Sheepscot Lake Association completes another year

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by Slater Claudel
President, Sheepscot Lake Association

I hope this finds you and your family safe and well! 2020 has already proven to be a year like no other. By the time you receive this, it would be great if we were on a path to something more normal! The COVID-19 outbreak and related social distancing orders have caused many unexpected changes for us all, however, the Sheepscot Lake Association was still very active.

Although we were unable to have our annual meeting in person we were able to connect with one another by letter, emails, Facebook, and the ever so popular Zoom program that allowed us to have interactive meetings in a virtual setting. We had several people interested in serving on the board of directors for the SLA and were able to hold our elections thanks to your responses over social media and mail. We were also able to continue with our courtesy boat inspection team at the boat landing, and had an amazing boat parade on the Sheepscot over the 4th of July. There were also many great days to enjoy some fishing, swimming, campfires and breathtaking sunsets.

Our Loon Count program, headed up by Joe Burke, was a huge success this year as well. It started out as a heavy fog that morning but the persistence of the team of volunteers paid off as they identified a number of loons on the pond.

With Fall now quickly settling in over the lake, we see many are preparing for the change of the seasons. Docks are being pulled out and boats put away for the winter but if you are like me… I just had to keep my boat in a little longer to enjoy the water and take in all the beautiful colors of the trees around the lakes and on the distant hills. Just can’t get enough of what our lake offers us and yes, I, too, will be looking forward to old man winter and the fun of ice fishing, snowshoeing, skating, and the many fires we will cozy up to and keep warm.

The annual dues from our membership help to fund the critical programs summarized above. We also rely on and appreciate the contribution from the town of Palermo each year supported by the taxpayers of Palermo. If you would like to become a member of the Sheepscot Lake Association, or to renew your membership this year, you can send a check payable to Sheepscot Lake Association to:

Sheepscot Lake Association
P.O. Box 300
Palermo, ME 04354

or via PayPal at our website: https://sheepscotlakeassociation.webs.com. The dues are $20/person, $30/household, or $50/patron. Please share this email with any neighbors or friends who would like to join and support the lake. We need to grow our membership! You can also follow us on Facebook.

Thank you everyone for your continued support and if I do not see you on the lake this winter, I look forward to seeing you upon your return to Sheepscot.

Free Thanksgiving dinners offered

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The Alfond Youth and Community Center, North St., Waterville, will host a Drive Thru Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, November 21, from 1 – 3 p.m. in the AYCC parking lot.

The dinner is open to everyone in the community. Simply drive up and tell one of the happy volunteers how many meals you want – then enjoy!

There will be 800 individually-packaged meals handed out.

Feast Fixings to Go will be held on Thursday and Friday, November 19-20. These will be available at the Alfond Youth and Community Center’s after school program youth in Waterville, at the Fairfield Community Center and RSU #18 Williams and Atkins.

Thanks to the generous support of Central Maine Motors, youth will be taking home the ingredients for their respective families to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner, including the frozen turkey!

Local scout leaders complete course

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Kennebec Valley Scouting District Training Chair Joe Poulin of Oakland announced that several volunteer Scouting leaders in our area had successfully completed the Youth Protection Training during two recent training sessions. “True youth protection can be achieved only through the focused commitment of everyone in Scouting,” Poulin said. “Nationally, Scouting requires that all those involved in our programs take Youth Protection Training every other year. Here in Pine Tree Council, it is an annual requirement.”

The training includes a review of Scouting’s barriers to abuse, what to do if you witness abuse, how to respond if you suspect abuse, reporting requirements, and how to educate Scouting parents and youth members about child safety. “Every Scout also takes the Cyber-Chip Training to help Scouts be safe while online. They earn the patch for completing that program.”

The following volunteer leaders completed the Youth Protection Training at a Covid-19-compliant in-person event hosted by Augusta Cub Scout Pack 603 at the end of September: Jeffrey Mortron of Augusta, Angeline and Zachary Truman of Farmingdale, Cynthia Davis of Oakland, Luanne Chelsey of Vassalboro and Douglas S Mason Sr of Augusta. These leaders completed the training at a similar in-person training hosted by China Troop 479 in October: Kern Kelley of China, Christian Hunter of Unituy, Timothy D Dow Sr of Albion, Stephanie Choate of Winslow, Ronald A Emery of China, Scott and Priscilla Adams of China, Brian Wedge of China and Bert Audette of China.

Along with inperson courses, the Youth Protection Training is available online at: https://my.scouting.org/.

