27.00 for a 25 lb. box to: LCF, P.O. Box 151, Palermo, ME 04354. Orders for four or more boxes will be discounted by $2 a box. These are the onions every good cook wants in the kitchen! Recipes come with every box! With care, these onions keep for up to six months – or more. Half boxes are also available for $16, for those who don’t use a lot of onions.

The Palermo Community Center is run by all-volunteer staff. It sponsors the Palermo Community Garden and the monthly Evolving Communities Film Series (Potluck Dinner-and-a-Movie). It is home to the Great ThunderChicken Teaching Drum (Cultural Outreach Program), and hosts the weekly Palermo Food Pantry. The building is disability-accessible and the nonprofit organization is non-discriminatory. Proceeds from onion sales will go toward maintenance and program underwriting. Your support is greatly appreciated–Thank you!

The spring peepers aren’t out yet, but Vidalia onions are ripening in the Georgia sunshine. Celebrate the end of winter by ordering sweet, juicy Vidalia onions from the Living Communities Foundation. The foundation supports the Palermo Community Center, which, in turn, hosts the Palermo Food Pantry. Proceeds from onion sales go to support the Community Foundation and repair the roof of the Community Center. As a bonus, fresh, mild Vidalia onions make their way to Maine to be roasted, caramelized, sauteed, and put into everything from sandwiches to gourmet soups and quiches. These are larger than “grocery store” onions, and they will keep for over six months.

A 25 lb. box of these beauties costs only $27. Or, go in with friends and relatives and get four boxes for $100. To order, e-mail Connie at pwhitehawk@fairpoint.net or call her at 993-2294 and leave your phone number for confirmation. The onions are due to arrive just before Mothers Day, on Friday, May 10. Pick them up at the Palermo Community Center on Turner Ridge, across from the ball field from about 5 p.m. on May 10 through 5 p.m. on May 11. You will be called when the onions come in. Please pay at the time of placing your order. Checks may be made out to LCF and sent to P.O. Box 151, Palermo, ME 04354. Your support is greatly appreciated, and will enhance the many services the Community Center provides.

Instead of going down the “rabbit hole” with The Atomic Café, this month’s potluck dinner presentation will focus on a more immediate concern: keeping your home warm. Corliss Davis and the Window Dressers volunteers will be coming to the Palermo Community Center on Friday, February 22, to demonstrate that adding their low-cost window inserts can can save money on heating, make your living space more comfortable by eliminating drafts, and reduce carbon emissions. Over the past year alone, Window Dresser volunteers made 459 new window inserts at the Belfast Boathouse that were placed in many older homes, reducing heating costs significantly. Since Window Dressers is a nonprofit organization, it will work with people who might have trouble paying for the materials. This program is not only worth checking out, but you may also want to join the fun and donate your time and skills.

Bring a dish to share with a lively group of neighbors at 6 p.m. at the Palermo Community Center, Turner Ridge Rd., at Veterans Way. The program is free and open to the public. For more info or directions, please call Connie at 993-2294.

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.