Bottle drive to benefit food pantries

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Through October, recyclable bottles are being collected to benefit the Palermo, Liberty, and Montville Food pantries. Bottles may be dropped off at the porch of the Palermo Community Center anytime, or at Nancy Bartlett’s home, at 801 Acadia, across from the 10-4 Diner. Bartlett’s hours are Tuesday from 9 a.m. – noon, Friday from 9 a.m. – noon, and Saturday from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Her home is gray-brown with pink trim.

Your recyclable bottles can help feed neighbors in need. Proceeds from the bottle drive will be divided equally among the three local food pantries.

For more information, please contact Connie at 993-2294.

Kennebec County retired educators support the classroom

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The Kennebec Retired Educators Association (KREA) awards two $150 grants to two educators in Kennebec County for classroom use. The grants will supplement expenses for student-centered, inter-disciplinary projects and may be expended for materials used in the classroom, speakers’ fees, project development expenses, etc.

Grant description and applications have been disseminated to every principal in all 60 elementary, middle, and high schools in 31 cities and towns in Kennebec County. The principals have made them available to the classroom teachers.

“Students and teachers remain our primary focus long after we leave our classrooms,” says George Davis, of Skowhegan, chairman of the Innovative Classroom Grant Committee and retired principal of Winslow High School.

Grant applications are to be submitted by October 31. The winning applicants will be notified in early November and will receive the grant money at that time.

Fresh Florida citrus delivered to your door

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The Palermo Community Center and Food Pantry is sponsoring a safe annual fruit sale. The oranges, grapefruit, mandarins, and more go from the tree to the shipper in mere hours and arrive at your door ­ – or anywhere in the continental U.S.A. you send them. Shipping fees are only $6.95 a box – no matter how big the box is. You can do all your Christmas shopping with a few clicks of a mouse!

For those not online, it’s possible to order by phone: 1-800-468-3168. Use code 1018996. On a computer, go to: Florida Indian River Groves to see the catalogue of fruit boxes. This sale lasts until November 13, and you have a choice of Thanksgiving or Christmas delivery. Either way, the fruit is bundled up in foam against the cold and bumps along the way. If you need help, please call Connie at 993-2294.

MHS: Music in a coronavirus world

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The Messalonskee High School band practicing outside, at the school, in Oakland. (contributed photo)

by Colin Hickey
MHS English teacher

Try playing a saxophone outside when the temperature is 47 degrees. It’s not easy, and it’s not particularly pleasant. But for members of the Messalonskee High School band program, playing outside has become a necessity in the year of the pandemic, a year in which the music could have died.

“It is doable,” Messalonskee band director Andy Forster said of the outside venue, “but your finger dexterity slows down quite a bit and tuning your instruments is just something you don’t worry about because you need room temperature to do that.”

Forster, though, accepts the inconvenience of playing in chilly weather, and he is willing to adapt in sundry other ways as well. For example, he runs 100 feet of cable outside from the Performing Arts Center so he can hook up a wireless mic to the sound system he reconfigured to work both inside and outside the auditorium. To set it up, he comes to school even earlier than in the past – another inconvenience he accepts as the price of keeping the music alive.

What he cannot preserve, at least for now, is the ability to practice and hold performances inside. The concerts and other musical events that used to fill the fall calendar have all been erased this year, and the sad reality, he said, is they might not return until next fall at the earliest.

But Forster said, “If you focus on what you can’t do, you’ll be stuck and paralyzed and once you do that, the students have lost. They’ve lost everything.”

So instead of bemoaning the losses, Forster celebrates what he can do. “I can be grateful that I work in this (school) district in that I get to see my kids and have my classes,” he said, sitting in his band room as he talked through his mask.  “I’m grateful for the opportunity to be creative. That is not the case throughout the state.”

Forster talked of school districts in which music teachers have had to switch to teaching science and others in which they have become designated substitute teachers.

“It is all shades of bad,” he said of such situations. “As a music teacher, I can’t support any of those decisions.”

Forster realizes that he and his music program face many challenges ahead. As winter approaches, the temperatures will dip to the point in which playing outside no longer will be an option, but Forster already has plans to overcome that frigid reality.

He points to bundles of wooden rhythm sticks in his band room that he ordered. His vision is to distribute those percussion pieces to his students to transform them into a huge rhythm section spread safely across the Performing Arts Center. Forster said he has yet to write the arrangements and create the routines, but the instruments and the determination to put them to use are in place.

Such an approach to making music avoids the dangers caused when blowing into mouth pieces or, in the case of vocalists, breaking into song. Those two methods generate the aerosol emissions that epidemiologists say is a prime way to spread the corona virus and thus methods they warn to avoid at all costs.

Forster, who is married to a physician and has a brother in the medical field, understands full well the danger that his beloved music can generate. At the same time, he also understands that it’s vital to keep his students involved with music, and that gets back to his commitment to adapt rather than bemoan.

Along with his plan for the extensive rhythm section, Forster talks of shifting from performance to creation as the focal point of his program. Instead of playing in front of an audience, he will teach his students how to compose and arrange music – music, he hopes, they one day  will be able to share with classmates and others in a world without the need for masks, a world once more filled with beautiful sounds.

St. Anthony Soup Kitchen continues to creatively serve community

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Volunteers prepare meals at the St. Anthony Soup Kitchen, in Skowhegan. These photos were taken prior to the pandemic. (contributed photos)

The cars continue to line up and roll through, while others walk up wearing masks.

The images of this weekly labor of love look different than they did just eight months ago, but it’s Thursday night, which means a free dinner is available to all who need one thanks to the volunteers at St. Anthony’s Soup Kitchen, in Skowhegan.

“It’s going well. Our numbers increase every week,” said Aldea LeBlanc, coordinator of the kitchen.

St. Anthony’s Soup Kitchen located in the parish hall of Notre Dame de Lourdes Church on Water Street, offered a free, sit-down, hot meal for anyone in need every Thursday night prior to the start of the pandemic in March. The ministry is entirely volunteer run.

“The meals were suspended until early June when the soup kitchen resumed again,” said Nora Natale, office manager at Christ the King Parish, of which the soup kitchen is a part. “Most of the crew was more than ready to see our guests again.”

“The need is so great here,” said Fr. James Nadeau, pastor of Christ the King Parish.

The diners are currently not allowed in the parish hall due to the pandemic, but nobody involved was willing to give up this important ministry that has helped thousands of community members through the years.

Now, volunteers wear masks and practice social distancing, the meals are served in a drive-thru format in the parking lot of the church and other recipients participate through take-out service.

While the delivery methods have changed, what has not is the appeal of the meals, which have included pork chops, barbecue chicken, and many other delectable choices.

“We also provide a vegetable and fruit of some kind, as well as donated desserts and bread,” said Aldea. “The meals are served from 4:30 to 5 p.m. to anyone who comes.”

Established in 1991, the soup kitchen shut down briefly in 2017 while the parish sought funding and someone to lead it.

Aldea stepped forward, along with Steve Watrous, and the kitchen began serving meals again in November 2018.

Patrons not only come from Skowhegan but from surrounding communities such as Athens, Bingham, and Canaan.

The soup kitchen is funded through several source, including donors as well as partners like the Good Shepherd Food Bank, in Auburn, and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). Additionally, Walmart provides a $50 gift card each month, which is used to buy food or supplies, and Hannaford donates food for the meals, as well as bread for the guests to take home.

“If there is any food left over, it gets donated to a homeless shelter in Skowhegan,” said Aldea.

Like many ministries, St. Anthony’s has been diligently planning for the colder months ahead.

“There are two separate doors to the kitchen. One of our ideas is to have people come one at a time to pick up their food from one door and exit the other door,” said Aldea. “They could tell the volunteers what items they want so they wouldn’t need to touch any of the food items. Anyone who cannot pick up this way, we will bring the food to their car like we are doing now.”

Organizers look forward to the day when they can once again offer sit-down service and the in-person community it helps build.

In the meantime, regardless of the protocols they will have to adhere to, you can bet this dedicated group of volunteers will find a way to ensure the doors are open each Thursday.

“We welcome anyone,” said Aldea. “And we’ll always thank them for coming.”

For more information about the St. Anthony’s Soup Kitchen or to learn how you can help, contact the parish at (207) 474-2039.

Some teachers, administrators wear too many hats

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by Peg Pellerin

There are times when some folks wear too many hats and usually it’s not because they want to but because they are so good at what they do that they’re handed yet another hat to wear. Those handing over those hats forget that they can give someone many hats to wear but the individual has only one head.

There is no better example of this than in a school during the COVID-19 pandemic. I happen to be working in a hybrid school system where we have Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 days that alternate. Our teachers must make up lessons for both Cohorts as well as work for home on the days the students are not in school….plus homework for the days they are in school. We’re in week four of the school year and some parents as well as their children still haven’t figured out what they need to do even though everything is written out for them….plus the fact that the teacher(s) email, text and make phone calls, while they are preparing for the next set.

You know that part of getting an extra hat to wear because you’re good at what you do, well a teacher I work with was given an extra hat, today, to conduct a training in the near future on a Monday afternoon. She still has all her hair except for a few patches. Now I know what was between her fingers.

Another hat is remote teaching while also doing in-building teaching. No they aren’t done at the same time but at different times. More on this later.

Teachers also have duties such as conducting students coming from buses and parent drop offs to the designated areas (breakfast or classrooms), recess, hall monitoring, lunch, dismissal dividing the students for buses and parent pickups. Because of the pandemic, these have to be conducted at different entrances in the morning and exits in the afternoon in order to keep students social distancing.

Those teachers who are lucky enough to have an Ed. Tech. get a little help by having them assist with copying, putting learning packets together, laminating, assisting teachers while they are remote teaching by working with the in-building students or we put the extra hat and do the remote teaching after the teacher has given us the curriculum we are to perform with the students remaining home. Oh, yes, we also have the same duties as the teachers….plus, we check on teachers in our pods/wings to see if they need a BR break. When I see a teacher doing a little dance while teaching in front of the classroom, I know she is not entertaining the students. I get a “thank you so much” as she steps out of the room for a couple of minutes.

Teachers and Ed. Techs are not the only ones who wear several hats. The vice principal wore a custodial hat a couple of weeks ago and continues to do so whenever a custodian is out for the day/evening. There is so much that is asked of the custodians in a normal situation but now they must also sanitize every desk, chair, cafeteria tables, door knobs, railings, and anything else that someone’s hands may lay on. So, when one of the custodians is out for some reason or another, the vice principal steps in and helps the other custodians to complete this task along with other custodial services.

Both of our principal and vice principal also make several rounds per day, checking on the hand sanitizing stations to make sure they are full and if the custodian can’t get to it in a timely manner because they are too busy doing other building maintenance, they fill the stations up for them.

I’m sure I must be forgetting some type of hat worn by someone or someones within the building but I can tell you they don’t stop, barely have a chance to get a breather and put their students ahead of themselves. I don’t have to look at comic books, graphic novels or movies to see heroes, I see them every day at school.

Submitted by Debbie Walker

Film center marks domestic violence awareness month

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The Maine Film Center continues its new virtual series, “Cinema in Conversation,” where filmmakers, film experts, policymakers, and journalists from around the world converge on Zoom to discuss important films with the community.

The next event in the “Cinema in Conversation” series will take place on Sunday, October 18 at 2:00 p.m., and will be led by filmmakers Anna-Sophia Richards and Astrid Schäfer (IN MY SKIN), and founder/president of Finding Our Voices Patrisha McLean (producer, “Women in Windows”). Both films address the issue of domestic violence and will bring Domestic Violence Awareness Month into focus. To view the films and register for the discussion, visit RailroadSquareCinema.com. The screening cost is $10 for both films, and proceeds will be split with the filmmakers.

Made in Germany, IN MY SKIN (72 minutes) asks, “Why do women stay in violent relationships even when they have been abused for a long time?” The film chronicles the experiences of the daily lives of three women with different backgrounds as the camera takes on their point of view. We hear their thoughts and suffer with them as they struggle to become more independent and break free. Based on true events, all voice-over texts were taken from interviews with the portrayed women.

WOMEN IN WINDOWS (7 minutes) is a portrait of domestic violence in our own Maine community. As COVID-19 took hold, domestic violence started to spike. The non-profit Finding Our Voices responded with “Women in Windows”: a campaign of huge (2′ x 4′) banners in the windows of 70 downtown businesses in Midcoast Maine, each featuring one of 25 Maine Survivors of domestic abuse, a nod to the abuse and the woman’s transcendence of it, and the local domestic violence hotline phone number: Getting word to women trapped more than ever with angry and controlling family members: “You are not alone” and “There is help out there.” Award-winning film director Daniel Quintanilla captures and preserves this campaign, now touring the state, in this seven-minute film that has a woman taking in the actual words of the actual women in a drive through town, inspiring her own coming out of the darkness and into the light.

A slate of discussions over the coming months will consider a wide range of films: LA LLORONA (dir. Jayro Bustamante, 2019), BIG NIGHT (dir. Stanley Tucci, 1996), and CODED BIAS (dir. Shalini Kantayya, 2020). Each discussion will be led by either the filmmaker or a film expert.